13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I went to the Chelsea Flower Show about 11 years ago as part of an English garden tour, it was my least favorite stop on the tour. But, as Gyr mentioned, I view it more as art I guess. I do have to say, one of my gardens currently was designed based on one of the display gardens there where I had a corner with a picket fence, so I did bring home some ideas from the show.
Went to Floriade 2012 in The Netherlands and that was pretty much Disney for anyone interested in "flowers". I still had a great time because I do love art and there were some pretty cool things there to "look at", but it wasn't like going to RHS Wisley which was probably my favorite place to really explore.
Like.....what does this have to do with gardening?
But still, I had a great time because I just like creativity in general even if it has no real "use" for me in my garden.
Campanula: congratulations, you are gardenweb's Jebidiah Atkinson. And I mean that with the utmost respect.
I suspect the Chelsea Flower Show has always seemed over-the-top to SOMEONE. These days it just has to be even more extreme to compete with everything else that could steal people's attentions. I thought I read years ago there was something like a "Chelsea Fringe" a la the alternative Edinburgh Festival? I think over-the-top spectacles like this are just part of the British national character, at least from my perspective. And someone always finds them revolting. That's fine. If Campanula wasn't disgusted, they wouldn't have done their job. At least they have been since the Great Exhibition, if not before. I quote the wiki:
Six million people "equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time "visited the Great Exhibition. The average daily attendance was 42,831 with a peak attendance of 109,915 on 7 October.[5] The event made a surplus of £186,000 (£17,240,000 as of 2014),[6], which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. They were all built in the area to the south of the exhibition, nicknamed Albertopolis, alongside the Imperial Institute. The remaining surplus was used to set up an educational trust to provide grants and scholarships for industrial research; it continues to do so today.[7]
The Exhibition caused controversy as its opening approached. Some conservatives feared that the mass of visitors might become a revolutionary mob,[8] whilst radicals such as Karl Marx saw the exhibition as an emblem of a capitalist fetishism of commodities. King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, shortly before his death, wrote to Lord Strangford about it:
The folly and absurdity of the Queen in allowing this trumpery must strike every sensible and well-thinking mind, and I am astonished the ministers themselves do not insist on her at least going to Osborne during the Exhibition, as no human being can possibly answer for what may occur on the occasion. The idea ... must shock every honest and well-meaning Englishman. But it seems everything is conspiring to lower us in the eyes of Europe.[9]
FWIW I don't really like the Philly flower show, even though it's far less ambitious in overall scope than Chelsea. OTOH, for example, I was lucky enough in the 90s to go to an Architecture Association Projects Review Day. (avant-garde school of architecture in London). It was extremely pretentious but I enjoyed it. Likewise, though, some high minded architectural purist might see the event as a crass corruption of what it should be. (the definition of what passes for architecture was absurdly loose. One person's project just seemed to be a room full of male & female models standing around in togas) My point is, if it isn't clear, once you actually have specialized knowledge of a subject, an appeal to a certain interest in that subject may especially not appeal to you.
This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, May 21, 14 at 6:50
Yep, it will keep its basal rosette through the winter (although it looks pretty tatty). Do be aware that this one is a slow spreader - nothing like the rampant rapunculoides and not a seed shedder...but it does have a rhizome which has a slightly wandering tendency(but nothing a sharp spade cannot deal with).
Thanks 'mnwsgal'.
It easily survived this past winter. Due to the garden's location both plants were under almost 4 feet of protective snow from about January 1 till March 1! (Kind of like being in a comfy cosy igloo ;))
I will shear them back significantly once flowering is done.
Ha! Ken! Remember I bought this house from a landscape architect! I can't take credit for his brilliant designs. Frankly it's just about a full time job trying to maintain it all.
This is my third spring in the house and I am just finally starting to be confident enough to yank things. It's taken me 2 years of observing to learn what I like and what I don't. Then I forget what things are each spring and learn all over again. I've got to start keeping a journal. I'll attach some more from last summer in a minute.
got it from campy??? .. and bobs your uncle .. lol ...
i like the idea ... of chopping them in descending order from the center .... it would be cool to give it a layer cake form ...
they should probably be divided in early spring.. or later fall .. if you do it now... they might take some hard stress... but probably make it ... TAKE A SHOVEL FULL OFF THE BACK SIDE ... AND EXPERIMENT ... the more soil.. the less stresses.. for sure its not a bare root project ... just throw a shovel full of soil from elsewhere back into the hole you leave ...
i would do that.. and then chop them so the disturbed roots dont have too much foliage to sustain.. while they get pumping again ...
this really is great plant.. in sufficient volume.. for you to try all kinds of things with ... it will help you get over your fear of doing things ...
and it makes great sense about the chelsea flower show.. but i am still thinking lamb chops... see link ..
try cutting a piece.. putting it in a small pot with damp media.. and putting a baggie over it.. in full shade.. or in the house .... and see if you can get it to root.. not that you need more.. lol .. but just for the sake of trying it ... or google for how to do it ....
ken
ps: i have actually.. never tasted a lamb chop ....
Here is a link that might be useful: now this is from the way back machine ... lol
You can chop all those, Bluebird. Essentially, any tall, late flowering dicot (it does not work with monocots) since the flowering buds will respond to the chop as if munched by a passing herbivore or careless strimmer - it is sometimes called pinching back and, in chrysanthemum culture, 'stopping'. Yes, the flower buds will definitely initiate....the key to doing any chopping back is to do it before seeds have set. Once that happens, the plant considers it's job done and will quickly fade away to conserve energy for future root growth. Although we so it in our short, cool summers, the longer, hotter summers of the US are an even better bet. Bear in mind that the resulting flowers will be smaller (but often appear much more floriferous) and the flowering will be a couple of weeks later than usual.
