13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I love your clearly voiced opinions, Campanula! I'll agree with you on the C. glomerata, but I like the Clips here. They have been a restrained little pop of color that goes on all season in my garden, making a tidy edging plant. No fussing, they just returned reliably where I had them placed for 3 years. They disappeared this winter, but not their fault . . . the voles left little holes for all the Clips as well as all my Stoksia, a Pulmonaria 'Majeste' and a wonderful almost red Dianthus deltoides 'Brilliancy' that like the Clips bloomed from May through hard freeze.

I am going to go on a hunt for C. trachelium. It's been mentioned several times recently, and looks like a lovely plant.

NHBabs- Campanula trachelium is really sweet but seems to be very difficult to find. I did find a seed source from Australia that ships to the USA. I wonder how long the seeds would keep.
Sharon

My Mammoth mums have since gotten quite large. Problem is that they flop like crazy once in bloom when it rains and it thins out in the middle so it needs dividing. This is just a mum issue in general IMO.

Obviously hardy enough after its established. Coldest winter in 30 years 2 seasons ago and 6th coldest Feb on record this year with very little snow cover.

I ended up removing most of my mums and only have one Mammoth mum remaining as it doesn't have any tree or shrub roots I have to worry about with all the dividing/thinning it requires.

Its pretty grand looking when its not flopping though. Neighbourhood women swoon over it.

My Mammoth mums have since gotten quite large. Problem is that they flop like crazy once in bloom when it rains

I jumped on the MM bandwagon and had great success with "Dark Pink Daisy". It was so floriferous in its first year last season. But as you have noted, I experienced similarly i.e. a complete flop while in full bloom last Fall.

It easily survived this past harsh winter and it has been so vigorous this season. AND I have regularly pruned it all over thereby hoping to lessen the likelihood of another flop. I am actually debating right now whether to trim some more this week....getting a bit long into the summer...dont want to delay too long those amazzing flowers!

ken, I did cut them down and that's when I saw all the larvae wriggling around in the mulch and climbing up on what was left of the stems. Just wanted to know whether I needed to get rid of them so they wouldn't migrate to the knockout roses that are close by. Looks like the birds took care of them, because I didn't see any left this morning. Except one dead one.

many ..... many bugs.. are highly specific to a certain plant ... and that is why in this case .. the population exploded.. and did the damage ... on this one type plant ...

it took me a lot of years.. to understand.. that doesnt mean i have to spray everything for 2 miles around.. for that given threat ...

and never forget.. this years plague.. probably wont be back for 10 years ... so dont go all hairy on worrying about it next year ..

but if they do come back next year.. just get rid of the plant.. and find something more interesting... that wont have this bug problem ...

too many peeps rather eradicate a bug.. than just get rid of a 5 dollar plant... spending 20 bucks on some cure... whats that all about.. lol ... just get rid of the problem.. the plant.. not the bug ...

ken

Well, I expected pricy, but Holy Cow!

I wish the guy who built the other iron structures we have hadn't retired. I'm sure he could have built something for me for a whole lot less! I'm sitting here searching the Internet, thinking about how I could make a cheapie version myself using things like bird feeder pole hangers and copper pipes/tubing perhaps. Wouldn't be as elegant, but now that I have the idea in my head, I'll think of a way to so something!

The leaves should be dark red/maroon. If the plant does not get sunlight, then the leaves will be green - they need the exposure to sunlight to develop that maroon color.

The flower petals might not open fully if it is cloudy/rainy.
Just give it some time and it should be fine.

This plant is late to sprout in Spring. So next spring, do not despair if you do not see the new growth until May/June. Once the new leaves appear, it grows very fast and reaches full size in a matter of weeks.

I planted under my two maples before any one told me it was difficult/impossible to do so. I have not found it that difficult. I do water weekly or even twice weekly during a drought, which we do not get often. I also mulch yearly in late Spring and spread compost. This is very bright shade though since trees face South. There is no direct sunlight though except for the Southern edge of this bed where you see the rudbeckia. I also have a clump of rudbeckia in total shade and they do well there too. This picture is from September of 2014 and the beds were installed in 2006. Plants are most of the ones mentioned already, epimedium, hosta, grasses, turtlehead, anemones, rudbeckia, ferns, geraniums, lungwort, ligularia, yellow waxbells, solomon's seal.

Looks beautiful.

(Not all varieties of maples are water sucking monsters ;)).

Thanks Catkin.

From Mrs. L's, my last big garden.

Sidalcea 'Party Girl'.

Gentiana septemfida. (Edited the colour, but this still doesn't give credit to the deepness of the blue).

Helenium 'The Bishop'.

Leucanthemum x superbum Merlin's Hollow.

Sidalcea 'Purpetta'.

