13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

hi
Check out the family Alocasia colocasia homolomena
There are ast least 150 different kinds ranging from a foot to well over 10 feet, from green to variagated to black to bronze ,spotted splotched . with stripes I'm particularly fond of the blacks with silver veins or apple green with white veins You can get evergreen , summer dormant, winter dormant Have been getting into the so-called "jewel alocasia " which are unreal but delicate and expensive Aroids are my favorite family.
Might mention "borneo giant " gets leaves in excess of 5x12 feet lol makes a great house plant lol gary

I grow EE in very large pots in part-shade on the patio. They get quite large leaves. But, yea - gotta keep them moist, moist, moist!

This year 2 good examples in my garden are Pelargoniums and Fuchsias. We have had no frosts near the house and consequently both are still flowering into the New Year. It looks as if I'm going to have Fuchsias and daffodils out together this February. But, as Daisy and Ken say, the summer stragglers are not exactly in peak condition given the lack of sunshine and quantities of rain we've had.

Many plants grown as 'annuals' in some climates are perennial in their native habitats, so they'll just keep going if they don't get a freeze.

This post was edited by floral_uk on Sat, Feb 8, 14 at 5:01

Hi
I really have never gardened anywhere BUT zone 10 ??
Do have a bit of experience with light frost and a couple of hard freezes over the years . I grow mostly tropicals for this reason. If a plant is adapted to cold temps it usually MUSt have them . Eventually it will decline though sometimes it may take a couple of years . i can grow some temperate plants but mostly as winter annuals.. Much depends on night time lows ,humidity
Generally I've found that Tropicals are far more tolerant of cold than temperates are to heat though.
Some good examples Agapanthus ,Hydrandea ,High altitude orchids almost all temperate fruit trees Bearded Iris tulips daffodils, and most other spring bulbs
gary

Like I said these are probably 20/30 years old and I doubt they have been touched for the past 10 years. So they have been living in the wild.

Beautiful! You might want to contact Kermit of Flowers by the Sea nursery in Elk, Calif. He specializes in salvia and other plants for hummingbirds and should know your climate. I bought Salvia guaranitica âÂÂAmistadâ from him last spring, a purple salvia that was a hot new item from Argentina and reportedly favored by hummingbirds.

My hummers liked Salvia guaranitica âÂÂVan Remsen,â which grew 7 ft tall. The kind of hummers that I got liked the height. Kermit should be able to help you with plants favored by the type of hummers and butterflies in your area.

âÂÂVan Remsenâ is a natural hybrid from the backyard of Dr. James Van Remsen, ornithologist at LSU Baton Rouge, blue in the shade, violet or purplish blue when it gets a lot of sun. I notice that Kermit carries it. A tall salvia at each end of your flowerbed might be nice with short dark purple spikes of another salvia in front of the bergenia. Sorry, I don't know enough about conditions to be of any real help. And a certain amount of sun in California might be quite different from the same amount elsewhere. Good luck!

I can't get these links to work, GW may be backing up right now.
Flowers by the Sea nursery, note listings that say attract both hummingbirds and butterflies, but double check on what is favored by your particular kind of hummers and types of butterflies:
http://www.fbts.com
GW has an excellent forum called Butterfly Gardens, wonderful FAQ with plants listed as host and nectar:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/butterfly
Regional guides for butterfly gardening:
http://www.nababutterfly.com/guide_index.html

This post was edited by river_crossroads on Wed, Feb 19, 14 at 22:13

I have Angelina. Your description of yours sounds like that is what you have. Mine hasn't spread itself around much at all. It is in a remote bed that gets swamped in spring snow melt or any time it rains for more than a couple hours. Maybe that keeps it in check.

My guess would be Angelina as well. Depending upon the amount of light it gets, it can look more lime green than gold in the spring and summer, but puts on wonderful fall color!

