13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
For sun:
- single peonies - so charming and no staking necessary!
- Persicaria polymorpha
- 'Midnight Rose' heuchera
- hardy hibiscus, especially deep red ones like 'Fireball' (with dark, cut-leaf foliage) and 'Lord Baltimore' (with green maple-like foliage) or Disco Belles
- pulsatilla
- culinary sage - edible; pretty flowers; attractive leaf color that is a perfect foil for warm colors; becomes interesting little woody trees as the plants age
- Siberian irises in blue
-veronicastrum
'Silver Mound' artemesia - must be kept clipped to 4" or so
- spring bulbs, especially 'Ivory Floradale', 'Queen of the Night' and 'Angelique'
My favorite full sun plants are trees, shrubs and vines (clematis mostly). If I was doing my full sun front beds over from scratch, I'd use mainly shrubs, trees and vines, underplanted with spring bulbs and a few low perennials that could handle sun or shade (e.g. heucheras).
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I would like to Thank You All, Gardenweed, SunnyBorders and Daisincrete for the advise. The plants seem to be at a standstill, but that could be from it still being cold outside. I was thinking of pinching out the middle to spur growth. I'll leave them, since I am most excited they have made it thru winter.
Sincerely,
Avis
My pleasure PM2. When I moved here I had plenty of ideas but decided (because I'm probably anal to some degree) to do my homework before poking a spade into the dirt. My first garden book suggested drawing the existing garden layout--including structures, hardscape, plants, trees + any other miscellaneous items--on graph paper along with the compass orientation of the property. I found that to be of enormous help when I began designing my garden beds, either from scratch or else modifying those that were here when I arrived. Having a defined plan, no matter how preliminary, seemed to make things come together more quickly. Did things end up the same as the plans I made and sketched with a pencil? Guess again. Am I happy with how it looks? Next question.
IâÂÂm looking forward to trying your book recommendation, ispahan and comparing it to the DiSabato book.
Gardengal, I have had vinca minor in deep shade, hemmed in by the driveway, the street and a fence and behaved well for 20+years, then tried it in full sun and what a difference. 3 small transplants turned into an 5ft wide patch in one season. I quickly dug it up. So that is true in some cases.
Gardenweed, I must have read the same book, [g] because that was one of the first things I did too, was to draw the existing garden on graph paper and follow the sun patterns and mark where I had sun and how much and orientation. I still have that original drawing and I pulled it out just last week to check something and was very happy I had it and didnâÂÂt have to go measure something all over again.
Sorry, I thought I did list my zone (zone 5) it rarely gets 100 here in the summer, if it does it's an unusually hot summer. But with that being said it can get as cold as -20 in the winter.
I do have cranesbill geraniums in the same bed as well as columbine (I forgot to mention)
So, I guess adding a few more part sun plants is doable. . .thanks guys. . . (off to add my zone)
So the planting bed is on the north side of the fence? In summer, that area is not going to be in much shade at all - the sun is nearly overhead and the fence won't pose much of an obstacle. You can plant just about anything that doesn't demand full sun.
I had this same situation in my old garden and even though we are up in the higher northern latitudes here in the PNW, my planting bed was still in nearly full sun for most of the day during the growing season. Winter's another story but much less of an issue for herbaceous plants.
I haven't transplanted any of my D. spectabilis 'Alba' but when I moved here in 2005 there were multiple species D. spectabilis growing here and there around the property, likely planted by my mother at some point. I decided to re-purpose some of the 350+ patio bricks I dug up (my folks used them for edging) by laying a walkway behind my garage. I hired workers to dig & lay the walkway, repurposed the soil to raise one side of it so I could plant perennials.
There used to be a bleeding heart growing out of a crack in the retaining wall at the base of some steps from the walkway leading down to my walkout cellar. I asked the workers to even up the steps with leftover patio bricks. Somehow the bleeding heart growing out of the crack got moved to the top of the stairs. It's growing in full sun and has come up every year since 2007 which tells me where I am they can evidently handle full sun.
I guess my point is, generally in my experience they're pretty tough. I'm not sure there's much you can do to destroy them if they like where they're growing.
One garden rule of thumb is if it blooms in spring, move it in fall and vice versa. If you move your BH, do it after it's done blooming when it isn't putting all its energy into flowering.
Another tip: I have a white bleeding heart growing in full shade that looked like the photos below in 2010. After our devastating storms in 2011, it barely grew to 1/3 of its previous size the following season.
Hmmmm.....
My only thought is that last summer, this particular plant died back in the heat so transplanting that one would not have been possible in the fall.
The one that broke off did so before it got too terribly hot and I placed the pot in the shady area where it is now planted and it did not die back until it got cold after I had transplanted it.
Wallflowers, (erysmium cheirii) are traditionally grown as biennials (often as part of a 'bedding out' system) but mine have been robustly perennial for over a decade. Nicotiana sylvestris is often good for another go-round, but both of these probably point up the shadings of classification and expectations between true biennials (Campanula medium), short-lived perennials or tender perennials grown as annuals.
Have just been on a seed buying digitalis rampage after being hugely heartened by last years robust growth of fat rosettes, just beginning to extend skywards (D.purpurea, grandiflora, lutea) in our bedraggled and wild woods - expecting a froth of various umbellifers and many white foxglove spikes.
Interesting, I grew Erysmium 'Bowle's Mauve' sometime back which is supposed to be perennial but it acted like a biennial for me. I loved the plant, it bloomed in late winter & was evergreen with very attractive blue foliage which I would have liked even without the blooms. The plant got very big with a woody base so I trimmed it back after blooming the second year, it slowly died so I figured it was a biennial. Just looked it up, its perennial.
And i mean to say, im worried about the upcoming rainy season, the spot its in is a bit lower so i have no doubt it will be swimming until i have the front garden ready for it, weighing my options, im probably better risking moving it early than leaving it in a flooding area? Ken, im sorry you havent had any come back! They are so beautiful! I was ecstatic to see the tiny bit if green popping up, i couldnt stop thinking about it all this loooong winter, wondering how it was faring!
i should have said.. the foo foo ones never came back ... the more exquisite the less hardy ... i planted them for a few years.. as annuals ....
but i still enjoy the annual ... larkspur.. good enough ... for me .. such a blue ....
ken
I find after a few years the plants start getting ratty looking with dead spots. I clear out the thatch, save portions with live roots, good growth & start new plants, these always fill in nice over a season. I just divided up a patch of Cheddar Pinks & started new plantings in other spots.
I chopped a bunch of a brown dead stuff off last night. Don't know if I took off too much or too little, but we shall see.
The local greenhouse is having their Perennial flat sale this weekend, depending upon what they have, I may just rip out the rest of these Dianthus and replace with something else.
The pink flowered Dicentra/Lamprocapnos spectabilis will come up reddish. Once you've spotted it you'll see it rocket up really fast. I find the white L spectabilis to be much weaker growing. While the pink are flowering now the white isn't even visible yet and I fear it's a goner, yet again.
Agree on those slugs! I know I don't have rabbits but many plant cuttings or seedlings that I prepped in the ground are gone. One day here, one day not (so it's not like a cutworm effect that seems to leave the stalk for you to witness the death of your plant in the next morning).
Crushed eggshells sprinkled around newly-emerging perennials will discourage slugs/snails--they can't crawl over the shells because the shells cut them. I save eggshells all year and when spring rolls around, the crushed pieces help protect my perennials, including hostas. I just toss the shells in a plastic bowl & use a potato masher to crush them.
As long as the OP's Echinaceas had healthy root systems, chances are the plants will send up new growth despite marauding bunnies.
Duplicate post. Already answered.