13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

mmmm I feel as though I am dicing with death planting c.rapunculoides (so pretty though). I have become very blase about invasive after a year of rubus murder.

"Dicing with death", Campanula; nice turn of phrase, though perhaps a bit melodramatic.

I'd simply say "communing with the Devil".

Thanks everyone for the ideas and suggestions. Assuming they grow back I'll just leave them. If for some reason they've died I'll try planting in back next time. I live in a condo in zone 5 with about 2 feet of gardening space in front so I grow some veggies in containers--easier to start them indoors and finish ripening indoors if necessary. The poppies wouldn't even be noticeable behind the containers but the pretty flowers are tall enough to see them :)

There are some, called 'Super Poppies' & in my area, they tend to retain some leaves & stay green thoughout the summer. It may be possible that in your zone, they may even actually have a repeat (second) flowering period, as the weather cools off. I suppose, it is approximately shortly after the ordinary ones, begin to show new growth again, next month.
I managed to get a seed packet imported, of the new cv. 'Plum Pudding' by T& M (of U.K. , via Germany) planning to sow soon and have hopes it may show similar characteristics.

This is the time of the season when I lose my enthusiasm to garden and get back to my other hobby, writing. I have to start pushing myself to get out there and pull those darn weeds when all I want to do is vegetate and write. I spend all of my gardening energies in the months of May through July, and by the time August comes around I'm getting burnt out. Which is why I like living in the north. I have several months of cold yuck to hibernate through and by the time spring comes around I'm ready to go.

Karen

Don't be too hard on yourself - after all, it is your VACATION. And while you sound like me, a person who takes vacation from "official" work/job to do yet more work at home (be it finishing a home improvement project, starting a home improvement project, or a sacred vow to finally get something done in the garden) that doesn't mean we have to stick to our vacation plans.

If you decide to be a slug and sit around and eat for a week, good for you; you probably need a break and quite frankly that sounds like an awesome vacation to me! The work will be there waiting for you later - and even if you had done it, there would be more work waiting for you anyway.

My mojo was and continues to be stolen by the clouds of flying gnats who just won't go away. That's why I'm being a slug (an indoor slug) today. Now I wish I had bought that ice cream while at the store yesterday...

:)
Dee

One shorty I could never be without is Geranium renardii. Even considering my disenchantment with perennial Geraniums it remains one of my top 5 perennials!

Geums are a favorite of mine, as I am sure everyone here knows by now, lol. ;-)

A Gentian? 'True Blue' is a nice, although I doubt there is a Gentian that is not cool!

Deschampsia 'Northern Lights' is a great little grass. I'm thinking I may need more in fact...

I still like Prunella, even though mine have started to seed about a bit with age.

Right now I am lovin' my dwarf balloon flowers.

If you are looking for something with a structural "woody" presence, how about Teucrium chamaedrys 'Nanum'?
CMK

christinmk--I was looking for a really short white geranium and so I will keep an eye out for 'renardii'.

Annette, I want to add astilbe 'chinensis' to the list. forgot about it until sitting out this afternoon and thinking about how nice it is looking! :)

***ETA--sorry Annette, the astilbe in the garden that gets a fair bit of sun is doing well but the blooms are fading quite quickly in the heat/sun, so maybe they wouldn't be a good choice for your sunny area. I do have some in a garden that gets only about an hour and a half to two hours of sun and the blooms are very nice and fresh and seem to be lasting much better than the others.

This post was edited by greylady-gardener on Sat, Aug 9, 14 at 20:10

What a treat then! We have a season-long sequence of yellow, daisy-like wildflowers in our woods here and I'll have to see if this is one of them. It's been a spectacular year for wildflowers here. I'm glad your little one is lighting up your wild shade.

H. divarticus is all over the woods here in Arkansas...esp on the edges of fields,etc, where there is more light. It's in peak bloom right now.

campanula, Yer wantin' proper language from Texans? Really? Yer not from around here are ya? Just kidding.

The best way is:

Common name(s)
Proper Botanical Name
PICTURE

Everyone is happy.

