13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I noticed the strangest thing. Around 4th of July they made their annual appearance, right around the time they usually do. I made a note for myself to start eliminating them (the soapy water method), but never got around to it - too busy with other things. So I'm moseying around outside the other day, and NO BEETLES! They are normally all over one rugosa rose in particular, it's like home base for them, but they were all gone. They weren't on any other plants, either.

No clue what went on there, but I have never seen that happen, they're usually orgying it up well into August, sometimes even a bit later.

Wonder if it's a sign it will be another harsh winter - ?. Or maybe I just had a lot of hungry birds hanging around the yard this year :0)

I haven't seen a single one this year. I did get rid of my only rose which was the only plant they munched for me, so maybe that's part of the reason. The squirrels this year haven't been doing any damage either, so all in all, I have no complaints.

(We do need rain which is hard to believe after the drenching this spring, so I guess I can complain about that.)

Kevin

It will grow into an area. multiplying at the base, stoloniferously.. It is slow where I am but things are rough here. It might be different in Englandâ¦Ogrose, is in Dallas and they have clay based soils that are richer.. I would give it shade with some sun, more sun than shade in England. That is a guess made in reaction to your temporate temperatures.. It will be plenty hardy there. Mine has not bloomed yet this year. Strange. The red is blooming in town , but they have not formed seed yet. I have had my eye on clumps to gather some seed for you. They should grow easily. They are very tolerant and flexible plants, growing across different soil types and rain changes. They grow from Central Texas across east Texas, Louisiana and into Florida but I think they are less the further east one goes. They are happier with a bit more water and a deeper soil than I have. They grew fast and bug when I lived in town on clay.

Hi, my goal here is to share pictures. The red turkscap is at a local historical house where my Master Gardener group does volunteer work. Please take advice from others who actually grow it in their yards and know more about its culture.

Planted some years ago by the Master Gardener group the turkscap is a HUGE mass beloved by hummingbirds and admired by tourists.

Pictures taken Aug 5, 2014 at Kent House (1796), Alexandria, Louisiana, z8b, heat zone 9, central Louisiana. As ogrose notes above: morning sun, afternoon shade. This location also has many shadows and is near 2 fig trees. As wantonamara notes turkscap is a native plant in Louisiana.

NOT MY HOUSE!

Another picture, Folsom Native Plant Society, near Covington, Louisiana

House furnished with beautiful period antiques, outbuildings with extensive displays of various molds and farming tools:
Visit Kent House (1796) and learn about life in a French Creole family in the early 1800âÂÂs

This post was edited by river_crossroads on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 13:46

I am envious as well. I have complained lots of times in the past about my stand of Monarda. They flower for too short a time. (probably not enough sun). But I love the smell of the foliage.

Nice!

Forgot that I also shovel pruned many of my evergreen shrubs. We had a terrible winter when it came to evergreens. So many around town are dead. Between the harsh winter and deer, I've just decided to tell myself that winter interest is overrated. Sad to see them go, but sadder to look forward to them in the winter only to have them buried under snow, eaten by deer, or dead come spring.

Oh no, not the hallowed evergreen shrubs, bummer!

This evening I dispatched with 2 Johnson's Blue geraniums that look floppy, straggly and all-around lame by August. Buh-bye! Also pulled out yet another overcrowded daylily clump and the millionth blue saliva that established itself without my premission. Crazy how much I am pulling out and I'm probably not even halfway done. Phew!

Thanks pitimpinai. I will look into triloba. My space is very limited, and not "officially" full sun, though most of the full-sun plants I have do reasonably well. My most fortunate find a couple of years ago was Rudbeckia fulgida var. speciosa Viette's Little Suzy, which grows 12-16" high. Perfect size for my little space and which allows me a little more variety that the full-size Rudibeckia's take up. I'm slowly phasing out my few big ones for this little beauty.

Rudbeckia triloba is a denizen of the moist shady areas...they like sun, but usually don't grow in more than half sun.
I also heartily recommend it as a workhorse...though you must readjust your mind..the flowers are small, but many.

In great native habitat, triloba sometimes reaches 6 1/2 feet, but more avg is 2 1/2 or so.

