13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I love that plant, nice choice!
I'd say it's a front/mid-front of the border plant. The foliage is about a foot tall and it's nice looking - or at least it's not offensive in any way. Spacing is maybe 16" or so. A foot seems too close, so something in the 16-18 inch range feels about right. Mine have filled in around the original plants with seedlings so I can't say what the spacing originally was.
Full sun up to about half day shade is what they get here. The long stems are fantastic. They are a mainstay in bouquets and they go with just about any color.
I hope they prove to be good plants for you. I just love mine and have them in several places - they seem happy everywhere!
I have serious rabbit issues, so I use (successfully and with minimal trouble) the I MUST GARDEN rabbit repellent. It is plant-based and the smell is fine. I spritz my flowers when they emerge and the repellent lasts at least a month and I reapply. Given the cost of plants and missed seasons of enjoyment if blooms are eaten, I find this repellent to be preferable to anything else I've tried. It doesn't wash off in heavy rain. I buy it locally since it's made here in Chapel Hill, but you can order it online.
Hope this helps,
Cameron
Indoor/outdoor cats are the real answers to squirrels, rabbits, mice and other little munchers. We live in the country so we currently have 7 cats (all neutered) that come in regularly for lap time and to check out the basement for mice. They don't sleep indoors at night except in really brutal winter weather.
We no longer have any problems with little varmints damaging plants. Even the moles seem happy to stay out of the gardens. Our two labs take care of those that do.
Rouge, I was looking in vain for a post I made about these amazing flowers. I have several in my garden, and didn't know what they were, so pulled most of them out, thinking that they were weeds. They looked a bit like dandilions and every morning I'd see a pale yellow half-dead flower on them, so I just thought, what use are these?
Then my neighbor came over and asked specifically if I had seen any evening primroses in that particular bed. She explained that the flowers popped open just as the sun was going down, and stayed open all night.
Turns out that she had remembered many years earlier before I lived there, that that particular bed was full of them, and the one she had, and all the others that she had given to members of her family, had all come from my garden.
They still come up, here and there, and they are completely fascinating to watch. It takes about 5 seconds for them to open, so you have to kind of sit there staring at the bud around sunset!
(Neighbor did order some from a nursery and was very disappointed that they sent her the wrong type of Oenothera, even though she had specified the triloba).
There are some youtube videos of them opening. Endlessly pleasing and kids love them. I usually move one from the garden each year and put it in a pot on the patio so I can watch them!
OK, I had to see this for myself, so I checked out Youtube and found 3 videos. This is probably the most in-focus one, but it's called a 'Moonflower' - yet another reason I hate the endless, common names.
Kevin
Here is a link that might be useful: Video
Thanks Rosie,
I haven't purchased a guara for many years. All that I have grown lately have self seeded and they are very unpredictable. I saved seed found the best plants in the past and they never came up like the mother plant.
I don't fertilize this plant. And the soil in this spot is not really improved.
It has a side spout which is lying near the ground. Don't want to lift it for fear that it might crack off.
I will tell Bobalu that you said he was gorgeous. Actually, I will use the word "handsome". He's a little sensitive about that. :-)
i have ..not very often .. tricked a z6 into living over winter for a year or two ... in a perfect micro climate ...
i highly doubt you will have any luck tricking mother nature into 2 or 3 zones ...
google propagation of such.. and see if you cant take a couple small pieces off the side.. rather than digging up a huge plant ...
in other words.. try to over winter it.. but cut your odds....
in the alternative... you are basically going to have to pay the bucks.. and grow a perennial as an annual ... of which.. many of our annuals actually are ...
ken
My combo is Salvia guaranitica âÂÂVan Remsenâ and Tradescantia pallida âÂÂPurple Heart,â the purple foliage planted along the wall in the picture that has a pinkish purple flower.
The salvia is blue in the shade but turns violet blue or purple in the sun, grows to 7 ft tall and has been blooming for 4 months. Hummingbirds love it. Picture taken 9/21/13.
RyseRyse_2004 - prior to the most recent adjustment to USDA hardiness zones I was Z5 and my hellebores were already planted in my garden beds when I took this picture a couple of winters ago where my hellebores were growing:
That's my front lawn. I'm guessing all that snow melted & made my hellebores really happy because they've more than doubled in size since. I'm also guessing they might have been in bloom under the snow but chances are they didn't really bloom until most of that melted. I could be wrong but am guessing it's a preference thing--I love anything that blooms so having these blooms so early in the season is a welcome sight.
amy1717 - thanks for the tip about the free photo site. I'll be sure to check it out.
