13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Hmmm, I might even be tempted to cut back the top growth since they look a little frail and prone to flopping. There is plenty of time for them to catch up and grow a bit bushier and self-supporting.
Phlox are terribly prone to fungal diseases, especially leaf-spot and tobacco mosaic virus, as well as my nemesis, eelworms. Also, lots and lots of rain can increase nutrient lock-up (and some of your leaves look a bit chlorotic). An application of sulfur might help or a copper based fungicide.
Dig these up next year and divide them - phlox really need this every couple of years in order to maintain vigour......and yes, if you decide to remove them, excavate carefully and check for either voles, weevils or other ground based pests, along with any signs of fungal presence (yeasty smells, fungal hyphae).
Jean001a..there was an herbicide sprayed about a foot away, the bottle said safe for plants. I dont know what my neighbor has used, as it could have gone through the fence perhaps.
shadyplace 7, there were voles in our yard this year, but I do not see any holes nearby.
campunala- thanks for the tips, I think I will cut them back and see how it goes.
I noticed today that my butterfly bush is starting to do the same thing, I just put in a 50ft perennial bed and I am concerned it is going to take over my bed.
Thanks for your help.
If you want Hermanns Pride you can't grow it from seed. Mail order is the only way if you can't find it locally.
If you are looking for L galeobdolon. I really wouldn't advise it. I've never seen seed for it. Most people get it by unsuspectingly accepting passalongs.
My penstemons grow in sandy soil, full sun, gravel mulch. As Cheryl said, they need good drainage, and I killed a bunch I planted in average soil; it held too much moisture. I don't know if yours can be saved, but if they were mine, I'd move the mulch out of the way, dig them up, and plant them in a mound of sandy soil so they are above the surrounding soil, and mulch with gravel.
Lol how brave!
That wouldn't happen in my yard with my dogs. Although this plant is unprotected by them. (not in fenced area)
Before and after 5days after planting. It's blooming nicely and never showed any signs of stress......
This post was edited by lilsprout on Fri, Jun 13, 14 at 13:47
Polychroma sounds very pretty. And the red one is very intriguing to me, David, as the bed I'm thinking of planting inis gradually changing over to a red theme with some yellow highlights.
Felisa, I had never heard of marsh spurge so Iooked it up - what a gorgeous plant. Too bad I don't have anywhere appropriate for it.
Patty, I saw Bonfire over the weekend, which is actually why I was thinking of getting an Euphorbia! The only one the nursery had left looked pretty forlorn, so I passed, but I was impressed by the leaf color.
wontonamara (love that name!!), I am too cold for rigida. Too bad, it is quite lovely. I have to admit, I am too scared to try myrsinites as the sap is highly dangerous if it touched the skin. I happen to be very sensitive to poison ivy and while not the same; I don't think I want to find out if I'm sensitive to this one also!
Here is a collage of Bonfire in it's different stages in the growing season. Love this Euphorbia.
Top 2 pics 1 Coming into bloom....2 Bloom finishing and seed heads forming (notice how much color has changed)...Bottom 2 pics 1 All blooming heads in seed.... 2 Seed heads now cut back and new more deeply colored new growth has emerged.
I also have "Sparkler" and in this its first full season in my garden it grew to about 4 feet in height with white flowers...nothing outstanding...maybe it will be better in subsequent years.
UPDATE:
"Sparkler" is so healthy and vigorous. It is over 4 feet tall, (so far self supporting) and quite lush and floriferous. Here it is as of today:
Now I'm going to have to look for that one. And I remembered why I was so fascinated with the garden I saw that was a collection of Cranesbills. Because they grow well in part sun. Which is what I have a lot of. Greatâ¦a new little collection may be developing. :-)
The plant in the photo looks fine to me. It's probably just settling in yet.
'Ice Ballet' is an absolutely wonderful plant. You're going to love it especially when it gets big and these things DO GET BIG. The fragrance from the flowers is heavenly.
