13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

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.

Early this spring we put an electric wire around this flower bed by the house. Took the wire down in July, but the deer have (so far) have stayed away. Usually they love to snack on my upright sedums.

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

Thanks all.

These two plants get probably 5 hours of sun per day.

I too have BP and you are right of course ie with dead heading one gets a reasonable amount of a second flush.

Mine get that much or more. Next year is the third year, so maybe they will do better. Thanks!

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

Just pile a few rocks around it - that's what I do when they do that. They like rocks anyway, and the right rocks will really show them off.

That would be preaching to the choir. I'm sure they already know about it.

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.

Let them go dormant. These plants are spider mite magnets if grown indoors over winter.

Kevin

There are different types of "elephant ears," and the best way to overwinter depends on the type in addition to your zone.

The link below has lots of good information on overwintering.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Delights guide to overwintering elephant ears

Thanks for the information from both of you. I so appreciate your help. Yes the pots do sound like too much trouble. Actually I just wanted to clean up beds since they are in front of house. I will let them be. Can I cut the plants to the ground now and then be done with them?

I grew many rudbeckia cultivars from seed via winter sowing and they've reliably come back season after season, even those I left in gallon pots on my breezeway. I can't vouch for nursery-grown plants but I've not had any issues with winter sown plants.

Echinacea/coneflower cultivars haven't been as reliable either in pots or in the ground where I am. The only plants that have returned after several seasons are the species purpurea and the cultivar 'White Swan.' Even winter sown seed-grown cultivars haven't returned after their first season.

I guess the answer to your question is that some will survive the winter in pots while others may not. Normally I'm grateful for those that survive and don't let myself be concerned over those that don't.

I have an east/west facing breezeway and have noticed that gallon pots of perennials placed at ground level up against the house foundation have reliably survived even a cold, snowy winter season.

Interesting thread/comments.

I'll be sectioning some aster and helenium stems from now on.

I've certainly seen galls on wild goldenrod stems, but, here at least, I've never seen galls on garden aster or helenium stems.

I have no galls either on any of the affected plants. The heleniums were the most affected packed all the way to the crown but not every stem. The aster Blue Autumn only had a few stems affected.

Our gardens are part of our business because we grow and sell plants for a living and like to display them in garden beds. We have about 30 different gardens scattered around the edges of a 36-acre property. I could never maintain them or enjoy them as much as I do without my partner's effort.
Generally, he is responsible for maintenance, especially in the sunny, high-profile gardens. I design and maintain the shade gardens.
At the end of the day, when work is over, we stroll through discussing plans or ideas for more gardens.
Without the gardens, the business would be just that. With the gardens, it remains a labour of love.

No, but DH will move heavy bags or bails of compressed soil etc. for me. He also waters plants when I am away if I leave very specific instructions. He is happy to let me do my thing and loves to invite others over to see the gardens. Most of those people are not gardeners and while they are polite making all the right comments I have come to appreciate the odd gardener who really understands gardening and wants to talk plants and design, etc.