13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
UPDATE:
Here is our "Woods Purple" a year later (its first full season in the garden).
The bloom color is incredible but the large splay in the middle is for sure distracting :(.
(And it isn't as if it is tall either so I am not sure why it is like it is)
Hmm, guess I'd better get moving on tilling up & amending soil then! I just finished putting in a corner bed yesterday, though, so I'm having an "armchair gardener" day today :) Maybe next week end...
Glad to hear your H's made it through the drought! We, too, have finally gotten some much-needed rain and cooler weather over the past week after a long, hot, dry summer (typical TX), which does renew the urge to get out and play in the dirt :)
Do you happen to know if fall is also the right time to plant other shade plants, like brunnera, pulmonaria, and beauty berry?
I grew species Baptisia australis from seed via the winter sowing method in 2011 but although they had a good germination rate, none have yet flowered. My guess would be they need a few years to mature before flowering. IMO they're worth waiting for.
Winter sowing taught me to be patient and be grateful for things that bloom when they're meant to rather than when I'd prefer them to do so.
As you say, they're lovely, large perennials that require zero care/maintenance and are not bothered by deer--what's not to love? I have nearly a half dozen mature nursery-grown plants growing in full sun in my butterfly beds. I consider them elegant and maintenance-free perennials. They're a much-appreciated addition to the early season garden.
Pretty, Gardenweed!
Gardenmom, if your seeds just germinated, then your seedlings will be pretty small to go through the winter. I've got a couple Twilight Prairie Blues plants and this year there is one self-sown seedling out in the garden. I also collected seed this year to sow next winter. I'm curious what color the seedlings will be.
Starting Baptisia from seed is an exercise is patience. They take years to bloom. I started some Baptisia leucantha in 2008 and am still waiting on blooms. They are getting pretty good sized, so they'll probably bloom next Spring. They spent the first couple years in pots, so they probably would have bloomed by now otherwise.
Btw, deer may not like the foliage, but voles love Baptisia roots!
I dig them in, pot and all, filling soil up to around the top of the pot. So far its worked pretty good.... Except for the year mice moved in and chewed up every little bit of mum sprout and root.
I do it this way to avoid any root disturbance in the fall, and like others have said I leave the tops untouched.
**** look at that I can finally use the edit post function! I guess mnwsgal just wrote nearly the exact same thing.... Maybe this counts as a backup? I guess I shouldn't take two hours to actually finish up a comment ;)
This post was edited by kato_b on Sat, Sep 21, 13 at 22:44
I have had success planting just your ordinary Fall mums that you buy at the local nursery probably half of the time. Not every one has been hardy, but some of them have been coming back every spring for at least 5 years. So I try them just to see. I do take them out of their pot and plant them in the ground, somewhere I want to see them come back.
I've also ordered mums from Bluestone that are hardy to my zone and they all have worked out. They have a pretty good selection and I've bought those in the spring and planted them.
Very colorful display on your front porch!
Sandyslopes I like your swatch of Autumn Joy!
I don't have a ton of deer, but they do browse on some plants mostly in the back garden, and on some of my favorite native perennials. They have never touched the Sedum so it must not be a deer favorite.
However, the voles love the tuberous roots of Sedum! They nearly wiped out my beautiful large Matrona and Purple Emperor in the front garden 2 years ago. It is one of the plants I sprinkle with castor oil solution, which works great as a vole repellent. Now the plants are recovering well.
Don't have wood betony, but have experience with big betony.
Just (couple of days ago) chopped up a big betony, replanted a bit and potted up the rest to overwinter outside. Had no problem doing this previously.
Don't know if wood betony is equally hardy here.
Well, I grow Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' which is very similar in appearance and it does just fine for me. It had no problem surviving last winter which was more like a zone 4 winter than a zone 5 winter. We had little snow cover and temps that approached 15 below F. It had no protection at all and came through just fine.
IMO, it should do fine for you, but I don't know how you were growing it.
Kevin
I have several patches of Lobelia cardinalis. It is one of the hummingbirds' top 3 favorite plants in my gardens (the other 2 being Monarda didyma and Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue').