Kevin
I had the nominate species growing where it was underwater part of the year...and one wet year, it was 6 1/2 to 7 feet high...I don't think too wet is a problem...though (this is just a theory) shifting how much moisture it was getting in it's pot vs the moisture level it's getting now. I don't know...but it seems when conditions change like that...there is adjustment shock.
I always thought plants like iris start to set themselves up for blooming the year before, so maybe it was a good summer/autumn for iris last year? Mine are doing ok but I think drought last year gave them a rough time. The old standbys still put on a great show though.
I would add some of the newer ones but their short season of bloom makes me think twice. Maybe I need to try a couple that are listed as having 4-5 blooms per stalk, that should last longer than all my old 2-3 per stalk bloomers, right?
I've been Googling images of the ones you guys mentioned - some nice ones there!
It's interesting to hear others are experiencing what I am. Who knows what the reason is. Kato - I guess I always thought the same as you - that the previous seasons growing conditions is a huge indicator of what happens the next year, but for me at least their seems to be something else going on this year. We were under drought conditions last year too. Add to that the terrible heat and it was a pretty miserable growing season.
This year, the garden has never looked better.
Kevin
Ha ha, DtD - making the same resolutions (as I do every year). Phlox though, are, by and large tough.....as long as the moisture is available. If not, mildew will arrive like a ghostly blight, sure as eggs are.......The main danger comes from eelworms here - you know you have them when the leaves are as thin as a midrib with suspicious crumpling along the tiny bit of residual leafage. Those of us who garden on sand are doomed to head-shaking and hair pulling.....but we must have these late summer stalwarts, hey?
I planted an entire prairie garden on my sand so the whole latter half of summer finds me standing (drooping) in boredom with an unruly garden hose at hand, wondering (for the millionth time) why did I assume prairies were sere, dry and windy - a sort of East Anglia across the pond.
Your root cuttings should be capable of blooming the first year, I often have seedlings come up and bloom the same year so the small plants you have should be a step up from that.
Don't feel guilty about ripping them out though. If they aren't great bloomers in the first place there are plenty of other plants just waiting for you to give them a try!
Hi
Most of my songbirds are winter visitors and are gone by summer. Still get Bluejays ,Cardinals, but mostly asian and whitewing doves, mourning doves and various sparrows all year. and of course squirrels lol
i designed my own feeder a 2 foot square with screen botttom held by chains . . Cut the mess ,by twoi thirds . I use shelled sunflower which also reduced the mess and sprouting though Bluejays will carry the seeds al over the yard . Get LOTS of sprouts in the compost bin .
have to keep the seed indoors due to rats .
If it were up to me I'd stop the feeding in summer but the "Boss" thinks they'll starve lol
the Tray i made sure sames a lot of mess and sprouting gary
We don't feed mixed seed only chipped, shelled sunflower seed and suet, since we've been doing this we haven't had a problem.
The Anna hummingbirds stay all winter here so these feeders are up year round now.
In the winter DH broadcasts the chipped sunflower seed over the gravel floor of my lathhouse, morning and late afternoon. You wouldn't think there was a bird around but two minutes later the gravel is covered with birds, juncos, several different types of sparrows, towhees, chicadees and... they don't leave until every bit of seed has been eaten.
I agree on the ones that TX said. Salvia regla would be great for the part shade situation. Your winters are mild and sandy feet is what they like.. American beauty berry or any beauty berry. The Mexicans have a turks cap that is much larger and very interesting . also known as Sleeping Hibiscus, Malvaviscus arbors var mexicanus. It is less hardy that the regular turkscap and the larger flowers are pendulous.. . I think it is hardy toZ8b ( -9C- -6C). But I see other people on DG that say they grow it in places colder than Z8b. I also have a pink Turkscap of the hardier variety that is beautiful in the shade. The paler color really pops in the shade and I think the flower is larger. I will look to see if I get seed off of it this summer. I do have salvia regal ,Eupatorum havenense (or whatever they changed it to lately) seed and cow pen daisy (this fall). I didn't know Cowpen was a shade plant. I have it in brutal sun. The E havanense grows here in part shade to brutal sun. In England, It would probably need more sun than shade.
