13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
I say no to asters yellows... The cone just isn't dense like they typically are.
Yes they are hybrids. How they get a consistent mix of colors from the seeds is unknown ( from what I could find out about them).
If you save seeds... There will be a shuffle of genes again... Including any common types you might have in you neighborhood. It's worth a try... I haven't seen of any second generation Cheyenne spirit plants yet so go for it!
I say no to asters yellows... The cone just isn't dense like they typically are.
Yes they are hybrids. How they get a consistent mix of colors from the seeds is unknown ( from what I could find out about them).
If you save seeds... There will be a shuffle of genes again... Including any common types you might have in you neighborhood. It's worth a try... I haven't seen of any second generation Cheyenne spirit plants yet so go for it!
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.
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.
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.
My sister had this happen to her. Her husband is a bird biologist and they hid some animal tracking devices in the plants (azealeas.) They found that the culprit was a neighbor who lived just a few blocks away. They confronted the neighbor. I don't remember much more detail. I think it would be a good idea to contact the police as another reader suggested.
Very sorry to hear so many people reporting thefts of plants. I read a story in the paper this week about someone thinking someone was tampering with their chickens in their backyard and they ended up calling the police. The police installed cameras, I believe and they did catch the person based on the video and it was a neighbor. So I would start by calling the police. They should have it on record, there may be others in the neighborhood that are having the same problem.
I think you can get a game camera for under $100. I'd want a real camera vs. fake, to have evidence of who was stealing plants so they could be prosecuted.
'Knock on Wood', I've never had anything stolen even from the front garden and I garden in the front all the time. I even have a tomato planted and not even a tomato has been missing. I've lived here 20+ years, and I do appreciate feeling some trust for my neighbors.
Fascination is one of the taller herbaceous clematis (but not as tall as Rooguchi, which has a similar flower)....and as such, is better as a scrambler between taller perennials such as phlox, ornamental grasses, gauras, penstemons etc. It will thread itself through the stems...or will obligingly fall over a wall, a stump, a bank or an ugly shrub. They do not conform to formal gardening- they seem to fit in a wilder setting - I think because of their size and vague unruliness . They add a dimension to those small shrubs which had their moment way back in May/June but are now just sitting greenly boring (I am thinking of philadelphus, deutzias, small lilacs, exochorda, spiriaes (sp?) forsythia, winter jasmine - well those 4-6feet tall clems are just the ticket. They are also seen on obelisks, tuteurs and such, constructed from rustic pea sticks through to ornate wrought iron. They are a bit hopeless as edgers. I have Pangbourne Pink, Alionushka, a couple of unidentified (nondescript blue) ones and love them growing through hogweed and campions in our woodland (they laugh at shade unless it is deep gloom). They will also twine amongst roses for a more romantic cottage-y look. I intend to allow for fraternising between integrifolias and C. recta, ternata and fargesii and have vague ideas of growing a deep blue hendersonii up amongst a purple leaved elder and the dark angelica sylvestris ' Vicar's Meade' (or Ebony)
These clems are easy and floriferous in a modestly charming style, I hope you will enjoy them
Bushy Blue Bell looks much like yours but more blue. It is growing in my mixed border through a cross hatched tall peony hoop. This keeps the plant upright about 3 ft high. It gives it more of a bush appearance and is near a front corner of the border so that I can deadhead it as I don't like the dried seed heads. BBB is my longest blooming clematis, from late spring/late fall.
Put Petite Falcon on a very short obelisk which is working now but may need to be replaced when the clematis is older (2nd year in ground).
OMG, whaas, that had me laughing out loud!!
Planting time aside, I've had great luck with a sedum groundcover in very poor, very shallow, very rocky, very dry soil in a very hot area (full blazing sun along the asphalt street). Because I need something low to keep the sightline coming out of my driveway clear, I haven't tried anything taller there, but I would assume other, taller sedums would work as well.
Dee
Nah, I disagree with most of the above. I do my fall planting in earnest in late August and with the unusually cool & rainy summer we've had this year, I've been transplanting and planting all summer and pretty much letting nature do the work of watering in this year, its a good year for planting.
Any kind of succulent or cactus can be planted and just walked away from, meaning totally ignored which is usually the best thing since most deaths come from too much molly-coddling and over watering. Treat them like forgotten children and they will reward you. So I totally disagree there's no plant that can be planted in August. I just moved a well established cactus here smack in the middle of the day in the hot sun and it won't mind a bit & I'm going to dig up some hesperaloe's tomorrow and move them once the roots callous.
Wow, you've just described a perfect spot for certain plants. First to come to mind is the one I just mentioned, hesperaloe or 'pink yucca', however, its not a yucca, its in the lily family. I looked it up, it will take zone 5 if dry. These look great in a grouping. Stick them in the ground and forget them, they will do fine. I've seen many plantings where they mix them with drifts of grasses and the texture is to die for. Its used along roads here due to its low maintenance, looks and low water needs. Looks stunning. True yucca is another easy plant but choose carefully, there are nice well behaved pretty ones and others that are bullies and become something you regret. Yucca rostrata s a good one if it will grow in zone 5 and your winter is on the dry side or the drainage is very good.
Little Bluestem grass. In a spot like that you should be able to grow the highly enviable stiff light blue vertical specimens because they love torture like that and they tend to flop in good soil with too much moisture or shade. Water in the plants for the first week, then they will do fine on their own. I've been moving them around all summer, I just finished planting some more and they are unflapped. Santa Rosa will be restocked coming up with all the really nice types when their fall sales begin. They are very popular so they ran out early this year of every type. Many other ornamental grasses would also work (but bluestem is so gorgeous I have to push it). Native grasses would do the best, imported ones such as the over used Miscanthus grasses are often water suckers that would need supplemental watering when dry in that kind of sun and there's all that horrible spring trimming of sharp leaves with those plus that dying in the center down the road when they must be dug up and divided which is not fun to do. Natives are much easier.
Russian Sage is a plant that would definitely do well there. Water it in when planting and keep it moist for a couple weeks and it should do fine for you with little or no follow up. Too much water makes them flop. Once September gets here, you should be fine.
Crepe Myrtle would be easy in the heat but it might not do zone 5, you could check, they will take the dry and heat with ease and bloom over a long period. Rose of Sharon is another workhorse that seems to take any amount of sun and drought and bloom without problems. Any native plant that is a sun lover in your area will also prove to be a good choice. You might want to google to see whats native in your parts, these plants will be OK on their own since they are adjusted to your conditions and soil type without human intervention.
Woops, I nearly forgot. Artemisia is a great choice for that kind of spot. They would do fine. I just planted three Prowis Castle to add to a silver garden I'm working on and they adjusted right in, no problem, no sulks. Valerie finnis is a great one. I just moved some to fill in a spot.
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Thu, Aug 7, 14 at 23:37
Well done boday.
My many "Astrantia" understandably did almost nothing last year, their first year in our garden. But this year they performed superbly.
I planted (too) many of these masterworts after seeing the wonderful pictures from GW member scottyboipdx.
UPDATE:
One year later and I still am in love with this plant. They are long blooming and can take shade; in fact they can't take full sun (unless they have lots of moisture). Up close the individual flowers are very special. Here is one of ours from this year.
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