It does fine in part sun, but pouts in my back garden when it is droughty. I will give it some extra watering, along with the veggies, and butterfly plants, because the hummingbirds love it so much. Also this encourages it to reseed along the edges of the garden. I agree with NHbabs, that it would prefer to have adequate moisture, over full sun.
I've posted this pic before, but here is a pic of my Cardinal flower from 2011 when we had abundant rainfall that summer -
Thanks everyone!
The two lobelias I have are the cardinalis and syphilitica and everyone has provided lots of good info for both.
I wasn't sure if the syphilitica, like the cardinalis, reseeded but I think nhbabs set me straight on that.
Hi terrene. I guess you know where these lobelias are going. Yes, my butterfly/hummer garden.. And wouldn't you know it: beebalm and salvia feature prominently in it!
gary
So what exactly do you mean by "the stems are getting rather long, with foliage just at the top". Is there foliage comming out at the stem where the flowers should be? Or is the basal clump of foliage getting "tall" with a naked stem between the folaige and the ground?
IF it is the former (which I doubt- it's pretty rare) it could be a cell mutation- think its called proliferation.
If it is the latter I would think some die-off with the older, lower leaves would be typical. I wouldn't plant any deeper- I've always read they need their crowns above ground so they don't rot out. That being said I've only tried to grow Lewisia once and failed epically ;-)
You might always try asking this on the alpine forum btw...
CMK
Aw geez. I did so good at ignoring the email they sent. Sent it right to the recycle bin. But now this. Don't know if i can ignore TWO mentions of it in one afternoon. I might just have to go dig up that email. Thank goodness you didn't put a link....
;)
Dee
Love the colours above.
I tend to just go with what work here; for me, within a perennial garden, for sunny locations which are too small for colour to be maintained by perennials, I've used small and medium sized dahlias and geraniums (pelargoniums), purchased each spring and planted after the bulbs are finished.
If there's enough perennial variety (colour) in the overall garden, the annuals are just useful fillers. With a sprinkler system, deadheading carries the contribution of the annuals throughout the growing season.
Why get fed up with that?
Below September 9, 2013:
I'm still having a love/not so much relationship with daylilies. A visit to the daylily forums always sucks me back in! This fall I am going to try spreading them out among the other garden plants to see if that works better. I want to do something different with that prominent, mostly daylily-filled bed.
Angelonea: I'm not a huge fan of the flowers, and they cost a lot when they are not available in 6-pac. Some didn't thrive. But then, just a few of them grew really well and are still blooming after months of show. So, do I grow them again or forget it? I can't decide!
Anigozanthos/Kangaroo Paw: 1st year they sit there. ok. Year #2 they throw up a few flower stalks. Not bad. Year #3 they put on an amazing show that lasts for months and thrills the hummingbirds. Fabulous/show stopping! They don't return for year 4.
To make them work in the garden, I have to add some new plants every year. Sometimes I discover well after the fact that the tags have been switched. The cultivars I like are vastly outnumbered by the ones that hold no interest. Whether 'paws are in favor depends upon if I won that year's expensive gamble.
Dahlias. Hmmm I haven't grown them since we lived in the snail/slug house. ;-) I have been thinking about planting a few here...those photos makes me want to even more.
mmmm, I think it might be A.falconeri - I have known several small asters, ranging from the common a.dumosus ( practically annuals for me) through to a (very short-lived) south african, a.natalensis, from back in my scree garden days. Should be hardy, but will require that mythical moist but well-drained soil.
Do keep us up to date on its performance.
Do keep us up to date on its performance.
UPDATE:
Here it is 3 months later.
It has grown lots in diameter and still remained very short.
But the 'washed out' pink of the blooms.is not so special.
This post was edited by rouge21 on Sat, Sep 21, 13 at 6:29
Cut to your heart's content. You cannot hurt Lily of the Valley, no natter how you try.
Wow. I never realized they were so tough! Thanks everyone for your comments. Next year I'll be mowing them off when they start looking bad. I guess I'm really lucky to have them where they are completely contained. In the spring breezes they perfume the air with memories of childhood at my grandma's house.