If one ever needed proof of the difference between gardening in England Z8 (where in England is it that warm? Riding the underground when the air conditioning is not working?) and New England Z 5a these photos show it.

..thanks !... I've also got several Rozanne's but I like to divide them up frequently... I prefer the now discontinued 'Jolly Bee'... it's much more compact... such a shame about the legal controversies that went on there...

Nope - that's not powdery mildew. It seems the culprit has been identified in your other post as sawfly larvae.

Powdery mildew is very heavily influenced by climatic conditions but not necessarily rain. In fact, rain or irrigation water generally destroys the spores that lead to PM. It is most often encouraged by warm, high humidity conditions and dry soils, which explains why it typically shows up late season when these conditions are most prevalent.

is most often encouraged by warm, high humidity conditions and dry soils

==>>> in my MI .. its the warm muggy NIGHTS ... when there is still air ... that mildews grow ... like in a dark closet ... lol

ken

"Especially love the Niobe with the lily"

A beautiful combination 'woody'.

peren.all - yeah, the mosquitoes are out in force and hungry here too! Yesterday I did a quick foray down near the 'wet corner' to whack off fading goatsbead flowers/developing seeds. I didn't put on my bug shirt - and was immediately under attack! I did a very rough job, and was out of there within a minute! There is still one more goatsbead to deadhead - DH will do it as the mosquitoes are less fond of his blood :-) I'm also useless in the heat so, while there is deadheading etc. needed in the front garden, it's going to have to wait until mid-week when it's supposed to be cooler again.

ruth and rouge - the Niobe and regal lily combination is a 'happy accident'. The lilies were planted maybe 8-10 years ago. The cursed lily beetles do less damage to the regal lilies than to other lilies, in my experience (the regal lily foliage is very narrow and somewhat coarse-textured; I think the beetles may consider it a poorer food source for the larvae perhaps.) But the lilies gradually faded away (too dry/too heavy soil maybe....?). The Niobe (and Henryi) clematises that grows on the arbour wilted badly early last summer so I wasn't expecting much from them this year. I thought dryness might be an issue, so asked DH to water the base of the arbour whenever he was watering his veggie pots nearby. Bingo! Great looking Niobe this year, and the lily on the right ride of the arbour returned from the dead! :-)

Thyme - I thought you'd like to see the heptacodium :-) I just checked my records - I planted it in 2002. I couldn't find a tree-form one so bought a small shrub one that only had 3 stems. I cut off the two smallest stems and let the other one become the tree trunk. It has certainly now surpassed the size I expected it to get - but we love it! (and so do the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds when it blooms!) The past two nasty winters didn't bother it a bit, so it's obviously very hardy. It doesn't have much in the way of fall color, and it gets too cold too early here to have the pink show from the calyxes make a show after the flowers finish in areas further south. But it's definitely worth growing! I can't imagine how much space it would be taking up though if I had left it as a shrub! Tree-form is certainly the way to go unless you have a huge space for it....

Thank you everyone for your answers! To Ken bits of it are green and fresh, but the plant in whole doesn't look healthy and it has hardly grown since I planted it in April. I compared that Lavender with the other one I brought because when I brought both of them it was the one pictured that was actually bigger and now it's the total opposite and the other one has bloomed and grown out compared to this one.

Where it's planted it is quite rocky compared to where the other one is so maybe that could be a problem? It has never really grew properly tbh since I planted it in April and gave it a pruning to encourage new growth. It gets sun quite a bit and I even cut down some bushes which it was near so it can get more sunlight, so I don't think it could be the sun. I never really watered it obsessively, but I started watering a bit more when I noticed it wasn't really growing and recently when it has been really hot.

I took better pics now so everyone can see it better. It looks worse than before because next doors children were playing around the garden and damaged it.

I have been wintersowing Jacob's Ladder every year for 4-5 years and get spotty germination. The plants don't seem to thrive anywhere, but do best with bright shade or mottled shade and good drainage. The blooms are nice and at a time when not much else is blooming. I'm going to try to scatter as many as I can throughout my shady yard and see if at least a few can find a happy spot.

Martha

I planted "Stairway to Heaven" back in 2011. Mine has come back each year, a little larger. It's planted in among the roots of a red maple in amended clay.

Thanks all for identifying the plant. It is Red Sentinel Astilbe, I finally picked up one from a nursery.

One of my favorite plants. Be sure to keep it moist, they don't like to dry out.

Mine do that. The new growth will bloom but the stalks are quite short - maybe only a foot tall.

This is what part of my knock-out roses looked like a week ago (I cut out all of the dead stuff) and it has spread to an unidentified yellow-flowering spring perennial that is in front of the roses. I thought it is powdery mildew, as a result of our really wet late spring. This didn't happen to any of the same plants last year.