13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Oh my goodness i don't like that is that because of grass hoppers?? Ok i will google that now. Thankyou!

thats not what they said ...

the leafhoppers spread it..

they did not cause it originally ...

read up ...

ken

My cats have never bothered my P. reptans either.

Karen

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I was seriously reconsidering this plant, but I think I'll give it a shot now.

So weather has not been helpful, it has rained pretty much every day for the past week, some days heavily. The yucca does now have about 4 leaves standing up and it does look some mornings like more are standing up or at least trying. I think its also starting to put out new leaves in the middle, and I noticed something growing out of the side that almost looks like another trunk ?

Yay!!

Good to hear :)

So pretty! I also heard that Kalimeris was a determined self seeder so I have previously stayed away. Perhaps certain cultivars are better behaved.

Due to Rouge, I too have the Kalimeris in its semi first year, planted late last year. Starting to look good but would seem to need time to develop.

Yep, Annette, that's just about what my Blue Paradise looks like right now... really purple. Still I love it ... for me it's a vigorous plant that grows bigger each year. Blooms earlier than my Davids and along with some pink/red shades of phlox.

Molie

Last one taken at 7:30 P.M.

Yeah, I'm not a great cell phone photographer. I think creeping phlox is right. Thanks for all of your input.

Here in the foreground is some of my purple in bloom. I also have some pink but the purple spreads much larger for me.

Yonderbound - would you have a photo of your bridal veils that you could share here? I'd love too see them "puffed" because I want too see what I'm missing. I'm in 6B Canada zone and my astilbes only get morning sun. I can post pic of mine tomorrow.
Thanks,
Mira

Yonderbound - would you have a photo of your bridal veils that you could share here? I'd love too see them "puffed" because I want too see what I'm missing. I'm in 6B Canada zone and my astilbes only get morning sun. I can post pic of mine tomorrow.
Thanks,
Mira

I love, love, love my Chicago Apache daylilies - and I don't even like red, lol!

:)
Dee

P.S. I hesitated to put this particular link in, since when I called it up the first review was not favorable. But this is the best photo in terms of color, IMO. Just the like color in real life in my garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicago Apache

That is a beauty Dee. . . I do have a few red lilies in there (I forgot about them til this season when they bloomed) They just don't stick around long enough. I do appreciate the link and suggestion, Thank You. . .!

camp, I planted some leymus candescens rye grass (I think thats what it is) in the corner, the dirt keeps running downhill covering my gravel which makes me crazy. I found this grass growing in shade at a construction site and dug some up while the men were gabbing, me and my little handy shovel. The area was marked for destruction. It will take shade and forms thick tussocks that are actually attractive when separated from weeds etc. This is very dry shade but as it comes out further plants become more visible. Hakone Grass! Not in this dreadful spot. Its beautiful but I need function and something tough, preferably native since its such a challenging area. I was really falling for the Sesleria autumnalis for the yellow green I even tried the silver leymus 'Canyon Prince' one year, its looked like big dead spiders. I donated it to the neighbors yard and its forming a nice area of blue in their backyard in no mans land (needs weeding but I resist interfering). Probably come fall, I'll place an order with SRG. I promise not to come over there with my shovel and grocery sacks and I'll look up those other suggestions, light colored would definitely be welcome.

