13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

That's crazy, Purp! Most of my houseplants are in moisture control and they seem to love it! They're all thriving and growing like crazy. But maybe it's because I don't water, per se, but rather mist heavily only sporadically with water from my dehumidifier, then once in a while, i water them thoroughly. I dont know, bit i do know that I dont wAyer them nearly as much as I mist them. I also add miracle grow plant food.

Thanks for the advice! I can't get any perlite right now, maybe next week, but I did move the plants outside in the sun. I gave them a spot for now that only gets about an hour of full direct sun per day and I'll move them to another place that gets more full sun in a few days to acclimate them. Hopefully moving them won't upset them!

Summering house plants outdoors does generally help revive them and produce new growth, if they're introduced to full sun gradually (even an hour a day without conditioning could cause leaf burn, so best to put them in shade at first).

Eventually the plant will have to come back inside (unless you're in a frost-free area) and then it will need at least bright light (some sun would be good), high humidity and location away from marauding children/animals. Crotons are difficult at best as house plants because their favored conditions are hard to produce.

Although I have Annabelle rather than Invincibelle Spirit, my experience with Hydrangea arborescens is that it is not a full sun plant and does best with morning sun only as GG48 said along with plenty of water.

Bluestone probably said that because Proven Winners says that (?!) but the developer's website says 4 hours of sun give or take depending on the climate.

It seems to depend on where you read the specifics about both plants - either Annabelle and/or Invincibelle Spirit. I'm not a novice gardener, and this type of thing drives me nuts because I try to put my plants in the right spot.

Some sites say that H. arborescens can take full sun but need a lot of water to do so. Rather than replant to a shadier location right now while its still regrowing leaves - not that I have much shade anywhere here but I'll do my best to find a spot it might like better -I'll keep an careful eye as to its moisture requirement and move it in the spring. IF it makes it through the winter.

I paid $40 for the plant, and I NEVER pay that much for any plant, other than the ones the landscaper put in when he took out the 40 year old yews and put in our paved walk. I felt confident I was getting the right plant for this spot. Looks like I didn't.

Thank you all for your help. The next time I purchase a plant that I don't have a lot of experience with, I'll ask you guys first and buy second!

Linda

I've read that the Gillenias will grow underneath trees with thick roots. I want to get some for myself; pretty flowers in the spring, great fall color, and best of all, they're native.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Gillenia trifoliata

Skip all of the above advise, especially the vinca. If you want nice plants - shrub size - like hydrangea's, think outside of the rooting system. Get yourself a child's swimming pool. Place on top the roots of the tree or fight the tree roots with a shovel and reclaim some soil - fill the pool with soil. Drill holes in the side of the swimming pool, not the bottom - the tree will find a way through holes in the bottom. Place your plant in the pool in the dirt - it's own home with no invaders! Next frame the outside of the pool with rocks, if you don't bury the pool. This looks amazing when complete. I have both hydrangea's, astilbe and hybrid hostas growing under the shade of my silver maple - looks marvelous.

I also have plenty of early mums this year. It's mostly the newer varieties I added last spring so maybe they will just need a good shearing next year to slow them down.

The garden only now seems to be starting full force. I add plenty of dahlias and cannas each year, but the grasses, self sown annuals, hydrangeas, hibiscus and phlox are still to come!

I planted some expensive zinnia seeds with a large central cone, hoping for a broad landing site for butterflies and bumble bees in my pollinator garden. We've had such a cloudy, rainy, cool summer that their growth has been slower than molasses in January. Even now I don't see any buds forming. I just hope they bloom in time for me to save some seed. I know they might not look like the parent plant, but I can pick and choose the characteristics I like.

Martha

Have you ever had it self sow?

Maybe katob. But if so not much...nothing like our other triloba.

Nice plant.

Even with limited sun and excess rain so far this summer, our regular R. trilobas have started to flower (despite having been cut back heavily in June).

Groundhogs do more damage than you can imagine. When we finally caught the one who was chewing our front windowsills (and stopped long enough to pose for a picture) there was also an end to the mysterious chopping down of my daisies a couple of inches off the ground with nothing eaten, just chopped down. Good luck.

In all the answers no one mentioned cutworm. Cutworm will cut off a plant just above the ground and then it feeds on the roots. Dig down where the plant is cut off and see if there's a fat grub. Dig it out and step on it. If it is cutworm he won't have moved far because he'll be dining on your plants roots. Cutworm is always a loner so if you get it you've solved the problem unless the cutworm moth has laid more eggs

You mean, Ken, you would like pictures? ?there aren't any here, and I would also love to see what grew.

Yes I enjoyed the experiment. I Checked every day to see what flowers had opened and how they grew. I would certainly do it again. Sorry I'm not a photographer but I did get out my camera. The batteries in my camera are dead. Not surprising since I haven't used it in 2 years. I will see what I can do about getting new batteries and taking some photos

Sedum (not sure which):

Center Glow Ninebark:

the roots seemed healthy and of two different kinds, seemingly inseparable. white, straight, and succulent---yellowish and threadier, finer. what's up with that? i never examined their roots before...

