13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
I generally use Swallowtail Garden Seeds as my barometer for Echinacea cultivars. Since they rely on happy customers to buy their seeds, it suggests they have some idea which seeds deliver the desired results.
I've given up on most of the "designer" Echinacea cultivars simply based on my own experience: even winter sown seed-grown plants don't appear to survive beyond their first season. That says 'annual' to me.
I garden to sustain pollinators so fragrance isn't high on my list of priorities. If it smells good and attracts bees, butterflies and birds, I want to grow it in my garden.
Perhaps there are other, more reliable fragrant perennials that would suit your purposes. Impulse buys don't always return the expected results. Ask me how I know this to be true.
Here is a link that might be useful: Swallowtail Echinacea Seeds
This is a very large leaved one I got from asiatica before it closed. cannot find tag! I love them and they only look bad in very late winter (as with other things!). Sometimes I cut back old foliage and sometimes I just leave it to be covered with these gorgeous new leaves. the new leaves are spectacular (on all). Columbines I consider so different as to not even compare the two.
Hi all
I am a regular on kitchens. I have a plant in my garden and my neighbor asked what is it? I am pretty sure it is an epimedium. It lives in the shade in clay soil. Mine has elongated leaves and delicate light pink flowers.
I am so excited to read more about this plant.
So glad I found this post!
at worst.. in fall ... when there are cool nights ... ID individual plants ... and trim the back ... dig them out.. remove all them weeds growing thru the roots ...
renovate the bed ... replant.. and mulch heavy ...
like all of us.. you want the easy way out.. sometimes ... its all about some hard work ...
try what they suggest ... for this summer.. if you lose.. get to work ...
or just get rid of the whole ...
you didnt favor us with a pic .... so we really dont understand how bad it all is ...
MOST perennials ... 99%.. can be dug and moved ... mid summer isnt the best for all plants ... depending on your experience level ... [i could do it now.. and not care if i lost half the plants.. and that is the key ... lol ... not that i would do it better... its that i would NOT have a stroke if i failed ... anything would look better than it is now ... never fear your failures... you wont learn anything.. nor get anything done if you dont try .]
as an experiment.. you could do half the bed now ... see how well you did.. by fall ...
then do half in fall ... and see if you do better... comparing next spring ...
and you instantly become.. the new CP expert on GW ...
never forget.. failure.. and empty spot in the garden bed .... is just an opportunity for something new ... its called gardening ...
ken
Thanks everyone!
The weeds are too solidly there to just pull up and remove (but it's nice to know that with better maintenance it could be like that).
I'll likely move them and then find some way to get rid of the weeds (any opinions on round up vs a few weeks of black plastic??- I don't really like using roundup but occassionally do in small amounts)
(And it will likely be the fall anyway since there will be more space in the vegetable garden to plant it temporarily then.)
(I'll try to get a pic up at some point, it's right in some granite ledge and that makes it a little more complicated in terms of mulch not washing away).
(I'd probably have torn it out and thrown it away years ago if it didn't look so nice this time of year.)
I too was given one by a friend, and I loved it for its attraction to pollinating insects, its statuesque flowers and its scent. However, I ended up removing it since I am not great about deadheading, and it self-seeds prolifically in my garden. It took me about 5 years of vigilant removal of seedlings to be free of it, so if you don't want lots, be sure to remove spent flower heads.
LOL Dee, you bought another Deutzia!! :-) Good for you! Maybe you can plant the both of them side by side and get them both in the ground this season. Nice photo! It really is pretty! And I love that white trellis material in the background.
I guess I'm going to have to go over and check out Bluestone again. :-)
Hooray for deutzia!! I've never understood why these are so underused. Especially 'Nikko' which has been around for a long time and a smaller size. I have about 5 different deutzias and can't say enough about them. Even in quite a bit of shade they bloom.
David I know you are focusing on delphiniums and I'm sure those are nice as everyone says, but since I cannot or would even try to grow delphiniums I look at your garden from the standpoint of an artist. Again I say the composition is outstanding along with the balance of color which trumps any one single element. Sorry but I just cannot focus on just the delphiniums except as a nice vertical element. On that note, I love the grasslike element in the middle of the pond, what is that? It gives a wonderfully sophisticated contrast to the rounder flowering plants and is the first thing to catch my eye because its a kind of nice surprise which jumps out in contrast, in a very effective but subtle way.
As far as plants I'm interested in, I have to ask what is the agave-like white plant front and center in the top photo? Thats the one I'd be pointing at and asking about if I was visiting because I'd want one.
I love the touches of light yellow which add some warm tones. Although some people snub and even hate yellow for some reason I cannot fathom, I don't care for all pink and purple gardens myself so that really pulls it out for me and balances the color scheme.
Take all this from a Midwesterner who lives in a different clime & who specializes in all American Gardens so if I tread on any toes here,*&^%$#@Q I apologize in advance, feels like walking on eggshells a lot of the time.
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.