13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Babera, saw your question a couple days ago, but just getting back. For a few years now I've used "Perennials Alive" and "Bulbs Alive" from Gardens Alive. I bought 5 lb bags and they've lasted a long time, but the bulbs is getting down there so time for some more. In the past I've also used some Espoma products, such as Garden-tone.
Most perennials seem to do okay with a top-dress of compost each year. Others grow better in lean soil and don't need any fertilizer at all. Over-fertilizing can result in floppy growth and too much foliage and too few flowers.
For bulbs, I sprinkle in some "Bulbs Alive" when planting or transplanting, in addition to whatever compost is spread in the garden. They seem to bloom better, I even get half-decent blooms from the oriental Hyacinths (those that survived the onslaught of voles 2 years ago that is).
Fertilizing is for specific times when nutrients are known to be needed, like when somebody has a vitamin deficiency. And likewise if your soil is low in one nutrient and you apply a product that has lots of another, you are buying and putting on that other nutrient for nothing - same as somebody trying to correct a particular vitamin deficiency with a multivitamin product.
And if you overdo one of them you can poison your plants and soil. Phosphorus, for instance is often over-applied and does not leach well at all - if you put on too much of it you may have to dig out and replace your soil to get rid of the toxic condition so produced.
In my area cultivated soils typically only become low in N. If I was using 14-14-14 year after year I'd be putting on a bunch of P and K I didn't need.
This post was edited by bboy on Sun, Apr 27, 14 at 13:38
"There are a few things awake in that bed--lady's mantle, black snakeroot, brunnera, primrose & columbine--but even the bleeding heart & Virginia bluebells are still sleeping."
With the addition of your hostas, that sounds like a beautiful shade bed. I have lots of shade so I'm always looking for examples of how others combine their plants. Maybe later on in the season you will show us some pics?
Almost all of my hostas are up and running as of today, with the exception of perhaps 3. Some are just pipping, some are a couple of inches high but still furled, but they're coming up. I was worried, with the extremely harsh winter we just had, but my hostas and heuchies seemed to have come through OK. Some hosta varieties are slower to emerge in the spring than others, that's for sure, so perhaps yours are the slower-to-emerge types. Give it another week or so before you give it up and by all means, come on over to the very active & friendly HOSTA FORUM, where you will pipped, NOIDed, scaped, etc. to your heart's content.
@diggerdee, I guess if some herbs just want morning sun or early sun, that would be a good way to achieve it. That brings up an interesting idea that because of this, then maybe tall plants could go in the front, lowest section.
If you orient it with a north/south direction, then all plants will get sun all day long, so then you'll have to consider about herbs that can't take all that heat or need additional water.
With a box around that size, though, it seems like just putting mint into a container would have contained it also.
How is the bottom constructed for each level?
The herbs I grow and use, either for food or attracting wildlife are: mint, green onion, chives, cilantro, pineapple sage, garden sage, rosemary, lavender, bee balm, basil, lemon grass.
Make a similar list of the herbs you want and then that will help you and us to see how they would be situated.
Hi guys- thanks for your help and your concern.
Yes, it faces east. My reason for orienting it east was that I didn't want more than 8 hours of sun. Some herbs can tolerate more, but most require 8 minimum in my experience. The plan is to put the tallest herbs in back so as not to shade those in front until quite late in the day. Even if the box faced north the tallest would shade the shortest at some point.
We planted this morning. 2 kinds of mint, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, lavender, oregano, parsley. I will have to let you know how it goes!
I also bought some bee balm, but I'm not familiar with it. What can you tell me about bee balm?
I didn't like the one I had. The blooms were kind of ugly (they were small and a deep nondescript red), which I could have dealt with, but the foliage didn't do anything for me. I like ferny foliage, but this one just blended into the background and was super-blah. Maybe if I would have had a bigger plant (like the one in the pic above) it would have been a different story, but as it stands, I don't miss it one bit (has long been shovel-pruned).
I have grown butterfly bushes from seed for several years. If it is a quart sized plant you can expect it to fill a gallon sized pot by fall and maybe even a few blooms. Some of those small bushes have very long blossoms. I had one with blossoms 11+ inches long. Kept it and gave 7+ Inch and smaller bloom ones away. Planted it in a bed last fall. Waiting to see this year if it continues to have those long blossoms.