The roots are enormous!

My pleasure, Jaime. Just passing along the help others have given me.

Clematis climbs by wrapping leaf stems, so it needs something narrow to wrap around, such as a metal trellis with bars pencil thickness or less, or coated wire with 2" x 4" openings, or cotton string so you can compost it in the fall with the dead vines. With the string tie it to your railing, and anchor it to the ground near the base of the plant with stakes into the ground, or tie it around a brick at the base. You can fan them out toward the railing in future years as it gets larger, but that won't be needed the first year since they do more of their growing underground initially. I'd advise that you look for a type 3 prune clematis because they tend to be unfussy. At the end of the season after hard freeze, cut off the dead vines leaving a couple of buds per stem, and they will regrow in the spring. If you use string rather than a metal support, compost the string with the old vines and put out new string in the spring when the buds start swelling. All clematis take a bit of patience to get to full blooming size, usually 3 years to be good-sized, and after that they get better each year. I plant clematis either spring or early fall.

Thanks again Babs! You are a fountain of knowledge & so nice you take the time to give detailed responses. I am excited to get some picked out & planted--I now have other spots where I want to add clematis! :-)

Cinnamon ferns might even be happy in full sun with that kind of moisture. Also Japanese iris, Louisiana iris, and Iris virginiana. If you can do shrubs, Clethra would work as well.

ditto to babs and laceyvail. Astilbes love it moist - don't think they would like the standing water, but perhaps along the edge of the ditch...

I updated an existing garden that is under water for parts of the year; it is at the base of a hill on one side, with a creek that runs along it on the other side. Often it has standing water for weeks on end, of at least 6 inches (I lost a shoe in there once, lol - foot came right out of it when I went to move!). I ended up planting a lot of shrubs, as this is a large area and we were looking for big things. I also wasn't planting right in the water flow, as it sounds like you may be doing, so that will affect what you plant compared to what I planted, but still, maybe this will be of some help. I'll list below (from hopefully-good memory) what we planted.

- willow hakuro nishiki - probably way too big for you - I planted two of them, just to give you an idea of the large area I was dealing with. These are spectacular, though, IMO, if you wanted to consider one of them as a specimen...

- astilbes

- japanese and louisiana iris

- clethra

- itea

- cephalanthus (lovely and underused, IMO, and some new dwarf (4-ft) varieties out there now, I see

- redtwig dogwood

- viburnum (probably too big for you)

- deciduous hollies (again probably too big for you)

- marsh marigold

- bog rosemary

- lobelia siphilitica and cardinalis - the siphilitica is truly beautiful, but I would not plant this again - very vigorous spreader and I just don't have time to maintain/control. The cardinalis is spectacular (and I don't even care for red blooms!) and I highly recommend this one.

- ligularia

- filipendula (can't remember which kind off the top of my head)

- cimicifuga

- swamp azalea

- marsh hibiscus

Already in this garden and doing surprisingly well were bleeding hearts, hosta, hydrangea, peonies, columbines and some kind of small bulb which I'm drawing a total blank on at the moment - like a scilla or something... ugh, sorry, can't think of it.

And of course there are ferns, which were probably there before any garden was even thought of! There is also an elderberry which pre-existed the garden - this is along a wooded area so some things were growing there already, such as the elderberry, ferns, a clethra, etc. (plus virginia creeper, jewelweed, pokeberry, sigh....)

I think that is most of it. Good luck to you!

Simply lovely! You're having great successes!

Diggerdee, it;s Digitalis ambigua. The flower stalks tend to not be absolutely straight but I'm fine with that. And it's quite the seeder - I gave away a bunch last year. (If you want to take a ride to NJ, I'd be happy to give you some.)

I've had problems on and off with the horsemint caterpillar devastating my monarda. In years where I'm badly infested, I just cut off the flower heads and wait for a rebloom. I'm beginning to think that keeping the plant well watered helps it to overcome the pest. Or it could have been something about this year's weather? I should start keeping track. Sadly, there is next to no info about this insect.

Rouge, I also love the beaded water look. It's so pretty in the morning with dew drops. I have to remember to cut back my zagreb since it's overwhelming one of my patches.Catkin, thanks! Of course, for every success, there's been a bunch of failures. But that's gardening.

Thanks~!

Looks like garlic to me

Very beautiful! Have she over-wintered?

They are nice. Lowes had pots of them last year with about 3 or 4 plants per pot. I bought a couple of pots on clearance, separated the plants and planted them out. They survived the winter. I also bought some this past spring from a local nursery. Mine are fading but they did put on a nice show. Anyone have any luck growing from seed? The seeds are quite expensive.