Here's a photo and some growing information. Hope this helps. Also look at Autumn Charm. It does not grow as low but has really nice fall color too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Angelina Sedum

I have a friend who couldn't get anything to grow under his mature arborvitae and I gave him some divisions of Epimedium rubrum which have not only taken hold under the trees, they have spread nicely. It is a groundcover that can take the drought in the summer and also deal with shade and tree roots. As a bonus is has early spring flowers that bloom around daffodil time. Ken is right about planting under trees, don't try cutting out the tree's roots to plant something - it only stimulates the roots to grow back quickly. If you hit an extra thick 'rooty' spot while digging, don't chop at the spot to plant something, just try another spot to dig a hole to plant in.
Epimedium is sometimes called 'Barrenwort" probably because it can grow in fairly barren looking areas where not much else grows.

Ken is right about planting under trees, don't try cutting out the tree's roots to plant something - it only stimulates the roots to grow back quickly.

Merely for comparison/contrast purposes, I designed a gardenbed that curved along the edges of my driveway and a granite walkway, under the branches of a mature crabapple tree. I struggled to dig planting holes for the perennials I envisioned adding a softening effect to contrast with the hardscaping. I got frustrated whenever I encountered a tree root blocking a planting hole...until my senior/mature gardening neighbor pointed out that the tree wasn't dependent upon that one root for its survival. Judging by the health of my garden many years later, he apparently knew what he was talking about.

The bed is nearly 100% filled in since the above photo was taken a half dozen years ago.

A fairly new plant, WISTERIA macrostachya 'Blue Moon', blooms on very young plants and grows very quickly. It is reputed to bloom three times in one season. It was bred in Minnesota and is a hybrid from the American native wisteria.

Established plants of any wisteria grow yards at a time, same as grape vines, kiwi plants and all other vigorous lianas.

My favorite spring reseeder is celandine poppy. Stylophorum diphyllum. Love the yellow blooms, and they last into the summer if kept well watered and in a shadier spot.

I found out that borage has stickers. No, I mean, really! It has alot of stickers. Mine found it's way eradicated!

Ah well, I am with Ken to a point, having also moved to 5 acres.....but, I have gone into a strangely experimental mode where I am inclined to forgive myself all failures since I have been cut entirely adrift from all prevailing trends, whims, visions and proven methods. I really haven't a clue where I am going with this but at the same time, I am insanely excited to be completely free from any demands, ideals, aspirations......all stuff which has dogged me in the past, often rendering gardening quite demoralising and upsetting when I have failed to live up to my exacting standards (always difficult when battling an innate idleness). Being on a public allotment brought out a previously hidden (family disagree) competitive streak in me and I had very clear ideas of what I wanted to achieve....and some years I did (but the work, the effort, the stress!). However, 5 acres of neglected plantation and no money......well, all bets are off, I can do as I like and no-one expects anything much. I do....but a lot of it will be out of my hands - I am just introducing some variety and standing back to watch the battle for world domination. Welsh poppies, hesperis matronalis, lunaria redivia....what can possibly go wrong?

I would have to say that death and attrition were never very far away in my gardens anyway .....I have killed many, many more plants than I care to recount, some mourned (briefly) while others departed on the end of a fork.....or trodden to death....or froze, shrivelled, starved, beheaded by hoe, died of a broken heart. I became callous and hard-hearted years ago when I had teenagers.

Like you I have come to take a "tough love" approach

===>>> those that have answered are not newbs in any sense ... and i was trying to talk at peeps who worry.. and fret..

and i am not equating it with tough love..

what i am trying to express ... is emotional reaction ...

its all about.. why worry about it ... or as doris day once said:

Que Sera Sera === whatever will be.. will ... the future is not ours to see ...

you plant things.. you nurture them.. and if they die.. so be it.. they can burn in hell for eternity ... lol ...

but i am not going to waste good energy.. 'worrying' about them... oh.. i will contemplate such ... thats what we do in winter.... otherwise we would all be suicidal in the great white north in winter ... lol ...

but i am not going to WORRY ... as per the title... it IS... truly is.. an attitude ....

am i making any sense ...????

ken

ps: mom used to walk around the house humming this song when i was a kid.. but not in the A line dresses .. lol .... and i apparently still know the words by heart .... i presume.. we probably had watched her sitcom of which it was the theme ... back when kids could actually watch TV without ... oh never mind ....

