13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Too much water. Liatris is a prairie plant. It does not like too much water or fertilizer.

If it's voles, they are eating away at the roots, and the plant will slowly and inexplicably die. If you tug at the stalks of the plants the roots will feels "loose", and the soil may seem disturbed or fluffy around the root ball.

Several years back I had a terrible problem with voles in the 2 garden beds in front, and they ate all my Kobold. Now I sprinkle a castor oil solution I read about on the Hosta forum on those beds when necessary. This works unbelievably well and it lasts for months! Do a search on this forum for "voles castor oil" or such and some threads will no doubt come up.

Same here, I posted a thread not long ago, looking for help getting rid of it.

Thank you all. I'm sure glad I asked!

Will call my SIL today. Not sure how long she has had hers, she didn't seem to have too much....yet!

Camp, thanks for the suggestions. I really like c latiloba.

This post was edited by lilsprout on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 6:59

(if you can't grow Monarda, I would give up on gardening!)

I am feeling a bit embarrassed as I love seeing a wonderful stand of BB in other people's gardens but I can never get similarly for myself!

I have had clump of some dwarf variety for a few years and I find the blooms are weak and do not last nearly as long as they should.

I am tempted to dig it out but I do like that aroma of bergamot.

Maybe I will give it one more year.

I am adding more plants that are favored by bees in effort to help them survive. I have many plants that the bees love but nothing holds a candle to Bee Balm. It is buzzing with bees from morning until night, they can't get enough. Talk about easy to grow!

Hi Karen and Cheryl,

I believe you are absolutely correct! I checked out the link and the weyeriana buds match what I have. I must have never come across this type of bush. While I'm sure it will be nice, I am disappointed that it was sold to me as Black Knight (even had a tag on it by that name). I do intend to contact my nursery and inquire about it. I really like the long flowers that most bushes produce. The tag on mine even indicated it as a dark purplish color. I can't believe that the nursery goofed on this. I just hope that this weyeriana grows tall and is hardy. Thanks SO much for the information. I suppose I can get used to the pom-pom flowers! At least it is alive and growing and doing well! But the nursery needs to know that they sold me something different than what I was told.

Best,
Keith

Keith, I agree that you should tell the nursery they sold you the wrong buddleia. Perhaps they will give you Black Knight since b. weyeriana isn't what you wanted. But I hope you keep b.w. and post back on how it grows for you. I have b. davidii royal red which has a different charm, so I understand why you want black knight. My b.w. is honeycomb which has custard yellow flowers.

I saw it locally on a garden tour and instantly knew I wanted it. Here in NM it grows to about 6' high, around 4' across. Unlike b. davidii it is more upright and statuesque. It makes a BIG statement! The garden where I saw it had a semi-circular bed of them, about 6, all in bloom. It took my breath away.

I spoke to the owners about hardiness. They said they had had them for about 8 years. We're supposed to be Z7, but we've had subzero winters twice in the past 4 years. The b.w. had a lot of dieback, but they pruned it and it grew back strongly.

Good luck,
Cheryl

The good and the bad are combined with my clematis plants. Good bloom and growth on some that were lagging behind last year. Meanwhile less bloom or no bloom on some that have bloomed well other years. Thought I lost Gravety Beauty until it appeared from the crown recently.

As Kevin indicated earlier, delphiniums are outstanding. Annabelle hydrangea in full bloom having escaped critter damage this year. Shasta daisies looking great. Veronicas, yarrow, monarda, echinacea and lilies in full bloom. Daylilies have just started.

Hostas have loved all the rain we've had but my perennial gypsophila has died.

Self seeded annual poppies, lychnis, and annul rudbeckia are blooming.

Perennial salvias in second flush.

Some critter damage but minor, ate one group of liatris and some of the lily stems, some phlox trimmed earlier, and some asters. A couple of asters eaten to the ground.

Tomatoes and beans are doing well. Peppers are flowering though need more sun. Will be moving my vegetable beds this fall as trees have grown and casting too much shade in that area now.

I lost very little to the harsh winter. Probably because we had deep continuos snow cover.

All in all the gardens are looking very lush and full of bloom. This may be the peak of the season.

I have very few new plants this year. Due to some very unexpected financial constraints, just about the only things I've bought are herbs and fruit (tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, blueberries).

I changed the location for growing tomatoes and they're doing so much better this year. They're on the front porch in pots and in the front bed. I'm not crazy about the scent of tomato plants, but if it yields yummy tomatoey goodness, I'll survive.

The mystic spires salvia has taken over. Way bigger than last year (first year in the ground) and it looks as though it's trying to eat the hydrangea. I was expecting the hydrangea to be the bigger of the two, so things look a tad lopsided. The echinaceas have been blooming for nearly two months now, the asclepias incarnata is growing well (no flowers yet...) and the gardenias put on a grand show.

The halesia (Carolina silverbell) survived and put out new leaves. I was most astonished as I wasn't sure it would. I planted it in autum 2012 as a 1' sapling via mailorder, and it leafed out last spring, but then languished and eventually dropped the 7 leaves it'd produced. I wasn't sure it'd survive winter, but it did. It's obviously lost its old form, and hasn't done too much, but it's a little bigger than last year and I'm holding onto hope for it.

So I suppose the flourishing tomatoes are the good, the flowerbed eating salvias are the bad, and my poor little halesia is the ugly.

had it this spring-in our dry climate usually disappeared(literally) in a day or two. would then reappear in another part of the veg garden-it is startling isnt it?

They MOVE?! Geez, this has all the makings of a B horror movie, lol!

