13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Your infiltrator looks like campanula glomerata. Very pretty in bloom but quite the spreader. If you figure out how to control it let me know since I've got my own problems here with the same plant.
Stupidly I'm waiting until after it blooms to eradicate.... But I've said that for the last three years (and about 200 square feet ago)
Your 'Pinks' are Armeria maritima aka Thrift or Sea Pink. Pinks by itself refers to various Dianthus. Armeria needs full sun and an open position since it is native to sea cliffs. So the Campanula glomerata needs to come out of there asap. You might have to dig it up to extricate the Campanula roots.
There was crown vetch there when we moved in, it was there for many years and I never found it anywhere else even though the property was very unkempt and barely mowed for a few years before we bought it. It was originally cut many years ago as a boat launch, although the erosion from the lake had made it a ramp to a 10' drop off. We received permission to recut it in because it was existing, and as part of that we replanted more crown vetch as it is an accepted form of slope stabilization. Originally they wanted stone.
I keep reading how Liriope Spicata will spread like crazy. I can only find Liriope Muscari of course, which supposedly doesn't spread very much at all.
I noticed on the link it says something about the plant having a darker color in rich soil... maybe that's what mine are missing since I don't remember it being as dark a pink. The foliage is a really nice color though.
....wait, I just tried to find a picture and realized we had a really late freeze which burned all the blooms. maybe I'll be impressed this year! In any case I should give it some food and see if that helps the colors.
Um, AfterMidnight has hit the nail on the head, I think. Last year was a storming year for fruit of all kinds.....but this year, combined with a weird winter lacking in winter chill, we are seeing apples with hugely reduced fruit set, cherries which will drop the stunted crop over the next week or so, and redcurrants with no fruit at all. This is called biennial bearing....and often happens as trees and shrubs get older (although some varieties such as Cox pippin apples, have an innate tendency to have good years and bad years). Legumes, like laburnum and brooms are very much affected by this trait so don't fret, the tree looks perfectly healthy, this is just a natural hiatus.
When my dianthus finish I cut all the flower stems off down to the level of the foliage with grass shears. That way I have nice blue mounds in summer without stems sticking up which I do not care for. They bloom again in fall or will put out a few in summer if we get rain. I call that deadheading. I just did this last week, it took only a few minutes. I guess you could say the plants look "sheared". I do not ever trim the foliage.
Shearing is what you do to shrubs when you want a thick neat hedge, an artificial shape or a dense plant. Usually you do this by taking the hedge clippers to it and cut the whole plant flush into a row, ball, square, triangle-- whatever. Hollies are often trimmed this way. Some shrubs and plants look terrible treated this way and should be cut back instead since this forces all the growth on the tips and the middle of the plant suffers from lack of sunlight. In my opinion this is the most unnatural & artificial thing you can do to any plant. Corporate offices often have this done in formal plantings.
To cut back you cut out dead branches (or stems) or ones that are too long, crisscrossed, or older branches (or stems) to thin out the plant and trim some of outer stems at a leaf node for shaping. This leaves a natural plant shape and growth habit.
In early spring or late winter cutting back means cutting off all dead growth from the previous year on perennials and ornamental grasses, often people do it when they see new growth starting at the crown. In summer, some plants that get top heavy or lanky will benefit from cutting back 1/3 of the top growth to stimulate new blooms and leaves. Herbs are commonly cut back in this way around mid season.
looks llike a dasiy to me ...
you have to find the latin name.. of the specific daisy you have... and that will help you in google ...
of which.. i dont know ..
if you fail to get an answer here.. try the biologists in the name that plant forum ...
ken
Many if not mot nearly all my Digitalis seedlings froze to death this past winter & I'm near the Chesapeake Bay, in a warmer zone, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a very severe winter! Only survivors were those from germination in very early spring, or from the year before.
'Dalmation' is an F1 hybrid from my understanding & that usually means the seeds produced, revert to a weaker plant, differing somewhat from the original crossing of two different parent plants. Horrible germination, was my experience... But the quality of T & M seeds seems to have gone downhill, over the years..
wouldnt it depend if you bought a first year seedling.. or a second year mature plant.. which would not come back???
i found.. that if i wanted seedlings and current flowers ... i had to buy a biennial.. two years in a row... to get the cycle going ... not two in one season ... in theory.. seedlings wont bloom the first year ...
rate of seedling emergence is highly variable.. as per micro climate ..... all you can do is wait and see if you find any ... unless you already weeded them out... lol.. been there.. done that ...
ken
Shortly after we had this conversation, I saw this plant at the garden center looking very nice so I picked it up for my new house. I noticed that the newly open flowers did not have as dark centers as the older ones, but they got darker with time. Today I happened to notice the lilac colored petals as more time has gone by. So I think we have a solid ID on yours.
The camera didn't pick up all the lilac. There seemed like there was actually more in real life, but this shows some.
Notice also how the centers are darker on the older blooms with lilac petals.
Watch for 2 seasons before you do much. See what grows, see what spreads, see what you like/don't like. Maybe do some edging and trimming of things that are obviously too tall.
Year three is the time to get aggressive with evicting, dividing, pruning.
Take pictures. Take so many pictures that you want to throw up. No matter how many I have I can never find the one that I "need" (ie what a particular plant looked like during a particular time of growth). Make those pictures into a book (cheap and easy online). Reference it often. Make notes in it.
Have fun and don't take gardening too seriously.
Good advice above. I'll add just this: ask questions. There are novice and experienced gardeners of all ages who have varying levels of expertise with perennials and who post regularly on this forum and others. Many of us have already asked the questions that plague & confuse newbie gardeners.
Oh, one more suggestion: draw your property on paper; include the dwelling, any outbuildings, driveway, patio, swimming pool, etc. Then add where there are trees, established garden beds. Orient the garden with the compass so you know where E, W, N & S are relative to your property. Unless you're planning major renovations, the map should remain fairly accurate in years to come.
Another plant I tried which worked surprisingly well was Silver King Artemisia --if there are a few hours of early morning sun it works amazingly well. You wouldn't think it would but it does-- since I had free rooted cuttings I tried it going against the 'rule book'. Its thick and upright and adds light, nearly white foliage to an otherwise dark area making a tall clump that fills in nicely by underground roots which can work their way through soil thick with tree roots quite well.
After this success, I now have a whole line of it planted in my dry shady area along the west side where it gets early morning sun only or some dappled sun. The only maintenance is a spring trim. Its growing in parts that get so little sun that I am impressed with what I always thought of as a full sun plant. This is unamended heavy dirt that is very dry all summer.
In the background you can see the Silver King making a white contrast in that dark shady area. A bit of very late afternoon sun comes in and it catches the light which is nice.
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, May 27, 14 at 15:27
I don't know how seeds will work for you, but it might be worth a shot. Here are baby pictures of mine, three plants started from seed last spring. The larger leaf is about six inches across and I'm surprised any of them survived my neglect, let alone grew as well as they did.
The seeds were from the NARGS seed exchange.
I already checked out Fraser Thimble farm and it will cost me 40 dollars with shipping, A little too much for my pocketbook right now for one plant. Think I'm going to wait until early 2015 when other nursery may have it stocked again.
I will check out the NARGS website in the meantime for seed.