Um.........is it November already? LOL! I'm still going strong with purchases for this gardening season. I have a VERY fat, healthy woodchuck devouring my garden, but he doesn't touch the daylilies. Found a guy right around the block from me who sells daylilies from fields behind his house for a great price. I moved some things around and added about 40 daylilies over the last couple of weekends. I know some folks think they get all yellow and nasty after flowering, but I don't find that to be the case in my garden. They stay green and fresh for a very long time. Plus at least I have blooms now since the woodchuck has eaten every other July/August flowering plant.

Went to a new (to me) nursery a couple weekends ago and picked up some nice shrubs. 2 new viburnums because I can never have enough of those, and a nice looking sedge and then also a really large variegated fiveleaf aralia, aka eleuthrococcus, aka acanthopanax. He had a bunch of other really nice shrubs and perennials, but I suppose I should pace myself and my checkbook!

I wouldn't bet a nickle on this being your last purchase

Wow, you have special powers Ken.

Today I bought these 2 huge Bobos (each container about 4 gallons) + a couple of days ago I unexpectedly came across the previously hard to source "Sunshine Daydream" Helianthus.

(With these 2 Bobos, I now have 8 in total on our property)

This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 16:43

I was in a nursery garden and overheard another customer loudly ask her friend "is that a PEAR-a-NIGH-al?" It actually took me a minute to realize she was just saying "perennial" and I wasn't about to discover some cool new plant.

I just got it, Ruth.

Funny!

Even if a lot of non-gardeners can pronounce "perennials", so many of them are quite misinformed as to what they are.

The various myths include, among others, that perennials are maintenance free and that perennials don't die.

Floral_uk, you are correct....wow, I misread that as Ken attacking the design of the garden.

My apologies Ken :( Was too early in the morning to post I guess.

Beautiful garden!!!

I've seen canals filled with it in Nebraska, beautiful but vile.

Interesting, the apparent lack of a need for substantiation of the claim that purple loosestrife cultivars, actually located in typical garden situations, can lose their self-incompatability (viz the inability to self-fertilize).

The Manitoba study involved experimentally planting 'Morden Pink' along natural waterways. In other words, it indicates, but doesn't prove that purple loosestrife cultivars planted in garden situations can be prone to this problem.

Below; actual proof.
Picture; Nov 7, 2011.
The garden is in King City, Ontario.
The cultivar ('Rosy Gem') has been cut down, prior to removal.
You can see the line of purple loosestrife seedlings below the edge of the lawn.

So far, I've only seen this in gardens with sprinkler systems or which were otherwise kept well watered; matches the waterways bit.

That Liatris spicata or it's cultivars are a match for the show put on by (or I'd say the beauty of) various purple loosestrife cultivars is, as far as I'm concerned, a joke.
On the other hand, garden-generated evidence for avoiding the use of horticultural purple loosestrife (where legal) is in.

Sorry bees.

Yes I have and now I'm thinking I've overdone it.

And dead heading?

IDK Ken, I have definitely reduced the aphids in my greenhouse by trapping the ants. I have also reduced aphids dramatically by putting plants that aphids love in a place where the ants have a harder time reaching them (by suspending windowboxes from chains). So my observations tell me that ants do make aphid problems worse.

I frankly (for no reason other than instinct) believe that ants transport aphids to plants as much as sheep farmers transport sheep to new pastures.
Other articles on the web support this..I'll link one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Col State, ants and aphids

I've never cut mine back to the ground, but I cut off the flower stems when it's through blooming, and it looks a lot neater. Since it's a fairly early bloomer, it always amazes me that it does nothing after being cut back but sit there and look the same the rest of the summer. Mine is Penstemon 'Dark Towers' but has much darker foliage than yours.

My first thought when I saw the picture earlier today was penstemon but since I grow 'Mystica' the green foliage made me question if that was what it was. 'Mystica' foliage is darker green with dark red edges.

I do nothing to my many penstemons since I often harvest seeds once they're ripe. If you don't plan to grow more plants from seed, it's okay to cut the flower stems off for a tidier garden look. All my plants have been reliably hardy for the past 6 years.