13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
looks great ...
do nothing more .. its a shrub.. it doesnt need anything else ...
and do understand... though you took after the top .. there has been no insult to what is probably a rather massive root mass ...
meaning.. its not starving for water like a transplant might... and its not really hungry .. as a long potted plant might be etc ...
you taught it a lesson... now dont try to love it to death ...
this is what i call.. running it over with the truck pruning.. lol .. and its rarely detrimental ... except maybe to lose a year of flowers ...
but sometimes.. you just have to do.. what you have to do .. eh???
thanks for the follow up ...
ken
I loved this plant for the first couple of years. Great color and perfect size for the front of the border. I guess I didn't dead head the blooms soon enough because after two years, a regular species sized and colored gaillardia came up in the same place. The same thing happened with my Arizona Apricot Gaillardia after two years. The original plant must have died and a yellow and red flowered plant came up in its place. I really like both of these plants - Arizona Red and Arizona Apricot - and plan on purchasing them again.
You need to describe it better. When you say sun and shade do you mean the area is part shade meaning dappled? or that the area is in sun part of the day and shade part of the day? Or, do you mean part of the planting area is in sun and part of it is in shade? How much sun and how much shade? Most grasses, especially the tall ones need full sun which means 6 hours per day.
Go to Santa Rosa Gardens and look up the different sun/shade exposures of each grass. They indicate which grasses need full sun and which will work in part shade. There are a few that will perform in shade. Cool season grasses will often work in shade when its a situation that the area is in full sun when the grasses are actively growing (winter, spring & fall) and it becomes shaded in summer when the grasses naturally go dormant. Warm season grasses on the other hand need full sun in summer during their main growing season.
And there lies the problem with common, not botanical names ;)
What you have is Clerodendrum thomsoniae, very different from dicentra. AKA bleeding heart vine, glory bower.
Older discussion Vines Forum about sowing (click here)
Thyme is not suitable for full shade. Like most herbs of Mediterranean origin, it prefers full sun and well draining soil. It will tolerate light or dappled shade but will tend to be sparse in foliage and not bloom well.
Ajuga will tolerate full shade well, as long as enough moisture is present in the soil. But it will tend not to bloom very well in a lot of shade.
as usual.. defining shade in your micro climate.. is near impossible in words.. and i even doubt a pic would help ...
you have to simple try different things in the spot.. and find out what would THRIVE there ...
and some times it takes a few year to figure out what lives up to your expectations ... few things outright die in shade... they just dont accomplish what we hope ...
i think i have one thyme out back.. in near all day shade ... rather bright at times ... but i have no clue which it is ... but i will try to look for it.. in the mess the dogs i didnt want.. made of my former back garden ... and see if it is still there with all the abject neglect ...
ken
UPDATE (2015):
I had 4 healthy WS this past Fall and all 4 easily survived this very cold winter.
The one that was most protected is slowly fading away but the other 3 are just fine.
Two of them are within a couple of feet of each other and get afternoon sun. They have lots of flowers but because of the extra sun in the afternoon they often look wilted and bent over as they reach.
The other one is much more upright as when it is 'sees' the sun, the sun is directly overhead. It probably gets about 3 hours of direct sun and the rest of the time it is shady as it is positioned between 2 tall houses.
(So how are yours CMK and gyr_falcon in 2015?)
(Anyone else have WS?)
Mine looks about the same it did last year as far as size goes. It's being very stingy with the bloom production though.
Not sure what is going on. I gave it a bit of fertilizer (both reg and high phosphorus) over the past couple months. Maybe it wasn't enough....
CMK
miracx - I doubt that you'd have much of a problem with a C. kousa. With that zone you must be either near near one of the Great Lakes - or in BC. In which case the kousa should easily survive the winter - mine and my next-door-neighbour's have never had any problems, even from the past two brutal winters. C. mas is an interesting dogwood that is quite different in that its flowers are small and forsythia-yellow in quite early spring. The neighbour behind us has one just behind the fence at the back of our property. It's the first dogwood to bloom.
miracx, Cornus mas, also called cornelian dogwood, is a very large shrub that has very early yellow flowers (earlier than forsythia) and edible red fruit. Some kinds have been selected for fruit and some for the blossoms. It can be pruned to tree form, but I've only ever seen them grown in shrub form.
We got to at least -22 and perhaps colder last winter, and my 10 year old Cornus kousa lost all its buds above the snow line. It is slowly leafing out again, but I don't think that I know what branches have survived until next year. I hope that we don't have another winter that cold.
This is how much mine has grown in 5 years.
Aggressive? No, not for me. Hopeful? Yep. It's getting a bit more sun now, so I'm sure it will do a little better. Seems the key to me is keeping it in more shade and less sun, oh, and clay soil. That seems to tame the beast a bit, as well. Mine is in amended clay.
Here in Minnesota it is easy to control. Grows best in moist part shade especially next to Ajuga, hostas. and lamium in a rock garden. Works great in pots too. I like the original plain green Creeping Jenny too for all the same reasons. The variegated Jenny Walkabout is an annual here but looks fabulous in pots and window boxes.
This blanket of clematises on the north alley fences always makes me smile in July :-) It's a mix of Huldine, Jackmani Superba, and Betty Corning. Originally there was just the Jackmani, then I added Huldine, and later Betty. It's a battleground - but pretty!
closer view:
Since this area is on the north side, in the alley betwen our house and the neighbours (the brick wall in the background in the picture above,) there is a fair bit of shade. But the east end is sunny until just after mid day. Moving 10-12' to the left (west) of the clematis area it becomes a shade plant area where the astilboides thrives - its tall flowers reach up into the sun:
Hmmm... the photo is not appearing - will try to add it in another reply.
they grow wild in my prairie [read that.. the unmown part of my former horse pasture.. lol] .. why do you think they need food ...
and what might have been not too much in any other year.. might have been just too much.. with all the rain ...
perhaps/.. the only issue is.. that they have grown to lush to support themselves.. and the foliage surely doesnt look sick.. in this pic ... maybe you just grew them too well ...lol
who knows ..
ken
Yeah, as natives go, the various prairie Asteraceae seem more susceptible to death by drowning. OTOH, the wild Rhexias on my property are thriving and spreading faster than they've spread before.