13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Still not seeing much here either, and I hope I'm wrong that most of the Agastaches, Penstemons, and western Salvias are goners. The shade garden is waking up, but most of that is native to this area so it knows what it's doing. This week should make a lot clear--spring weather for the forseeable future.

Agree with Mxk .... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too early.

Hmmmm 50-75% off and a guarantee! Where is this nursery!

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Plants are at Meadows Farms Nursery in Leesburg, VA.

Thank you everybody for your help!!! I will get them in the ground tomorrow. Temperatures are supposed to be pretty nice the next few days so hopefully that will help!

Hello,

As a professional perennial grower I can tell you that those white things in the top picture are the underground rhizomes and stems will emerge from them but they should be buried and completely covered. The white things in the second picture might be fresh sprouts but since these emerge from varying depths underground I would bury those completely as well, however I'm leaning toward those being underground rhizomes too.

And I would recommend planting these directly outdoors and then only water slightly for now to settle the soil surface. Chelone can rot as a fresh bare root if you water too much, and putting them in pots and watering well while it is cold can actually cause damage even easier at this stage. When I pot up Chelone that is dormant this time of year I don't water them until the danger of hard freezing weather is over, but from what you are saying your are probably beyond that point now.

Hope that helps.

Chris

I searched some more, first German, than English websites, looking for "perennials for clay soil".
one particularly nice pdf popped up, have a look, if you are interested,

bye, Lin

Here is a link that might be useful: best plants for clay soil

Ummm, there's some invasives in that .pdf list, so please be careful to do your research before planting any of those, as you will get more than you asked for! You may be able to already spot the invasives, so I will add this also for anyone else perusing this post for their own gardens.

they need some shade, plenty of moisture (but very well drained) and an acidic soil - many of them will not tolerate lime at all).

Which one is it? Baileyii? Betonicifolia? Regia?.....or, you might have got lucky and found 'Lingholm' the most reliably perennial and least fussy.

Lordie, those are the Grail for most of us.
I live too far in the South to even think it...but I'd have suggested you planted it somewhere in the Himalayas (lol), as they're regarded as almost impossible.
If you manage a 2nd year of bloom, well my hats off to you, and please come back and tell us how you did it.

This post was edited by dbarron on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 7:07

smarge117 - there aren't any stupid garden questions--only a need to know from folks who do. Where do you think WE all got so smart?

I grow heuchera/coral bells 'Palace Purple' in a part sun bed in one of my garden beds and they're pretty much a year-round foliage plant plus the bees love the tiny flowers. I give my various garden beds NO supplemental water and they perform beautifully year in & year out. My plants were nursery-grown rather than grown from seed.

Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'/dwarf fountain grass doesn't grow more than 2-3 ft. tall and has an elegant mounding form. I grow it in full sun at the southeast corner of my house as well at either end of my granite garden bench.

For winter interest I grow Hellebore/Lenten rose in part sun. They bloom here in February/March but would obviously bloom earlier if you're gardening in a warmer zone. Other than Vinca minor/creeping myrtle or Pachysandra, I don't have much else that remains evergreen in winter. Penstemon digitalis/beardtongue 'Mystica' does retain it's form & foliage even through a harsh winter but I can't say it looks fresh as a daisy once the snow melts.

Not a stupid question! I'm into edibles. Rosemary, thyme and oregano and peppermint are my evergreen perennials.

Continuing this discussion...those reluctant to use baby shampoo may substitute organic Simple Green, available in every grocery store. Following the directions I gave above you will not harm the birds, worms, children, pets, etc. Just do not expect any surfactant to work the miracle of turning solid clay into friable soil as Texas Ranger is explaining above.