There is a person on the Salvia forum that grows an amazing collection and sells salvia seed in England. He/She is really free with his/her knowledge and I bet he/she would know the best salvias for that situation. There are other growers that know a bunch about the different varieties over there. I have a lot of salvia gregii , salvia romeriana seeds that I can collect for you. They do part shade.
One perennial that would be great in there would be hydrangea quercifolia. An east Texas native, I think but it is gorgeous with foot long flowers that turn a several colors and great fall color. It also needs sun and shade.I love this plant.
Lorepetalum chinense var rub rum AKA Chinese fringe plant.. Many varieties, many sizes. I grew it wit a bit of morning sun. Mine grew to 12' before I sold the house. I was expecting 3'. So much for labels. How do witch hazels do in your neck of the woods.. Chionanthus virginicus ( Fringe tree) might need more sun than what you are asking for but I just love this tree and which I could grow it. It is an understory tree but can grow in shade to full sun in a landscape.
A shadeplant I like was Bear's britches, Greek Pattern plant or Acanthus mollis. I understand that it can become a thug in some conditions. I did not find this so.
Mahonia ,
We grow Aesculus pavia var flavesens here ( Texas yellow Buckeye) but any of the Buckeyes would do well in part shade. It likes our "moist" (everything is relative) canyons. There are some gorgeous ones. I love the californian white one. I can get seed for a the Texas one. It is a small multi trunk tree, large bushy shrub. I would not mind getting my hands on a A. glabra var arguta (Texas Buckeye).It can do a dryer brighter hotter situation.
Just wanted to mention that in anthropolgy, such spaces are often called liminal and can exist in real life but also as metaphorical boundaries. These places tend to be intersections between differing habitats such as the coastal edges, woodland clearings, hedgerows and field edges, foothills and those troubled borders between the urban and the rural....as well as geographical, social or political boundaries.....and as such, tend to create both their own problems but also give rise to some innovative solutions. Gardening on the edge - difficult, even subversive....but always exciting and potential.
aseedisapromise Boy can I relate to all that. The first year I switched to xeric we got rain rain and more rain. I was pulling plants out of the ground trying to save them from root rot. It was also the year I'd planted cactus. Next few years it was that severe drought all through the midsection. We can get a very rainy June and then the rest of the year is dry but one month can do some serious damage to certain plants. Point is, its hard to plan. I got cocky with the zone thing too after a series of warm zone 8-like winters.
I finally quit covering things for protection and fighting this. I discovered very quickly that covering plants in winter or heavy mulch can cause rot. My overall attitude is now "Survival of the Fittest", I'm becoming a real Darwinian when it comes to the whole affair. Generally speaking most xerics have adapted and the ones that can't have been culled out by nature. I found native plants are the best for standing up and successfully adapting to the extremes.
Campanula, I've always heard them called Transitional Zones. I wish I had one to separate my property from the neighbor. As it is, there is a drastic jump from low growing plants in full sun on my side butted up next to a straight line of 60ft trees and its visually jarring. Its impossible to transition into that so I just try to not focus on it, but not very successfully. Everything, including the fence posts embedded and being shoved by big tree roots, leans away from those trees which makes you want to crank your head at an angle back there. Even the trees lean this direction, add to that the fact that the ground noticeably slopes downhill. The trees to the side are on ground which is several feet higher than the opposite end of my property so the sensation is one of feeling like the trees are bearing down you in an oppressive way like a wall of black, its like being in a carnival Fun House where all is distorted or having a dark three story apartment (that leans) erected right along the edge of your property.