I sailed aboard the schooner 'Nathaniel Bowditch' every summer for 30 years (check out the link). The ship was built in East Boothbay, Maine in 1922. Also sailed with her for Sail Boston 2000 and again in 2007. Fell in love with sailing after doing a couple Outward Bound sailing challenges in Maine.
Would enjoy a pic of your boat if you have one. Some friends I met aboard the Bowditch have a 50 ft. boat down on the Chesapeake.
Sorry I'm not yet on Facebook.
I could sure give you hosta divisions if we were closer--had to divide quite a few of my designer plants when they were close to a decade growing where I planted them. We've had so much rain this season they're most of them twice their normal size. Ye gods!!!
Would be happy to give you divisions once the weather cools if you're willing to pay the shipping.
Here is a link that might be useful: Schooner Nathaniel Bowditch
gardenweed - First off, WOW, that's a lot of snow! Hard to imagine anything blooming under all that, but who would know? Glad to see some of your photos -- they're beautiful! What lovely color in that bloom.
Too bad you're not on FB yet -- don't want to go off on a sailing tangent here, but will post the link to our online blog from the 2007 trip, which has probably more photos of us & our boat than anyone cares to see. Ours looks like a dinghy compared to the Bowditch!! I'll have to show that one to my other half, good inspiration for our next great adventure :)
Out of curiosity, what part of CT are you in? My aunt & uncle live there, near Willimantic, and Mom did for some years before coming back to TX, so I got to spend a few vacations up there in the '90s. Beautiful area -- I loved discovering Indian Pipes and all the wild ferns in the woodlands behind her house.
Might take you up on those divisions -- do they ship well? Let me know when that's a possibility!
This post was edited by amy1717 on Fri, Oct 4, 13 at 0:31
Definitely agreeing with the above!
Kevin, I would have never even imagined raccoons going after pond fish! Learn something new everyday. What size tank do you keep them in indoors?
Karin, my aunt keeps talking about how we should grow and can some vegetables. I've never done it because I just know I would forget something with so many steps! Glad you were able to retrieve them without hurting themselves!
I think a lot will depend on its flowering condition :-)) Mums sold for fall color tend to be very heavily budded - best to purchase them in bud rather than bloom as the flowers tend to go over rapidly. But the development of the buds into flowers is certainly stimulated by sunlight. Excessive shade may very well stunt or abort the flowering.
So you've got this choice to make - a heavily budded plant that may not fully develop its flowering potential in that much shade or one already into its flowering cycle that may not produce for as long as you like (IME, a ready-to-go mum lasts about 2-3 weeks max in bloom).
if they are selling them at the stores for october planting...
one might surmise... that you can do it...
yes.. it would be better if they werent green.. but if you dont do it now.. lets be honest.... will it ever get done.. lol ...
i would leave the green attached.. so i replanted at the same depth.. and cut it off in a few weeks when it browns..
or if you leave them.. it will remind you in spring.. where you put them.. so you dont plant annuals over them.. been there.. done that.. lol
ken
You are so right. Wasps, not bees.
As wrong as it is, I call anything that has a stinger a bee.
If I get lucky enough to get a honey bee which is rare, I brag that I saw a honey bee. Again that is probably the wrong word, but I am too old to care.
Now when one of the many bumble bees that are around here in the spring landed on my wife's pants leg and then she bought it in the house (unknowingly) and then she sat on it and the stinger shot into her leg.... Well, she called that bee by a different name, which I can't print here. :-)
Here is a link that might be useful: Bee clothing
So many things eat the milkweed in my garden that I am lucky if the Butterflies can have enough leaves to support them. Hasn't happened, yet.
Yes, milkweed does seem to attract a panoply of insects - not to mention the occasional critter that chomps it down. This is why I regularly patrol mine and either squish or banish all insects. The lady bugs and occasional spider get tossed into another garden, but most get squished. I like insects, but since my property is a Monarch waystation, I raise and tag Monarchs (didn't see any this year unfortunately), and I collect seed, I want the foliage and seedpods to be healthy. The Monarchs are welcome, but the other bugs not so welcome.
Edited to add: this doesn't include flowers! all pollinators are welcome on those.
This post was edited by terrene on Wed, Sep 25, 13 at 18:57
Amaranthus caudatus, commonly called 'Love Lies Bleeding'....
CMK
Thank you. I was thinking of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate.