13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
You are doing nothing wrong apart from hoping too hard. I waited 6 years for my yellow delavayii paeony.....I enjoyed the foliage and convinced myself it had enough value as a foliage plant. Year 5, there were 3 blooms, done and dusted in a week. year 6 - transformation - many blooms, lasting almost a month (a lifetime in paeony terms). During this time, I neither pruned nor fertlised - the bare stems looked a bit grim in early spring but easy to ignore as spring bulbs were doing their thing. Those fat leaves, expanding in the sun, are wonderful and the whole shrub has grown to around 7 feet high and wide - this year, for the first time ever, I cut back the herbaceous stems by about half, and did a bit of thinning.
Too long since I read Hardy and what I read didn't have that passage. But in my callow youth would I even have noticed that passage?
I was thinking, Dylan? Joyce? (how pretentious of me, I never read Joyce)
One can get tired of strawberries, even bought ones. When they are in season I don't even think of a grocery budget. I buy local strawberries when I see them and eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. My car is littered with dried up strawberry 'tops', I arrive at nursing homes with red stained fingers and sticky lips. And I am relieved when the season ends because my compulsive appetite for strawberries can't be indulged and my digestive system gets a break.
Strawberries are like tomatoes for me: there is so little resemblance to the "real" in-season fruit I can't bring myself to spend money on the out of season imitation.
Of course, sometimes I can't resist buying those "virtual" strawberries out of season. They never fail to disappoint.
Marie
feh, no-one actually 'reads' Joyce - they might have to drudge through various bits for exams.....or even enjoy some of the more florid passages.......but entire books?
The strawberries are out of control - I swear I started off with a dozen plants but they are now occupying 2 large beds, escaping onto the paths and making a bid for world domination by sneaking along the hedge lines.
The first picks of our fruit and veggies are always special (tomatoes have another month before I will be eating any of them)....but the most eagerly awaited crops are the humble potatoes. For the past decade, it is barely possible to find potatoes for frying (chips) in the UK. Soggy, horrid things (and for sure, I have tried the various double and triple frying methods)- I blame the supermarket practice of washing everything and long storage because the same varieties are still available and consistent.....but our own Kestrel spuds are a delight and mark the start of chip season. The ancient frying pan comes out of storage (because it is a frightening sight with half an inch of encrusted solidified oil baked on the outside of the pan) and we gather about waiting for the CRISP and delicious potatoes to leap out of the frying basket and into our mouths (even better with home-made ketchup). The humble potato - a gourmet treat!
Wow your comments are so amazing! I am surprised the daffodils could get through the ground cover but happy to hear your experiences with it. Good to know as I covered the daffodils with the ground cover without thinking. It is nice to know it probably will work and they will both do a show. Thanks so much. I am encouraged!
Sawfly larvae are pretty easy to control with ordinary insecticidal soap applications. Maybe even with a stout spray of plain water. I avoid using anything stronger than the insecticidal soap because so many other creatures love these larvae: birds, toads, frogs, wasps, and more.
Just a followup to this if anyone comes upon it.
In 2012 and 2013, I treated both the Loosestrife and Creeping Jenny with an early dose of a systemic insecticide for sawfly larvae and had no problems.
This year, there has been no damage.
a picture of the area would help could you plant some tall evergreens to screen her side out? Otherwise invite her over for a glass of wine and try and decide together what would be pleasing to both. she is obviously not the kind of person who wants to be agreeable but if you are new to the area, it is best to TRY first...then the roundup!
I hope she isn't the disagreeable type, I hope you have someone like Kevin's described- kind of jumping on the cleanup bandwagon but just doesn't know how to go about doing it correctly.
Yeah, the nixing of the rocks had to do with all the debris that gets down between them. A leaf blower actually does a decent job cleaning it all out but it takes so long. Also I was thinking that if you weren't sure what to do with the area, rock is a pain to remove and dispose of in the future if you get tired of it.