Here in the central US there are numerous ghosts towns or nearly ghost towns and empty roads you rarely see another car on, miles of grasses, abandoned fields, abandoned farms, old bridges, roads leading nowhere etc. You can make an entire activity visiting the abandoned past and not see a soul for miles all day long. People would think you were crazy if they saw you digging grasses, but I am sometimes crazy that way. I don't know what its like in Great Britain but here a person really can find treasures in the wild without feeling like an environmental abuser, in fact its easy to get lost in the overwhelming miles and miles of nothingness out in the middle of nowhere. I think sometimes we have a tendency to picture something altogether distorted when discussing subjects like plants in the wild. I've dug bluestem plants from the wild along with several other starts of plants. I never thought of it as a bad thing in certain situations and still don't, if you saw what I am talking about you'd laugh at the idea of causing harm. If you hired every person in the midwest and handed them a shovel to dig with, you'd hardly make a dent in a year's worth of digging, the very idea is ludicrous. Its other factors that are problems, like invasive plants for instance just to name one of many. I hardly think any harm is done moving a few small blue stem seedlings from a place out in "The Sticks" like Pond Creek or Lamont, Oklahoma where they are thick to another part of Oklahoma where they aren't currently growing constitutes wildlife or plant endangerment. Once upon a time they would have covered what is now my urban property and now they are growing and multiplying again, instead of a bermuda grass lawn which is hardly good for the environment.

I find I cannot hardly get a visual of England in my head, I imagine lots of green and places I see on PBS like "Upstairs Downstairs' or something like that, old cities, great buildings & abandoned monasteries from the reformation period. I am sure its a distortion of reality.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 19:06

Texas blue grass is getting some air time down here. It does take some shade and it is beautiful when it blooms , The first picture does not do it justice. I think it will do its thing in clay als. I am thinking of getting several plants. I saw some 4" pots at the nursery here in Austin. I also have Mexican wire grass choosing to come up in all day dappled shade

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Blue grass

Although it is actually a shrub, in my part of the country Black Knight Butterfly Bush grows as a woody perennial. It is my tallest "perennial." Second runner-up would be my Russian Sage.

Christin, good to know I can move the Cimicifuga if I need to! I just nibble on a lovage leaf if I'm working nearby!

I'm definitely moving some Sweet Cicely next Spring!

Posting pics online is on my to do list--unfortunately I need hands on learning--so it may take a while!

Unbidden, those meadow rues are gorgeous!

Echo, I have lots of wet soil most of the year but am working on lightening it up, so maybe an Agastache is in my future! Thanks for all the specs!

Rouge, thanks for sharing that!

Plantingman, DH won't let me plant Buddleias--they seeded all over the place--especially in our gravel driveway...I'll check out the Russian Sage.

I'm pretty sure I've lost a lot of plants to poor drainage.

Thanks for weighing in everyone!

Hi,

Iris is pretty tough. I have quite a few that even do well in a bed of dry soil. They root pretty close to the surface and so when they start multiplying they should be divided. With a big clump of iris, you'll often see these rhizomes right at the ground level. With any luck, you'll have flowers by next spring!

Keith

When you plant it, please put in the soil the other way round, so that the green side is up. ;)

First thought when I saw the photo was Perovskia atriplicifolia/Russian sage.

Thank you all for your help. You are right, Thanks

"It may just be a case of botanists messing with the names"

Oh Lord! Do they like to mess with names!

I was an orchid grower for many years and it was almost impossible to keep up with the name changes. It drove one nuts at times.

Kevin

Very interesting that 'Blue Cloud' seems to be more aggressive with the self seeding. I'm glad that a least a few members haven't had any problems with the white calamint and will hold out hope that I'll have the same experience.

Yeah, botanists are a funny group... sometimes they get so hung up on details, they miss the forest for the trees!

Thanks for that. But then I wonder why aren't all my brunnera affected similarly?

UPDATE:

Both "Silver Heart" Brunnera easily came through this past winter and have grown vigorously. In fact I wish their leaves were not so large. The one pictured below is 12" long by about 10" wide.

I have both 'Paris' and 'Rave On', in one flower bed. It was going to be concentric gradations of color, ending in Obsidian in the center. Hah! Insert reality check here, mumble mumble.

Each spring some weaker member is gone into the Great Beyond and there is a mad scramble to fill in the hole. Now it's more freeform

"Man proposes...

UPDATE

I do like heuchera "Havana". It stands out well in deeper shade with its very light green leaves and the many pink flower stalks last for weeks and weeks.