13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I would love to grow red currants here - but they are an alternate host for White Pine Blister Rust and are not recommended for planting within 300' of white pines. I don't want to endanger our pines so don't plant currants - a neighbour up the street has them and lets us harvest theirs.
It occurred to me that this spring I should send DH with his camera up onto the (limestone) Niagara Escarpment to see what's flowering up there. Those things would likely have a good chance of doing well here, although I think our soil is probably closer to neutral - I did some Googling and found a report that says most home garden soils in the area influenced by the Escarpment have a pH 6.5-7.3 so we probably fall into that range.
Campanula - perhaps you'd be interested in the information in the attached link. Maybe some of those might grow for you and give you something new to try :-) I'm going to go through it for ideas for here....
Here is a link that might be useful: Niagara Escarpment wildflowers
Compost seems to kill cornus, and to a lesser degree, gaultheria. In the wild, both seem to grow on granite with a very thin layer of peat moss.
When I grow them in pots, I am very careful about the amount of compost I use in my soil mix, mixing instead, large amounts of peat.
Another snowdrop lover here, I have 5 different varieties but only know what one is for sure 'ikariae'. One double, one very tall, one not quite so tall and the little common one make up the rest of what I have. One day I'll sit down and peruse Judy's Snowdrops and see if I can sort them out. I'd love to see a picture of yours, growing in drifts must be a glorious sight.
The drifts of English Bluebell you have over there are so very beautiful, I've finally managed to get them going, just a pitiful 5 or 6 but it's a start. Spanish Bluebells grow like weeds here, in fact they are hard to get rid of once you've got them, but those elusive little English Bluebells I can only wish.
Annette
Great story and great find. I bet subduing the brambles or at least making an attempt at it will go far in making your woods more snowdrop friendly. Before you know it you'll be shooing away early spring snowdrop tours!
I'd love to see pictures too :)
Hi,
I have a friend who grows leafy spurge and it seems to thrive...with competition and with very little care. (I live in zone 7) I wish I had a place to plant it! There are annual varieties, but I'm talking about the perennial type that is a perennial in zones 4 to 9. It's hard to decide if the blossoms or the fall color is more beautiful to see.
Here is a link that might be useful: Leafy perennial spurge
You've received good information from the above posters. FWIW, my own Buddleia/butterfly bushes were grown from seed via winter sowing. Seed germination appeared to be nearly 100% so the seeds on the cultivar B. davidii. 'Black Knight' at least are viable.
My winter sown plants are growing in full sun as well as part sun and have, since 2010, achieved a height of not more than 7 ft. each season. I prune them in March every year, cutting the stems down to 10 inches or less. The spread of each is not more than 5 ft.
A named cultivar will seldom have blooms of more than one color which would suggest some computer-enhanced view of the buddleia in your photo. Since my own plants were grown from seed, the blooms are all consistently, uniformly lavender but no less attractive to pollinators from what I've observed.
More important in my view & experience is that Buddleia is not bothered by any pests and needs no supplemental nutrients or moisture in order to thrive in my garden beds. I especially appreciate "plant it, enjoy it, forget it" perennials.
"I've had good germination of numerous types of Rudbeckias through routine planting in sterile grow-mix - no need for baggies, filters etc." ... indeed, just surface sow these upon a good quality starting mixture and keep covered to maintain moisture until seedlings are up and running ... they're sooo easy!
Terrance
I haven't seen a plumbago "Delft" offered for sale. The ones available here and when I lived in Texas were all pale blue - nice enough, but not the rich, deep blue that people most crave.
Evolvulus also falls into the "nice enough" category, no show-stopper though.
This year I am growing these two in my anatomically correct garden.
Hi
Plumbago is also available in red and white and a blue with white edges.. I find these are not nearly as vigorous
The "delft" is definitely worth looking for . Another favorite of mine is the so called "Blue Pea vine the double looks like miniature roses and is a very deep blue . To my eye not a trace of purple All time favorite is a very sky blue tropical water lily produces semi double flowers 14 inches accross standing two feet out of the water!! The anthurs are a strong purple though and the nectary is bright yellow Another is pacific blue delphinium glorious for a short time but can't handle the florida heat lol gary
thanks Ken. I think ive posted a blank post somewhere too. I posted this in the europe section, and hybridising.
I cant find any evidence that it is propagation protected, and think it should be easy to propagate by division. I bought 10 roots from a wholesale place by mail order in the autumn and they didnt mention it being protected. I did intend to commercialy propagate it, yes.
Havent seen it flower yet, but its supposed to have extra large flowers.
My reason for the questions was mostly that I Thought it would be nice to try to cross it with some other herbaceous potentillas. a bit of background info might save some work. DG says "may be sterile or may not come true from seed" but most hybrids dont come true anyway.
The web seems just to repeat the bit about it having big flowers on various catalogue pages from different firms.
Thanks, Charlie
Yep, this definitely looks like Firewitch. Dianthus, especially Firewitch, can bloom from mid spring through late summer and even into fall in some climates, so I don't think you forced it, as much as you probably just gave it the nutrition you needed. Good job!
Here is a link that might be useful: Firewitch Picture
cathey123 - It's usually better to start a new thread to get good answers to your question instead of adding on to another - less confusing since the photos don't relate to your variety.
Do Dianthus bloom spring through summer? It depends since Dianthus is a somewhat varied genus. My D. Greystone blooms just in spring, but has nice gray-green foliage that is tidy and decorative much of the rest of the year. D. barbatus, AKA sweet William blooms in the summer here, and is a biennial or short-lived perennial. I haven't grown D. Firewitch, but several folks above say that it repeats, and I know some of the small carnation-shaped Dianthus bloom through at least part of the summer.
Before buying from Wayside, I'd read up on Garden Watchdog. I haven't had good experiences with them.
IME many vendors don't ship larger sizes because shipping that much weight & size is expensive. As Gary said, local vendors are much more likely to carry larger sizes. For what its worth, I have planted a good number of small hydrangeas that came mail order in small pots since I live in a rural area with not a huge amount of choice of plants and nurseries. IME they grew quickly, much faster than other types of shrubs, and within a couple of years were good sized shrubs, so you might want to consider smaller sizes if you can be patient.
Over the last years I have slowly replaced many perennials with shrubs and small trees. Just lessening the amount of cutting back in season and at the end of the season has made a considerable difference. I've also increased the groundcovers in some areas and use bulbs in them where they allow it--leadwort, for example (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides). And leadwort can be mowed with the mower at the end of the season. I also long ago eliminated perennials that need regular division or beating back every few years.
How about more power tools? I use my hedge trimmers to trim all the old perennials into about six inch lengths, rake it out into the lawn and then run over with the lawnmower to bag it up. I've been known to just run over the perennial beds with the mower on mulch mode when I'm really short on time.
There are always little bits and pieces in the lawn and beds, but in a week or two you'll never notice, so don't kill yourself picking up every last leaf.
Like Laceyvail mentioned, groundcovers are great. Thicker ones such as pachysandra can give a nice green cover and absorb most of the fall leaves that blow in or onto them.
And did I mention power tools?