Plastic might not be the worst idea for that spot. Ivy might not spread by roots, but poison ivy surely does, and the plastic should keep them out, but if it was me, I would give it one last roundup spray, skip the plastic, put down two or three inches of mulch, and be done with it. Spraying once or twice a month should take care of anything that pops through, and if you do decided to plant something there later on it's no problem moving rocks or plastic.
I would suggest a mix of smaller shrubs and larger perennials for less maintenance and 4 seasons of interest. Like gardenweed I recommned the buddleia bushes & caryopteris, plus spireas 'Galen', 'Lemon Princess', 'Ogon', baptisia australis, tancetum 'Isla Gold', taller siberian iris cultivars, salvia 'Caradonna', penstemon 'Dark Towers', herbaceous clematis 'Roguchi' which you can grown through a 3 ft obelisk, iris pallida 'Vareigata', geranium sanguineum which make neet little mounds. The list is endless.
Thanks for all the great info!
I am trying to avoid most shrubs as they will eventually become larger shrubs, and be too large for the location without a lot of pruning. Example, one 8' tall Buddleia died back to the ground and was slow coming back. It's already 3' tall.
Likewise, I have 250+ hostas already (closer to 300 if I divide them) in shaded areas. They could also get sunburnt or pretty big in this location unless I get some minis that stay mini.
I would like to add some color, and also some texture that isn't easily found elsewhere in the yard. I'll be looking through the suggested ones carefully....
Again, thanks!
vince
I agree with you ellenr. Santa Rosa seems like a very different and very good company to do business with.
In their most recent clearance sale, I ordered three coral bells that I've wanted to try. They were only $2.50 each.
While the plants that arrived were well grown, two of the three have plain green leaves instead of the colorful leaves that the variety they are labeled should have. So I called Santa Rosa to ask about them and were they maybe mislabeled.
The nice woman I spoke with said, the ones still there of those varieties had just started to color up, and she hadn't heard about any mislabeling problems. But she willingly put a note on my order and said give it 2-3 months. If there was no sign of color, Santa Rosa would refund my money. We didn't discuss replacing the plants because I think they are already sold out of them.
I'll do business with these people again too.
Just a quick note that instead of 'Moonbeam', I believe you mean 'Moonshine'. There is yarrow 'Moonshine' and coreopsis 'Moonbeam'.
Yarrow 'Sunny Seduction' is a nice, sturdy light yellow colored one, mine gets to be 1.5-2 feet tall. I don't know anything about trying to grow it from seed.
Madonna lily(candidum hybrid. However my other bully who i called the orange day lily from asia is orange with no specks and has sword like leaves. This book i had since high school has it listed as orange day lily. Book was written by a roger tory peterson. I like to use that book to identify wildflowers. But i heard several others call that orange bully a tiger lily. Lol
Something I've done several times is post on freecycle. That's a nation wide e-mail group for free recycling of anything you don't want.
People who were interested came to my place on the specified day and, under my supervision, dug out what I didn't need. I got rid of/ gave away echinacea, dianthus, penstemon, centurea montana, digitalis - all of which had seeded so I had more than I needed. Everyone went home happy and I didn't need to do any of the work.
My hollyhock just started to bloom, and it is not the color I expected. I had collected seed from a deep purple or maroon plant, and had received some seeds in trade that were labeled maroon or deep purple. This is what is blooming. If you'd like seeds, I can try to save them as they ripen.
Martha
Martha, they're gorgeous - thank you! And what an interesting shaped leaf. I live in Canada, but will probably be going down to the US in September. (I have a mailbox in WA where you could mail them, unless you don't mind sending them to Canada.) If you can hang on to the seeds, I'll let you know about 2 weeks before I go down. Either way, I would, of course, pay you for the seeds and mailing. Many thanks!
This sounds yummy. wonder if the foliage is the same.
This post was edited by shadeyplace on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 7:36
Funny how the nodding blooms make this one special yet it seems all the orientalis hybrids are hyped as being improved with upward facing blooms. You just can't make everyone happy!
I'm going to try and resist this one, I have two of the sternii hybrids and they look similar, plus the winters here ravage the foliage... and I love the leaves maybe more than the flowers (not that I would turn down any flower in March)