13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

brilliant... stick a pot in there.. to assuage your neurosis ...

or garden art ...

an old shoe ...

heck.. that old bowling ball you havent pulled out in a decade ...

a hubcap ...

a piece of rotting wood ...

time for some garden art ... THAT YOU DONT HAVE TO BUY I MEAN ...

how about a whirlygig from aco.. they are 60% ...

ken

Ken, do I strike you as the type that bowls?

rhiz ...

i used some old media.. that i used to hold some plants over last summer.. and then planted in fall ....

so i DID FERT IT ... lol ..

but i didnt do it because they are children ... that need to be feed.. educated.. diapered.. etc ...

i did it because the media may have been a bit spent ...

ken

So Ken, I wanted to know...are you out there deadheading every day ? :)

Hmm, I must have forgotten to click on the preview copy as know I commented last night on the amazing growth of your Huldine, woodyoak. What a sense of accomplishment to see it so full of blooms.

I think I have finally found a good place for my Huldine so maybe it will look like yours in a few years.

Understand about the secondary plants getting overwhelmed by the super growth. Have the same issue with Gillian Blades this spring completely covering Comtessa de Bouchard. Next year I will cut Gillian Blades back as soon as it has finished blooming so Comtessa can shine.

I think a good part of the reason it's so big this year is that I didn't cut it down so low this year - I mainly trimmed it back to the tuteur frame but left it about 3-4' tall. The Nike on the tripod by the garage is treated much the same - i.e. trimmed back to the frame but left tall. It's always covered in a sheet of bloom. ... which reminds me... I forgot to fertilize the clematises this spring. After all this bloom, I wonder if they need feeding or whether they can wait until next spring? Roses and clematises are the only things I fertilize, and I forgot to do both this year! They seem to be doing fine so far without it.

Bluestone, you might consider Poet's Jasmine - Jasminum Officinale - for those trellises. Hardy to zone 6, loves the sun, blooms from June to frost here in central VA. Loses its leaves most Winters, but the stems remain green so still ornamental in the cold & with deep blue/black berries. Lovely fragrance emitted that carries late afternoon through evening, or anytime you stick your nose close to the flowers. Not a heavy cloying perfume, but sweet & clean. Hummingbirds love them & so do I.

I'd wanted this for years & planted one in this garden 16 years ago that I'd grown from a cutting. Took off easily. There are several varieties, some with pale or variegated foliage that may have trouble in that baking position. I grow the dark green one, with hints of pink on the outside of the buds that open white. Logee's Greenhouse usually carries them, but website says sold out at the moment. Looking for a link, found this one for BC that sells gallons & ships till the 15th. Others found have mainly suspended shipping till September or on backorder. Brushwood carries it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jasminum Officinale

This post was edited by vasue on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 13:35

Or as you suggested, there is nothing wrong with putting nothing on the trellises. From the way you describe them, I would imagine they are attractive as is and add some visual interest to the area. I like the idea of putting a potted something in front of the trellises - possibly elevated a bit and leaving it like that.

I have a couple of wooden trellises mounted on my fence which I've never used. I always meant to plant a vine of some sort, but never did. They've been there for years now - bare - and I like the look.

Kevin

Yes I've got the little nasties, they're busy gorging themselves on everything here :(.

Annette

I have noticed that there seems to be a reduced number of earwigs this year, which is good, but also a much reduced number of bumblebees, which is not so good! Also, have hardly seen any slugs, despite having a fairly wet growing season so far.

But I have found some earwigs on the milkweed, which is normal. They hide in nooks and crannies of the growth tips and flowers. I flush them out and smush them!! Along with any other predators that might get the Monarch larvae (haven't seen any Monarchs yet this year though).

I've gotten over my squeamishness of smushing earwigs and beetles and such with my bare fingers...

That is funny, my sister, who lives in Newmarket, Ontario, just mentioned this week that she has a flower on her Lemon Queen. I am a few miles south of her but no flowers on Lemon Queen yet. Mine usually gets going pretty late. If I recall correctly, it is at full bloom well into September/October.

I think I spied one tiny yellow flower on mine too. If I recall correctly, it did the same thing for me last year. This is one that starts out extremely slowly with a sparse flower here and there until it's gradually builds up to a stunning crescendo before being knocked out by frost. I suspect that it is considered to be a late-blooming plant because by the time it builds up enough flowers to start making an impact, it is usually late summer! :-)

Agreed!!