I ran across this last night & am finding myself in love with narrow leaf zinnias. I like the bright orange/yellow or yellow ones, I had seen the pink & white ones but was never drawn to them. I like this natural wild look.
Is anyone growing this? I read it blooms all summer into fall. I've snubbed zinnias forever, until now.
Is it too late to sow zinnia seeds? If not is it easy & successful to direct sow?
cajun ...
use 100% RU .. in the very expensive applicator at the link.. snip a plant.. and drip it on the cut ... [that concentration is around 41%] .. and keep at it until it understand.. who is boss ... return unused product to properly labeled container ...
spraying is not really the way to go... in my experience ...
spraying is for self contained plants... what is probably happening here.. and i am too lazy to research it.. is that this plant is rhizome based.. which is basically an underground vine ... and if you spray on part.. it just resprouts a few inches back on the underground runner ... took me 3 years to kill PIvy due to this ... when it was all gone.. i found out.. there was a one inch underground running vine... [i am sure there are better scientific words for what i am suggesting]
good luck .. tenacity is usually the cure...
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: link
Salvia greggii are actually very easy to grow if you give them sun and good drainage. The good drainage factor is especially important in the winter. Last summer, I lost several that I've had for years due to the non-stop rain. The ones that survived had exceptionally good drainage.
Since you are on the coast you may also have even higher humidity than I do, which wouldn't be to its liking. You may want to try Salvia microphylla instead which seems to be more humidity tolerant. Salvia microphylla and Salvia greggii are very closely related and interbreed easily so many plants on the market are hybrids between the two. The flowers look identical but the leaves are slightly different. Nurseries seem to constantly mislabel the microphyllas as greggiis which doesn't help matters. A few of the cultivars that are easier to find are Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' and the 'Heatwave' series of S. microphylla hybrids. Of the Heatwave series, I like my 'Blaze' and 'Blast' the best. I actually bought mine at Lowe's and saw them there last year, too.
They are great, long-blooming plants and the hummingbirds love them! :)
I feel quite certain you have creeping bellflower. Seriously grubbing out the roots, including the deeper parts, does work. But it will require attention to seedlings and re-sprouts! The roots and spring shoots are edible-- harvest them to death!
Here is a link that might be useful: Friends School Plant Sale
Thanks Kevin, I got a response over at the Name That Plant forum and someone offered a link to where they described how to pull the petals off the flower and disect the bulb at the base and see if there is another bulb or a flat disc. So I guess if I want to be positive, I'll have to let one of them flower this year.
Henry, thanks for that encouragement, we'll give it a good try this season and see if we can't put a dent in them. Thanks for that link.
Here is a link that might be useful: How to tell difference between Campanula and Adenophora
Lots of good, diverse suggestions. Much depends on the plants you are growing as well as what steps you are willing and able to take. The "look" you are aiming for also matters.
For example, you might use an interesting chunk of log or driftwood in the foreground to both brace up the floppers behind it as well as a interest piece.
Pinching or cutting back plants like mums early in the summer will make for thicker, sturdier growth.
There are hoops with a grid of bars crisscrossing them that can be used to spread out and support plant stems as the plant goes through them.
I stake about 8 Peonies every spring. The 4 oldest Peonies in the front garden are staked with large 18 inch rings with the grids. When they're about 1 foot high I sit and tediously guide the Peonies stalks throughout the grid. As they grow up you don't see the rings any more and they do work well to keep them upright, but the flowers still flop if we get some rain!
I use smaller peonies rings to support other floppy perennials, for example a large floppy New England Aster or Echinacea. I also have 3 sizes of green coated wire stakes with the loop at the top for things like Iris stalks that gets blown over in a strong wind. These are not very noticable either.
Over-fertlization may be one reason that plants flop, but also sometimes if the soil is too rich, there isn't enough sun, or too much rain or watering.
Here's a pic of 3 of the big peonies from last June. You don't notice the stakes.
Paul - Great news! I think ours aren't far behind those.
Kevin
It seems all the critters like Tulips - squirrels, deer, chipmunks, voles. I don't care for Tulips all that much, but there are a few pretty ones that the previous owner put in that have survived the shade, Vinca, voles, etc.
If you like tulips there's a few nice photos from Keukenhof in the Netherlands on these 2 threads (on the New England gardening forum).
Where is Spring?
As requested by thyme2dig - more Keukenhof photos