13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
It's generous of you to want to share seeds with other gardeners and there's little reason not to other than the fact that named cultivars will likely not come true from seed. If you want to harvest the seeds, you need to wait until the seedpods ripen/turn to a tan/brown color.
As SunnyBorders mentioned, some cultivars are sterile so the seeds won't germinate but that can't be said of every type. I've grown tall phlox from traded seeds and have lots of plants growing in my various beds that I grew from seed.
The only way to be sure you share 'true' cultivars with garden friends is to divided the plants.
i dont know about your friend.. lol ...
if your seeds are falling to the surface of the ground.. and SPROUTING..
why in the world would they need to be buried ...
MOST self sowers.. do not need the seed covered.. at all .... after all.. they can not do that by themselves ....
when we plant seed.. and are told to cover such with a bare 1/16th inch of soil... that is more for moisture retention.. rather than to bury them ...
many such seed will not sprout if not on the surface ...
ken
More related discussion here:
Here is a link that might be useful: Polygonum Cuspidatum 'Crimson Beauty'
Persicaria 'Crimson Beauty' looks a lot like Japanese knotweed, but it remains in a clump, never sends out runners and never drops fertile seed. I've had one for over 10 years--in sandy soil where everything that can run or seed does. And it's coming into its glorious cherry red bloom right now. A great, great, plant.
I'm not real impressed with Frosty Morn, even if reversion isn't an issue. For me it tends to lose the lower leaves as it blooms, so just when it should look really pretty it looks like, well, ugly. It has been a wet year here, though. I really like Matrona and Vera Jamison much better. They are my favorites. I have Dragon's Blood and Voodoo, and they are okay.
I think September Charm (or it might be Autumn Charm) is a newer variagated "tall" sedum. Unlike Frosty Morn, it came back well this spring, never reverted and over all seems more vigorous.
I popped off tops in late spring, just because of my habit of doing this to Autumn Joy and its close cousins. Stuck them in the ground. they didn't get very tall this season, but they're blooming on their wee 3 inch stems.
I planted a would-be 'tapestry garden' of sedums a couple of years ago. Most disappointed. Only Angelina consistently did well. A couple of 'fulga' thrived; here and there patches of other varieties have done ok. Overall, underwhelming.
idabean
I grow everything together...perennials, annuals, veggies, bulbs, shrubs, trees, containers. My goal is bloom all the time with nice foliage and scented flowers, and food for the birds and the bees.
Interesting that the year I retired from 30 years of teaching, I planted everything with proper spacing, like they were my students in a carefully structured classroom. I guess I needed the transition! lol.That lasted a year and then I went back to my mixed up gardens.
--Interesting that the year I retired from 30 years of teaching, I planted everything with proper spacing, like they were my students in a carefully structured classroom. ---
Funny! :) Isn't it interesting how our experiences influence our visual perception? And it works the other way too, outside in. Over in the decorating forum, the height of artwork on walls was a a hot topic. The majority stress eye-level. But everything cluttered eye-level and below with bare walls to the vaulted ceiling just looks wrong and unbalanced to me! So I thought about it, and then the reason why dawned. As a landscape designer, I don't just view what is straight ahead, and below. I am looking at the visual balance from ground level to the tops of the trees, rooflines, pergolas etc! Eye-catchers are as likely to be above eye-level as even-to-below in my outdoor experience. So I hang our artwork quite a bit higher than home designers do. I refuse to think of it as "wrong", because it is comfortable to my visual space. But the interior designers would likely all cringe visiting my home. lol
edit to fix my spelling
This post was edited by Gyr_Falcon on Mon, Sep 9, 13 at 16:25
It is definitely not too cold in zone 6 to grow good crepe myrtles, although special siting and care in early years helps if you want good-sized crepe myrtle trees.
I have had long-term survival and good performance from two different dwarf seed strains. Although dwarf is a relative term - several plants (from the 'Little Chief' series, as I recall) bloomed at over 7 feet in height this year and have had all or nearly all their woody growth make it through the past two winters. Elsewhere I've had a more dwarf specimen (in hot pink) going for close to ten years, now flowering at a little under 3 feet tall.
Very nice long-blooming perennial shrubs hereabouts. And the only trimming necessary is to remove dead wood in early April.
This post was edited by eric_oh on Sun, Sep 8, 13 at 23:47
eric, I have to disagree just a tad with the zone 6 thing. Yes you can grow them like you say but inevitably, a winter will eventually come to knock them back or kill them. My sister up in Kansas zone 6 can verify this. There in Wellington (Kansas border) and ^ beyond^ every single Crepe Mrytle got killed a just a few years back. Sometimes they will come back from the roots and sometimes not. The old common pink unimproved variety is the hardiest. Not a single one survived.
Here in zone 7 back in the 1980's we had an unusually long Indian Summer that extended well into December. Then right before Christmas, there was an Arctic Express that came down and killed hundreds of them. Dropping the temperature about 80 degrees in a few hours into a frigid windy nightmare did a number on them. The problem that year was, the Crepe Myrtles had not hardened off at all. Southern trees and shrubs will do that since they are not programmed with the same defenses of Northern varieties. Hundreds of Crepe Mrytle in the city were killed and the rest that died down to the roots had to start over. I lost a big one that had become tree-like that had beautiful trunks that was very old and tall.
