13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I have had Bressingham Ruby bergenia for 8-10 years. The foliage does turn a beautiful burgundy that lasts all winter. It has never bloomed much, but I think its main attraction is as a foliage plant. At the end of this winter, deer chewed it to the ground and I thought it was a goner. Instead, it is rejuvenated with the biggest, shiniest leaves it has ever had!
I used to call my self Madame Poulane But that little tree shark about shook my wrists into carpal tunnel hell for 6 months, so I am now a Styhl Easy Start girl myself. I clear up under brush and small trees on 1.7 acres every winter. A good tool will save on doctor bills.I can say that having two chainsaws really put a new edge on my marriage.
I love "reductive gardening".
Late:
Great advice above.
Use/have used lots of salvias, especially 'Mainacht', 'Ostfriesland', 'Marcus' and 'Caradonna'.
Great plants for deadheading for a second bloom.
Also find they're hardy and long-lived here.
I'm under the impression that though upgrading soil by periodically digging in organic matter (we have clay soil) is important to promote growth, it is not necessary, nor desirable, to use chemical fertilizers on garden perennials.
Ken, above, emphasizes the same point.
There are annual, biannuals and some short lived perennial hollyhocks and they usually dont last long in places that are too wet but i had them in a well drained locations and they were all seedlings when I planted them in fall so they should've survived. I never saw one flower from them lol just my luck...
~michael
heavenlyfarm
Woody, understand the point about bold curves (actually also one of David's past lecture themes).
I suspect that designing (even maintaining) a mixed perennial garden for a larger area is much easier (relatively speaking) than doing it for a smaller area.
Will certainly be in touch about Merlin's Hollow, Woody.
Nice and bright here, but wish it would warm up a bit more. But at least the lungworts and the primulas seem to be handling it. They're just beginning to flower in the sunniest locations.
Like most have said, its really hit or miss. Last year they lily bulbs bag, the ones that have 3 or 5 to a bag for a dollar. I got 3 or 4 bags. As far as the plants go, I rarely buy plants there anymore. With Lowes, Ace Westlake hardware store, farmer market, Kaw valley and Grass pad, I can better deals than Walmart. They have a wide selection and much better customer service.
One of the problems we run in to here is plants come into the Big Boxes and garden centers - even the good ones - too early for optimal planting conditions. And even some of the very reputable places will be glad to sell you zone inappropriate or iffy stock - not exclusively a WM trait. In past seasons, I've notices many of WM's garden center plants come from no farther away than Michigan, Wisconsin and southern Minnesota. After an extended and extremely harsh winter like the one we're slowly emerging from, people are anxious to buy and get their hands in the dirt.
Here it is, May 7, still snow piles here and there and the air temp is only36 o. I could buy early, house things in the garage and by Memorial Day or the week after have all kinds of stressed out and root bound things. This is a part of the country where the calendar isn't your best guide.
No, this is a foot of black-dyed shredded wood mulch. I can't imagine planting perennials in it.
My husband had knee surgery in January and is not up to the task.
Planting tulips deeply keeps them from dividing and weakening, and they are more perennial. I planted a lot of bulbs both ways and got a better return rate with the deeply planted ones.
I am in Z5a and my delphiniums have been up for about 2 weeks - they are currently from one to four feet tall so yours should at least be poking through.
I agree with Ken - that wonderful deep snow cover that lasted from Nov. through March was great protection for everything. I had some winter damage to my Junipers but nothing else. In fact, I have lots of mum plants that are coming back like gang-busters. First time for that!
My agastache is springing up in one area but very slow to start in another (shadier).
In that same shadier area I have gaura mariposa (midnight pink) and they haven't shown any sign of life. I did move them a little last fall and they didn't quite seem to perk back up to normal. I need to drive around the neighborhood - one of my neighbors has a HUGE mass of gaura in the front of their house that I'm just envious of.
Best of luck - my fingers are crossed for you!
I've got Catmint growing the edge of my "xeric" garden, which is a dry bed in the southwest corner of the yard and close to the sidewalk. It is partly-mostly sunny and the soil is somewhat lean. This bed rarely gets watered, only if I recently planted something, or seedlings, or we have a serious drought and just to keep plants alive. The catmint does really well under such conditions, so I save the more fertile beds for perennials that don't (which would be most of them).
Just checked that bed out today and the 'Junior Walker' is blooming a little!
I have acid fine sandy loam and had this for a few years before I ended up shovel pruning it. It had a lot of dieback each winter, even though it spent much of the winter buried in snow, and never grew enough during the growing season to catch up to the losses. So it got smaller every year over several years until I got rid of it.
I know that full sized Itea virginiana is growing within 1/2 hour or so of here, so I wonder if 'Little Henry' has a more southern provenance and isn't quite as hardy. Mine was growing in a well-mulched bed in part sun with high bush blueberries, Yaku Rhodoendrons, Cornus alternifolia/pagoda dogwood and Kalmia latifolia/mountain laurel, so it should have been happy.
Monarda?
I had some clematis that I grew on trellises in morning sun only. They didn't get huge in the 4 years I had them, but they did flower. I had Comtesse de Buchard (lavender) and Pink Flamingo (cream and pink bells). There was a purple too, but I forget which it was.
Assuming these were grown outdoors ....
If the roots are still in clumps of moist dirt, I'd plant them where you are going to grow them. Water to keep moist. As long as leaves are green, the bulbs are still in the "gathering energy" mode to store food for next year's flowers.
If the roots were rinsed off or the dirt on the roots has completely dried out so that the roots have dried up, then that pretty is it for the season. In that event, I'd follow the directions the gardens gave. However, whether to wait until October to plant is another Q.
1) Once the greenery has died off an the stems have been removed, you could give the bulbs a week or two longer to make sure the area from which the stems have come off the bulbs has dried. Then there is no reason you can't simply plant them then.
2) If you are considering planting a number of other bulbs in the Fall, it might be easier to wait so you can keep better track of what you planted where.
We took off quite a few. .... What should I do? Could this beautiful bird be part of the cause of my lack of peaches.
==>>> its seems your lack of peaches.. was you picking a lot of them off???? ... why???
do try the fruit forum .... there are a multitude of reasons for crop failure ... include a harsh winter ... a frost or freeze that kills the flowers before they get pollinated ... reduced bee population.. etc ...
and perhaps even birds... but i think that reason is really stretching it ... but then i have never grown peach.. wherever you are ... with BOs around ... i can only speculate ...
ken
I never got info on my phlox problem last year. Do you leaves look like this? I never got a bloom and I was so disappointed. Hope you have a different issue. Lesley
No, my leaves do not look like yours, although they are beginning to get a black spot or two. One of the afflicted phlox is in a plot where a couple of years ago my Victoria salvia got a strange ailment. With that in mind I'm going to take a stem to the extension agent to check about a virus. Thanks. In the meantime a nursery man said that it could be pesticide drift - not from my yard, but from the neighborhood.