13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

What an informative thread, so glad to read it, great excuse to see gottagarden's wonderful photos and read posts from david_5311 again. This thread was started over 7 years ago but somehow 2007 seems like yesterday!

I also love blue in the garden. My salvia pratensis always makes me smile.

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.

No, bleeding heart and VA bluebells don't bloom at the same time. The bluebells are coming into bloom now and the bleeding heart isn't even up yet.

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.

There is no need to use RoundUp for larkspur seedlings. They come out/break apart easily,
I do understand the possible need for deep rooted things that won't die to be killed by chemical measures such as RoundUp, but small shallow rooted seedlings do not need it.
Remy

Yes I think larkspur seedlings are very distinct and so you can take them out even when they are small (without waiting for it to really dinstinguish itself from something else you might want).

As for how invasive it is, I tend to like the flowers that reseed, so I'm not yet at the point of feeling like it is invasive. Less buying or planting work for me next year!

Thanks, all. Molanic, I like your idea of âÂÂfluffing upâ the dead leaves. I have such dense mats in there I know the snow crocus are struggling underneath. I pulled one aside today and there were buds growing sideways.

I always thought snow crocus were the first: but I have a large flowered one that starts a week earlier. Maybe thatâÂÂs what you have. The ones I have are named Crocus vernus Twilight, and are a rich purple. When they first bloomed, I surprised to see how large the flowers were, and disappointed, as I thought of crocus as being dainty. But now I really like them: the bright purple really glows, when everything else is still dull brown.

I am two hours straight west of Chicago and have lots of perennials poking through the ground right now. Even the peonies! So, it is easy to see where to walk. I did most cleaning up in the fall but still have to cut the dead stalks from the mums. I left those up hoping the mums would all come back and they did!

They probably survived because we had snow that started in Nov. and never stopped until a few weeks ago. Snow is a wonderful mulch even in the coldest winter.

seedlings do not grow steadily throughout their growth cycle - they grow in fits and starts (Like children).....and can often spend weeks in a minuscule state (lisianthus and browallia are dreadful for remaining minute seemingly forever) while others wait 2-3 weeks then romp away. In general, they will put on a growth spurt when transplanted (although again, they can stand still for a couple of weeks till they get over the transplant shock). Campanulas are also pretty notorious for staying titchy for weeks and weeks then bursting into growth. You have done the hard work (germinating them) so just sit back and let nature run it's course. As long as they are not actually yellowing, damping off, shrivelling, they will be fine - they have an innate growth speed determined by genetics as much as climate and conditions.....I have found that lights and heat have little significant difference in the time it takes for them to 'take off' and grow away......but grow away they will.
6-8 weeks is nothing - I have been waiting on some of mine since autumn, when they easily sprouted and have simply sat, for months, looking tiny (meconops, linum arboreum, eupatorium......while some are just emerging now (echies, primula wilsonii) but when they decide to put on a spurt, be ready for pricking out and potting on. Thinning, if thickly sown, is also a good idea.

Mine are growing at the right rate at this point and I started them late. My problem now is not having my vegetable plot ready to get them out there. It's always something. But the thought I had, was if you have seedlings that you are having to tend to indoors a long time, I'd recommend using a fan of some kind to keep the air moving and reduce any risk of getting any health issues and to make the stems sturdier. It's always made a big difference for me. Not in growth rate, but in helping them stay healthy and get stronger.

And here in zone 6a, we've had a few days to get them outdoors already and I've been moving them in and out. So when I ever get the vegetable plot ready to go, the plants will be ready to go in the ground.

Oh..and who fertilizes their seedlings? I have some fish/seaweed emulsion that I sometimes use. Isn't that worthwhile for a little shot of energy to the plant?

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Wed, Apr 9, 14 at 7:25