Sunny Borders has requested more information on my remark about using a fall surfactant treatment on older properties with compacted lawns and garden soils. This is a common problem encountered by pros which can be handled in numerous ways. Sort of depends on the pro's philosophy and training. Often noted will be low sections of lawn that perk slowly after a rain, garden beds that are just 'played out'. I am encouraging the trial of a late fall surfactant treatment along with whatever else is deemed necessary to restore the soil. I find that after such a treatment the soil in the spring will have a different, loose texture and drainage is improved. My experience with all this goes back to the late 1970's. I have used surfactant treatments in many situations including on soils that have been heavily panned at construction sites and on compacted golf course greens. I prefer to use a surfactant named Nitron A-35 (available online) or one of the humic acid preparations if it is best for the situation.

I appreciate your reply, Nandina.

I am gathering that, as a result of surfactant treatment, you've witnessed a change (loosening) of soil texture and an improvement in drainage, and this can be part of intervention which will "restore the soil".

These claims would obviously have more support if they were backed up by controlled experimentation.

Nevertheless, as a perennial gardener (starting with clay), and as a number of fellow perennial gardeners said above, I would be quite nervous about the possible effects of the surfactant treatment on valuable soil organisms and on the plants themselves.

This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 20:15

I always enjoy the photos you post from your travels. You saw some really lovely plants and scenery on this walk.

I am sorry that I still don't have time to put in the names. I have ID of all. For example, this is a type of Dianella:

I Googled Tassel flower and the botanical name that came up was Emilia coccinea. Generally seeds remain viable for a short period of time--for many, not longer than two years. That said, you can sow them and hope for the best. As campanula suggested, they don't have the option of sprouting unless they're planted.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tassel flower info

i agree with campy... whats to lose.. one pot.. and some media ...

whats the alternative.. throw them away??? .. i dont think so ...

or.. just sow them direct .... and then weed them all out.. when you forget what you did.. lol.. been there.. done that ...remembering in fall.. wondering what happened to them ... lol ...

ken

I love my mammoth mums. They need very little care, no pinching back, the only one that has not been robust for me has been 'Yellow Quill'. Last fall I moved divisions of several to line my very long driveway. Perhaps Yellow Quill will do better in this area.

The 1000 Bloom mum is all the adjectives you used, campanula. Definitely not a garden mum.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1000 bloom mum sideshow

Nope
Not at all
That has absolute zero appeal to me, but to each his own.

It's flower show stuff and I've stated my opinion of flower shows before. You couldn't drag me to another one of those.

Kevin

This where we've got to in the season. Daffodils beginning to go over and tulips on the up and up.

Very nice, Floral.

Such a pleasant contrast with the current snow and ice covering of our flowerbeds this year.

I really don't know what the issue is in this area, it's a very small spot in the corner of my foundation bed and it LOVES to kill plants. Nothing seems to be happy there. It gets some afternoon sun in the hottest part of the day and is shaded in the am. Part sun plants don't seem to get enough sun there to bloom (creeping phlox), full sun plants don't make it, either. I have tried aubrieta (too hot here for that), candytuft - died, I think (still waiting to be sure), Veronica Goldwell (too soon to see anything for this year, but it was barely hanging on at the end of last year)--the list is very long what has been placed there over the years.

The space is only about 3 ft x 3 ft. The rest of the bed is doing great, just this little corner is so annoying. I think part of it is that the water from the yard, when it rains, tends to collect within a foot of this area. If nothing comes back here from last year, I'm going to dig up the area and amend heavily and put a new soil mix here to get rid of whatever the problem is, if it's not drainage. I'll raise the corner a bit, too, so if it is drainage, maybe that will help with that. I can't very well regrade the yard, so raising will help, I hope.

Anyone else have that annoying little spot that you just can't get anything to do well in? Unfortunately, mine is RIGHT beside my entryway, which makes it that much more frustrating.

If it gets a lot of water, adding a bit more sand may help. As for the saxifagia, I have grown it in the past, it did great, but died over the winter. I would try it with pea gravel as a mulch to keep the crowns from rotting as it is best as a rock graden plant.