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I'm hoping for holes in my beds because I have sown so many milk jugs (Winter Sowing) this winter that I will have to be moving lots of things around. I will probably just make a whole new bed for the new seedlings to grow in until they need transplanting to a permanent space. I plan to tear out LOTS of purple and white cone flowers ---- they are taking over several beds. I will relegate them all to one hill where I have those and black-eyed susans. It is a steep hill and is hard for me to weed.

So now JUST GO AWAY, SNOW.

I am a zone pusher, so I figure I will lose many things that have/would have survived in past winters. This winter up is much colder than past years. I am watching ground temps at a local university farm, and January's was 6 or so degrees colder than last year. The only zone pusher I would be devastated at losing are my black and blue salvias. One is a few years old, so I hope it is ok. I have 5-6 new ones. Otherwise.....I have a lot of seeds for new flowers and am wintersowing a lot. I just need to know soon who survived. :)

My praecox is a thug with thickness to what sprawls. Bloom is not much to get excited about, but the width and rambling is good. It'll go for the sun (run out or up whichever way it can get it's tips to the sun). It'll also do a decent job of overtaking whatever it's in it's way. Large leaves with lots of side branching.

My rooguchi does have the 'cute' little blooms. It's not near as sturdy of a vine though. It's my first one up in the spring and grows fast up I'm not sure it'd handle roaming around on it's own and bet it's competition. (I have mine on an upright support structure).

My durandii is a sweetheart. But I have it going both up and also rambling in a bed setting. It's not near the length, width nor fighter the praecox is though. I'm not sure it would do well and what you wanting in the setting you're thinking it for.

I will surely be letting C.flammula free and, having seen C.cirrhosa running wild in Greece, I might let that loose on the sunnier south-facing bank into the dry ditch (apart from when the Yare overtops).

Interesting responses.....would say the jury was still out so should be worth a punt.

My advice is to choose another ground cover. Lamium is great and although it can be invasive, it is very easy to pull out what you don't want.

Actually, there is a really mannerly and charming white vinca minor 'Gertrude Jekyll' which has the virtue of being both floriferous and reticent....not a lawn smotherer......but not totally without some attempts at takeover. A nifty lawnmower usually puts paid to world domination attempts.

Thanks for the advice all. I have no idea what "type" mine are....I'm sure they are common. The trellis construction pieces are not much bigger than pensils so I think they will be fine. Spring is coming eventually!!

Yours are probably 2's or 3's which are the more common types in cold zones. Type 2's are large flowered and bloom in mid-May to mid-June here. In areas where they are less likely to die down to the ground, they bloom in the spring on the previous year's vines and in the fall on the current season's growth, but my growing season doesn't seem to be long enough, as none of mine have ever bloomed a second time. Type 3 bloom after that on new growth only, so cutting them back hard every year helps to encourage flowering lower on the plant. I have various ones that bloom mid-June through mid-August, and there are some that bloom later than that. I prune both my type 2's and 3's the same way since the cold kills my vines to the snow line every year, but folks in warmer areas mostly prune type 2's lightly after the spring bloom. The type 1's that are cold hardy here have a different bloom shape, and since they only bloom on last year's growth, I only prune if needed and only right after they are done blooming. All varieties will bloom unpruned, but proper pruning will make for better blooming for some.
Type 1 Clematis Stolwijk Gold
From May 25, 2011

Type 2: Guernsey Cream and HF Young
From clematis From clematis

Type 3 Betty Corning are the lighter bells and Viola is the deep purple
From June 22, 2013