Although the mosquitos are out in full force with all the moisture we've had, but I'll take that over having to run the sprinklers regularly ($$$), especially since I think the plants respond better to rainfall opposed to watering from the tap -- they just seem lusher after a good rain. Plus, the toads are out in good numbers too -- lots of teeny ones this year, hoping they will set up house permanently and grow into big, fat bug eatin' machines next year.

Yes, I also have a lot of toads and dragonflies too. Love them in the garden.

greengo I very much like "Max Frei" also. My 3 plants are winding down in terms of blooms but I do like the tidy habit they exhibit all season and they will give a few more flowers much later in the season. But my plants don't look nearly as good as yours...excellent specimens.
(Btw, how long do yours bloom for...for me it is about...3 weeks or so).

And a thumbs up Hoverfly9 re C.Lutea. I especially like it in deep shade in a more wild area of my garden. Of course it spreads all over but it is trivial to pull them up.

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Jul 6, 14 at 9:36

Depends what is meant by long blooming - in my book, I am looking for a good 10-12 weeks, or 2 or 3 good flushes throughout the season (with certain caveats).
Rehmannia alata has been in prolific bloom for 3 months, now, with no signs of slowing down. The shrubby salvias (greggii et al.) can go on for 6 or more months, as can some penstemons, I have a delightful mimulus aurantiacus which will bloom throughout the summer for many weeks, as well as various hardy geraniums, many of which have already been noted. Sterile hybrid digitalis will continue to bloom, as will a sterile polemonium, Lambrooke Mauve. Pelargoniums,, nemesia, diascias and bacopa are long blooming pot/bedding plants,....but I am avoiding getting into either half-hardy perennials (which we regard as annuals) nor do I really want to delve into heavy dead-heading territory. If you are vigilant about this (unlike me), campanulas can be induced to bloom for the entire season, as can some dianthus...in fact, many plants will go on for months if prevented from setting seed. But, for lazy and negligent types who just want a lot of blooming with minimal effort, the amellus asters are easy and failsafe, along with limonium, bupleurum, eryisimum, erodium, callirhoe.

"Finally some kid jumped up and tore the hoop down for no apparent reason."

Yeah sure Kevin. That's exactly what happened, right? Some kid? For no reason? Yup. Sure.

seriously, I broke my dwarf peach off at the graft union - it was hanging together by a tiny sliver of cambium. I jammed a broom stick right through the centre of the rootmass and taped the whole thing with micropore tape (breathable). A year later, the entire break had callused over and the graft was stronger than the rest of the stem. I have fixed many plants using this - at this moment, I can see a rehmannia with tape around the main stem from an enthusiastic shaking out of the laundry. Working in a minuscule garden which is crammed on every surface with plants, accidents are a daily occurrence. Splinting is not always needed but it does help to immobilise the plant as the cambium layer must be in constant unmoving contact until healing takes place - can happen in a few weeks but, in a woody plant, it can take a whole season.

I planted two clematis on my fence a few years ago. They each got dug at by the dogs and cut down by the neighbors. But, today I found them both growing up the fence and blooming! They're not thick with multiple vines yet, but I think we'll get there some day. Mine get mixed morning and early afternoon sun, but are in pretty full sun from 3pm to sunset. Only supplemental water because I was reseeding some lawn this year. We also got generous rains this spring.

Martha

Yes, there is a Clematis forum and it's pretty active :-))

Here's the keys to successful clematis growing:

1) Well draining soil....pH not much of an issue unless out of whack.
2) Large, deep and enriched planting hole. This one of the very few instances where you really want to spend time preparing a deluxe planting hole. The typical recommendation is prepare a 2'x2' planting area (clematis roots can get BIG).
3) Plant deeply -- 2-4 inches deeper than the plant is in the nursery container. This helps to develop additional vines from the root crown with more resistance to clematis wilt (for those varieties susceptible), mechanical damage to the stems and assists with strong root development.
4) Prune back hard in late winter for at least two seasons. This accomplishes similar results to the deep planting. Then prune as suggested for that particular type of clematis.
5) Be patient :-)) Clematis take time to establish well, so allow 3-5 years before you see peak performance. The saying "the first year they sleep. the second year they creep and the third year they leap" was written specifically for this vine!!

I was meaning to document this anyhow so I just went out to take the picture. My entire Zanthoxylum simulans looks like this. It will pull through though, they are already gone.

Well I see a straggler now, but about 5 days ago there must have been well over 200 in this 9' tree. They were coating the branches. I have one of the old style zapper racquets (without the stupid safety screen) and it was fun to go out and swat at them, but it doesn't really make much of a difference. It's more useful to protect myself from flies.