I just had another thought on this. Is it the Sally Wasowski book 'Texas Native Plants' (Landscaping Region by Region) you bought? If so, that book's main intent seems to be to encourage people in those specific regions of Texas to opt for native plants over less suitable plants for environmental reasons. Its not intended as an encyclopedia or horticulture book that would typically use terms you are expecting. Rather, the audience it is directed to are mainly Texans & the goal is to encourage them to consider the wealth of local native plant choices as water wise options or to deal with difficult situations. Most of these people would be familiar those plants by the common names.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 15:54

Indeedaroony - that's the one. Having fun attempting to classify which area comes closest to the watery, yet rain-challenged fens.
Ah, here in England, horticultural snobbery runs far, far deeper than mere verbiage - plants and styles are definitely placed within a hierarchy which is minutely nuanced - rare paeonies, obscure snowdrops or species rhododendrons are infinitely more rareified than dahlas or gladioli (but as ever, there are distinctions even within those classes since the Bishop of Llandaff, Arabian Night (dahlias) or tricky species glads are acceptable) .....while chrysanthemums are too far gone for rehabilitation regardless. Even veggies are subject to this class scrutiny - kale, for example, or some of the oriental greens such as bok choi are perfectly at home in one's potager....as are obscure heritage tomatoes........yet the humble but utterly indispensable onion is far too proletarian for serious consideration. Of course, I could simply be misled by the gigantic chip on my shoulder........

barron, if I see one more S. Day Lily I will vomit. We ought to do a thread on over-planted plants. Currently the big new sexy plant on the scene are the gaudy stripedy yellow/green Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard', so much better than the natural nature-made soft & subtle glaucous blue ones. I figured some hosta breeder must have gotten into the act of breeding yucca's and walla! --I googled it -- low and behold the culprit is Paul Aden aka "Mr Hosta". He is the person responsible for all these hundreds of fakey looking banana colored yuccas showing up every few feet in this city. Like mushrooms they are appearing, one day there were none, now they seem to be in every yard and median singularly or even worse, in formal groupings of stripey banana color screaming for attention.

Remember the Bradford Pear invasion? Most have been decimated or culled out by wind and ice but there was definitely a danger hanging over the city of becoming a forest of those 'perfectly shaped, well behaved' trees that simply everyone had to have.

Then there are the Knock Out roses.........

I could go on.

duplicate post

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 14:59

I grow a yellow verbascum.

The Sunsprite rose is the brightest yellow in my garden, and repeats all summer. It does not make a good cut flower is its only weekness. Al

It's rather hard to tell from your picture, but it does look a bit bigger than the dwarf. Plant it and see how it does...?

I'm a dabbler, I don't have room for three of anything...it's almost always singles, so I can get the next exciting plant in also

You and I are "birds of a feather". That is very much me.

Great :) I will buy seeds and keep them in the freezer. I just didn't want them to go bad. I try to stray away from annuals because I hate replacing them! (Also I don't know why my candy tuft has a flower its just one not a group or anything. Odd)

'....and keep them in the freezer .....' Maybe you missed what RyseRyse_2004 said above. The freezer will kill some seeds if not done very carefully. (Cell membranes can rupture on defrosting). The fridge is better. But you can keep most seeds perfectly well in a cool, dry place. If you are going to sow this winter or next spring cool and dry will be all that's needed. Especially for commercial seed packets which are vacuum packed anyway and will keep for ages as long as unopened.

I could make some guesses, I suppose (out of the many, many possibilities) but, you know, I am just too lazy and busy to be bothered.

Lol...agree Campanula.

Most of my ideas are a bit invasive.

You could plant Trumpet Vine along the base. Cab be a nuisance but there is a North American native version and it has big orange flowers.

You could plant Snow-in-Summer at the top, but that is invasive in some places.

Potato Bean is both a bulb (OK, tuber) and a vine, which can create some interesting options.

Beach Pea has interesting foliage and flowers that bloom briefly, and being a beach plant can take a lot of heat. That could be planted at the top.

Where are you?

A very old fashioned shrub that would be perfect at the top near the house is Exochorda macrantha 'The Bride'. It wants to flop over a wall and in early spring is covered with white flowers. It doesn't turn fall colors, but it remains good looking, even when it's bare in winter.