Dee

Grief, another plant it is impossible to find seeds for in the UK. Too annoying for words. I grow the related strobilanthes and am really keen to grow ruellias, not least because of their predilection for light shade. Seed sources in US?

Campanula, Talking about seeds in america, look in your email of me. I sent you an email.I have a growing envelope waiting for an address.

Strawberry Foxglove is supposedly perennial so it should hopefully be back next year.

If I were you, I'd let it set seed as this one does come true. I have a bunch of them that all came from the same plant.

No, no rebloom. Digitalis mertonensis is a short-lived perennial so count on 3, maybe 4 years of life.....but hey, they will definitely seed about so offspring will be yours aplenty.

Lin, I have admired trailing geraniums in pink and red when I travel in Switzerland. To me this is one of the signature flowers of Switzerland. I've copied the look on our contemporary balcony - but it's always hard to find the properly trailing geraniums, and I imagined it would be easy to find them in Switzerland because of how common they are. In any case, I love that look!

Posted by linaria 7 Switzerland (My Page) on Sun, Jul 13, 14 at 1:09

The pictures were taken in South China.

Thank you for your reply! I would plant some in a few different areas in the garden around other plants but am mainly interested in filling a shaded hill. A neighbors black walnut tree is at the property line. Hopefully it is not an issue with campanula plants.

The hill only has a rose of sharon, an azalea, and foxglove seedlings so far.

I'm not looking for the low growing but rather the taller varieties, something that will add height and interest without staking. Then again maybe I could mix in some low growing ones?

Lactiflora is beautiful and I love pulla. My takesimana elizabeth plants have died back mostly but some are showing tiny new growth. They should be ok.

Are campanulas generally mostly blue or am I looking at the wrong images online? I would be more interested in colors other than blue or am I asking for too much?

Growing from seed is fine with me. My first winter sowing was pretty successful and I plan on winter sowing again this year except I will limit my choices drastically.

I'm sorry it took me so long to respond. I really do appreciate your reply and the time and effort you have put into your answers and suggestions. Campanula are great plants and I'm just now finding out how many different ones exist. It's a huge selection to chose from.

mostly blue or white but the biennial C.medium have pinks and purples, while lactiflora 'Loddon Anna' is a pale lilac colour entirely appropriate for its common name of milky bellflower. C.trachelium 'Faichem Lilac' (seeds available from Chiltern seeds) along with c,latiloba Hidcote Amythyst shade into pinks (and are both great contenders for a woody hillside). New to me this year are C.collina - similar to C.rotundifolia in that it is semi-sprawling at around 1foot tall.
My tracheliums are flowering now and I really cannot overstate what fine plants these are - in those crepuscular hours of twilight, they look totally electric and have a certain wild majesty. I am also guitly of growing that notorious thug, C.rapunculoides as I love the asymetrical one sidedness, like wild foxgloves (not those hybrid fat abominations which have blooms all round the spike or worse, upward facing blooms).
There are some great double white peach-leaved bellflowers and a particularly lovely one with a faint picotee edge - C.persicifolia 'Chettle Charm', syn, 'George Chiswell'.
I have always loved bellflowers and my infatuation, even after 2 decades, shows no signs of slowing down. Wonderful plants.

Just mentioning in passing - a pale yellow/straw coloured one, C,thyrsoides - strange but curiously enticing (in a wild style)..

Did you uncurl the leaves to see what is at the center? Hybiscus attracts insects that curl the leaves and build a nest there.

The plant was having yellow leaves before I repotted it. And the leaves aren't curled tightly, they're just "cupped". No insects in there. I've even looked with my magnifying glass. Keep those suggestions coming though!

lilsprout that is a good idea except the temps will probably be another 10 degrees higher when I return and not sure how the plants would take it.

Southerngardening24, I got
3 of : Monarda didyma Balmy Purple
ÃÂ 3 of : Monarda didyma Coral Reef
ÃÂ 3 of : Monarda didyma Gardenview Scarlet
ÃÂ 3 of : Monarda didyma Jacob Cline
ÃÂ 3 of : Monarda didyma Raspberry Wine

I had a red clump in my old yard that a friend gave me, don't know the name but I loved it. I love their smell and appearance. Hopefully they will do well and I don't mind if they want to spread themselves out in my yard :-) I've gotten better at ripping out unwanted seedlings rather than being the boarder I used to be!

Amna
PS I REALLY do not need to know about any other sales , really :-)

Hmm.... Well, thank you everyone for your input! I really appreciate it. It does look, however, like there's not much I can do about it. My yard is full of large oak trees, so I don't think it's possible to get rid of the aphids completely if they are up in the trees. Kinda gross to think that they are dropping this stuff all over my yard, my cars, and even me, I guess, when I'm out there working, lol!

I'm guessing this won't hurt the plants, although I still wonder why its not on any of the other hostas. Maybe the thick blue leaves show it more than the others...

Thanks again!
Dee

one of the most active forums is the hosta forum ...

the blue glaucous coating on hosta.. is a surface wax ... and such wax can be insulted by many things ..

and stuff that might wash off a non-waxy leaf... gets caught in the wax ...and the leaf is stained for the season ... as the plant can not repair the wax ..

it is cosmetic.. it is not a hosta disease ...

ken

Not sure which is more lovely, the fungus itself or the name.... I thnk the name is worse. I've seen this before (often in bright orange) and while not the most pleasant thing to look at, I've seen worse. That name though.... ugh....

Dee

Thanks Ruth. That was my first thought when I saw it (eww looks like the dogs puked), but I knew it couldn't be as it was in the unfenced garden.

Kevin you are too funny! "Cool" was the furthest thing from my mind lol

This post was edited by lilsprout on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 21:14