Yes, Bluebird and Ken, you can do this piecemeal - shaping the plant so that some stems are left on while others are cut to varying shorter heights. This will actually lengthen the bloom time as flowers will be opening in stages.
You can be fairly brutal and cut the plants back by as much as half (especially phlox and asters) but a third is usually the amount removed. As always, when pruning (which is all this is) bump up the water and even a top dressing of balanced fertiliser (but maybe a tad heavier on the potassium ratio).
I have been out with my shears chopping back the asters and achillea, along with some eryngoes which tend to flop over.
this is one of my nightmares. The tap root is so deep I can't just pull it out. Even spraying does not seem to get rid of it very well. another one I thought I would love is Eupatorium 'chocolate' dark leaves and white flowers in September. Then it reseeds green all over the landscape.
I had landscape fabric under my front landscaping for 28 years with no issues, and no weed problem. It had "rock bark " whatever that somewhat bark-colored light weight rock is over it. It was a good quality (very heavy) fabric. Shrubs grew fine.
I'd have it done again even though when I redid the front I had to rip parts of it out where I wanted to plant. (Wanted to plant rows of hostas, hydrangeas, etc. in front of the evergreen shrubs.) Ripping it out wasn't fun, but it was simple compared with 28 years of replacing mulch and weeding.
I'm not talking about the aesthetics of stone...simply that in some cases, a well-installed landscape fabric/stone combo works great for weed suppression.
mums bloom in summer...
we 'force' them to bloom in fall.. by continually heading them back ..
they also tend to stand up with that system.. rather than grow as single stems.. 4 foot tall and fall over ...
track down a stem.. and see that at every leaf node.. there is a bud.. teh bottom most being simply a bump ...
snip above any bud.. and that and the one below it.. will become active... its the same theory as deadheading ... except we do it before it flowers ...
all cutting.. can most likely be rooted.. rather easily.. if you need a couple hundred more ...
so you have one stem.. snip.. in 4 week you have two or 3 ... snip all.. and in 4 weeks or so ...you have 3 ... you have 9 .. 4 moire weeks.. 27 .. is my math holding up ...
if you can keep track.. and see how many weeks it takes to rebud.. say 6 weeks...
then you can target say 10/1 .... and count back 6 weeks... and add a week or two for them to slow down in cool fall ... so ... make you last pinch in waht... mid august???? ..
simple as pie... lol .. mmm ...pie....
ken
ps: an even simpler method ... but more math .. when it gets to 6 inches.. cut it back to 3... then when it grow 6 more.. to 9 inches.. cut it back to 6 ... etc ... thats how you make those big fuzzy balls of mum.. that dont collapse ..... for being too tall ... now.. where the pie ...
The sex life of hollies is complicated. Generally speaking, they are dioecious, meaning that the male and the female 'bits and pieces ' are on separate plants. However, there are several species that are (ready?) polygamodioecious so that a female tree may have some male flowers or some of the female flowers will contain male organs.
It is usually advisable to have an appropriate male pollenizer when growing hollies. Knowing the kind of holly you have can be a big clue. Any idea?
By the way, male hollies have flowers, too. They look very much like the female flowers other than having anthers instead of the pistil. For best bloom, a plant needs to be healthy.
Ginkgo does grow slowly, but that seems a bit too slow. How big was it when you bought it? Is it well mulched.
I have a ginkgo I planted in 2005. It was about 4 ft or so. A crooked little thing. It's beautiful now, not sure how tall - 10-12'. Grew slowly but it balanced itself out by growing a twig down near the base. EVERYONE told me to cut it off. I'm so glad I didn't. That branch grew into a big branch that made it much more symmetrical. Love my ginkgo. I make sure no lawn chemicals. Make sure it gets slow waiter source for an hour if we have a dry spell. Fertilize with Treetone or iron in the fall if I remember.
Maybe you do have a dwarf. If healthy fertilize a little. What does everyone else think?
Finally, here are some pictures. Long views near my garage don't do the viburnum justice though.
Here is a link that might be useful: UVO (Unidentified Viburnum Object)
For me the champion for dry shade (grown under two river birches with extremely dense surface roots) is the geranium macrorrhizum followed by canadian wild ginger (asarum canadense). and epimedium grandiflorum All are unattractive to deer or rabbit. Unfortunately only the ginger is listed as hardy to zone3, the others appear to top out at zone 4.
But Epimedium do better in dry shade than anything I know.
I did a bit of an experiment last summer. I planted 2 Geranium macrorrhizum and 2 epimediums in a most inhospitable location ie within inches of a water, nutrient sucking maple.
As of this spring the Geraniums are more than holding their own while the epimediums did not return (the open areas between the Geraniums).
This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, May 20, 14 at 10:18
Patience, Grasshopper.
Thanks!
So in other words, it is not unreasonable for them to take this long. I have planted other bareroot plants before (not dicentra) but it was later, the soil was undoubtedly warmer, and I recall seeing growth very quickly.
I could tell where last yearâÂÂs cut stem was, so which way was up was not too hard to decide. A few were so long that they did get planted at somewhat of an angle.