13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I'm curious to know what it is too. It's been showing up in my garden over the last few years and I've also seen it spread its way up and down the highway medians. Looks nice but it seems to like to spread. I thought it might be escaped rapeseed plants, and the spread comes from the planting of all those rapeseed fields for growing seed for canola oil.
I wondered about both of those, also, but didn't think they fit, either. I'd wait until they prove themselves by blooming. You can always deadhead to keep them from reseeding. And a shovel will get rid of them if they are too big to yank. Maybe someone can still ID them for you. Good luck.
Martha
All very good comments and suggestions. No, I am not allergic to pine sap. I catch it from this bed because the tractor will catch some at the edge of the bed and the clippings kind of fly everywhere. I am pretty allergic.
Again, the PI isn't up yet. It's too early here. Maybe in a few weeks.
Last year I waited to have it sprayed until the bulb foliage had died and could be removed. Didn't want to lose my dafs. This year I might just clip them back early and see if they make it. I can always plant more I guess.
I will report back with pics of the PI.
bragu talked about an allergy to pine pollen, not pine sap. My mom has that problem, and when she lived in a neighborhood full of 100' pines, she had to give up gardening during that season.
Take a look at your trees: do any have vines crawling up the trunks? (Not just 1/8" vine stems, but possibly 1-2" or larger.) Likely PI! Have someone non-allergic sever the vine stems near the ground and immediately paint both cut surfaces with Ortho PI killer concentrate. [If you did have PI vines up your trees, the entire area under those trees would have been showered all summer and fall with PI berries/seeds.]
PI stems and other parts remain contagious for up to 5 years, so you don't want to touch anything which might be a killed PI plant or a piece of a killed PI plant.
I have killed well over 95% or more of the PI which used to be on my acreage, but it's all over the neighborhood, and continues to show up here via the birds (predominantly under trees and fences), as well as seeds which wash downslope from the neighbors on both sides. On the south, numerous PI seedlings continue to show up in the lawn in particular places where runoff drains from the neighbor's property.
If you dig the whole clump and soak it in a bucket for a day, then the roots should untangle. Use either your hands or a fork, and pull them apart, trying to leave them in groups of 2 if you can. Replant, and they will bloom much better than if you leave them in that clump. Some pull apart easier than others...so you really do have to chop, but you lose a few plants in that process.
The leaves are too wide for Stella. This is a good time of year to divide daylilies.
I would do very little this year but take photos , clean things up, fertilize, trim things when it is obvious and get rid of OBVIOUS weeds. Think about possibilities , and sit back and let things be revealed. There maybe more surprises that will come up later. More damage can be done to a gerden through ignorance and impatience.
Thanks, but that's an optical illusion there, shadyplace. The fern is on the ground not on a wall. That's paving going up to the base of the wall. The fern and the Parthenocissus are growing out of a tiny gap between the stones. You can see the situation better in this picture.
It's always cracked me up to see US catalogs marketing "bred in NZ" delphiniums as "heat resistant". No commonly inhabited part of New Zealand has summers with an average high temperature over 80F. In other words, you'd have to go to the Atlantic coast around Cape Cod or north of Boston to find a part of the Continental-climate US with summers as cool as the very hottest parts of NZ. Maybe upper Michigan too. (of course I discount the obviously cool-summer Pacific coast...national catalog merchants obviously see them as a blip that marches to beat of its own drummer)
That being said I bought some supposedly heat-resistant variety at Groff's Plant Farm in Lancaster Co. back in 2012, and it has been perennial since then, in spite of the hellish summers of 2012 and 2013. Blooms and everything! Hasn't really increased in size though, which I think is telling. I'm sure it doesn't like it here.
EDIT: Actually I just double checked my spreadsheet: I have an odd note that I tried "'Stainless Steel' or 'Moonlight Blues'?" in 2011, and it died that summer. Maybe I couldn't remember the cultivar name? Early 2011 was worse for me than 2012. Then I bought something else in 2012 which has survived until now and bloomed both years but alas I lost the tags from that year so I don't know which one. 2013 was actually not a bad summer other than being too wet for some things. The summers of 2010, 2011, 2012 were the really bad ones.
This post was edited by davidrt28 on Fri, May 16, 14 at 11:09
Thank you, Martha and Shadyplace. You actually re-seed in late summer? I am not good with seeds, and sort of accidentally started the larkspurs. I need to be more vigilant in the summer, and try to seed them at that time. I did not know that I should plant the seeds in the summer.
Sammy
Hi ishaphan,
I just started with them, my favorit nursery had them in their catalogue. I used some in my own garden as edging plants, planting last fall, did a small perennial border for a private client using Rebecca Moss as ground cover (with G album Apfelbluete, a light pink on) last fall plus did another private garden, planted this April, using it for a large area as groundcover, dotted with single tall fern and Helleborus foetidus (native here and thriving on heavy soil).
So now I am curious and slightly anxious how they perform, as I test drive them in someone else`s garden...
I didn`t know that they divide easily, that`s a great plus.
My garden is somewhat organized without being hoovered-clean-no-hair-out-of place, so they should fit in well.
And I also did not know that there are so many varieties, I had a hard time getting hold of Rebecca Moss when ordering from a different nursery for the larger project.
And I relocated a "Rosenlicht" from that last project in order to monitor it closely in my garden. It is a clear, strong pink, by a German breeder, Klose, who died some years ago and bred some Hostas as well, Fulda is his, if I remember correctly.
So, let`s see how they do.
Do you happen to have pics of more mature plants like 3 years olds? that would be so great.
Have a nice week end (mine hopefully includes some editing of perennial borders and Dahlia planting)
bye, Lin
Shadeyplace, your pond in the shade, gives it an air of mystery. It is a magical place.
Gry, The branch over the pond and the old tree stump are brilliant touches. Great photo.
Thank-you Kevin, Lilyfinch and Gary. I am lucky that I don't have anything as bad as racoons. Just herons, cats and polecats!
Daisy
In March, I decided I'd had enough! There was a pre-fab pond in my backyard that my brother had installed some years ago for my mom. The problem? It was in FULL SUN--so fighting algae was like a full-time job. I don't use or allow any chemicals on the property because of all the wildlife, including peafowl, that visits, so fighting algae wasn't fun. My mom's gone now, and it's my property now, and I debated whether to remove the pond because I knew she really liked it...but in the end, out it went. I had its hole filled in with potting soil, and I now have several gardenia bushes and a ton of perennials growing there. I'm very happy with my decision.
I redid my entire front yard (1 acre) a few years back. Since then creeping charlie has taken over about 1/2 of it. I tried the most common weed killers found on the Internet, including Weed Be Gone Max. Nothing seemed to work. It was so bad this year, I felt I only had 2 options .. Round Up or plow it under and start over. I tried R/U on part of the lawn, which after about 1 week, has killed the grass, but only injured the C/C. Then I found another product, recommended for C/C, etc., to be used on turf. I bought a small quantity of this product to try, as it's expensive. The next day after application, the C/C was looking pretty sick. By about day 3, it was dead (or so it has appeared). I ordered a gallon and have sprayed the entire lawn. The remaining C/C and dandelions are once again looking sick, after 24 hours. This is the only product, which has killed the C/C and saved the lawn.The product is PBI Gordon's Speed Zone, bought from Pestrong.Com!
I now, have to till and reseed the areas, where I applied R/U.
This post was edited by tmajor on Sun, May 18, 14 at 16:06
I have a ton of it too. I comfort myself by watching the bees -- they love it, so it's at least good for something.