The first one is definitely Datura, and I don'tknow if it is perennial in your zone, but it's a ***prolifically*** self seeding annual in colder climates. Be careful and make sure you deadhead it if you don't want thousands of volunteers. I have them coming up everywhere, even when I do deadhead them! Also, don't sow too many of the seeds. It seems to me as if every single one of them germinates!
Wow, thanks everyone. I knew y'all were geniuses! That was fast!
So I'm a bit sad about the datura. After reading some about them, on top of the fact that they only bloom at night, I don't know if I'll plant any of the seeds. I've had my eye on getting a brug for a quick minute, though, and now I want one even more. Maybe I'll just do one datura. I don't know.
What I read about the spider lilies is that they bloom in late summer, stay green through the winter, and fade back in the spring. How peculiar! Unfortunately that means the best time to transplant them will be in the spring when they fade back, and my husband will surely get them with the lawn mower long before then. Anyone try to transplant them in the fall? There's a few clumps of them near a fence in my backyard also, and I'd love to put them in a new home, safe from the lawn mower blade. I wonder how these randomly appeared in the first place.
GP, we moved here because of a terrific job opportunity for my husband. He is from Scotland/Chicago; I'm from Chicago. We both miss forests and water -- big bodies of water like the Great Lakes. Chicago has one of the most extensive forest preserve districts in the US, and we always took advantage of that. And I miss the days when an 85-degree day was considered stinking hot, not a "cool spell".
GP: you bet! Consider the slate clean.
Mulchmama: we're considering moving to Chicago in a decade, when we retire, to be with our daughter. We've been there about 8 times and we've fallen in love with the Botanic Garden. I could go there every week.
Love the people, the food, the neighborhoods. Afraid of missing our mountains, ocean, seafood. Would not miss reserved,Bostonians cost of living.
Went to Beloit, so know the climate. Chicago is not where'd I choose to live out my retirement in wintertime, but maybe I could be a snowbird in Feb. and go to Florida!
But it were winter with family and grandchildren (which I hope I'd have by then) then I'd be warm anyway.
Idabean
I was just now listening to the podcast of the Ron Wilson In the Garden show from this morning. He broadcasts out of Cincinnati Ohio and he just got done mentioning the Mammoth Mums and how hardy they are supposed to be. He also mentioned that you need to give them plenty of room.
As I said in the other thread, I have one of the My Favorite Mums that are older but in the same group of Mums as the MMs. My plant has never gotten as large as these are supposed to be, even though it has come back for 8 years and was even moved to a different house.
If it were me, I'd wait until Spring to divide any mum. It is getting a bit late to do it now. When we moved, it was the around the second week of August that my mum was dug up and moved. It never missed a beat and bloomed on time. But it's a month later now, and I'd not be moving or dividing mums.
Linda
I hadn't heard of these 'Mammoth' Mums. I just googled images of them, wondering what colors they came in and they have a variety. I enjoy mums that come back every spring. Then they look good all summer until they bloom. I'll have to see if any local nurseries have these.
Yes, usually I go by the rule to divide either dormant, or right after bloom, but with the mums, since they bloom so late, I wouldn't disturb them until early spring either.
I'm seeing more powdery mildew than usual this year on the phlox in our garden. Flowering or not, I need to cut much more back to limit inoculum entering the soil.
The one exception is variegate 'Nora Leigh', which is blooming late and currently shows no powdery mildew. Perhaps the late blooming is related to me usually positioning it further back (than many phlox) in the perennial beds.
thyme2dig, yes, the variegated Iris foliage does get a little junky but maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's as noticeable. I've cut mine back about 3 weeks ago. Still, it does come back clean and fresh every spring.
david883, It is a pretty combo, I just wanted to point out to you, that there are two different Iris in that photo. There is a variegated Iris in the front, that is not blooming yet, and behind it is a plain yellow Iris. The variegated blooms a purple flower that smells like grapes, after the yellow Iris. Look forward to your spring photos. :-)
Aseedisapromise, love your color combinations.
Dee, great blue Iris.
Beautiful iris pictures, I really love the fancy ones..... Reminds me of another post about plants you've loved and then left and then returned to. I can feel an iris addiction coming on :)
ASeedisapromise- I remember my first Iris order from a western grower. I never knew the rhizomes could even get that big! Trust me they got smaller fast enough once they were planted in my garden!
Hm, must be a climate thing or something. I have three clumps in my border, going on for 4 weeks without rain, just heavy soil with some kind of depot, not wilting, just the scruffy weeds at their feed are dying.
They stand upright all winter, so I left them alone& chopped them down in late spring, so far no seedlings to be found.
I have some clumps of Rudbeckia nitida Herbstsonne (slug bait) which I will shovel prune and replace with a LQ division.
keep enjoying your lovely plants,
bye, Lin
LOL, gazania! I will go with you when you go out because obviously I need to get out more as well! Same here - reading about a lot of sedums I never heard of just in this thread alone. I tend to have more groundcover sedums, but may look into these taller varieties as I am going to be planning a "drier" bed for my irises.
Thanks, netcub, for posting this. Boy, bet this would look great next to some kind of chartreuse-ey plant....
Dee
today .... being a literal sort of guy..
how the heck do i know what pooped on your clethra ..
tomorrow.. i might be figurative...
ken
ps: i am thinking your wall must be done.. and unlike the rest of the summer.. you have regained some passion for the garden ....
Here is a link that might be useful: link
I grow several Clethra Ruby Spice in a wetland area, and like others find that it's a casual shrub, excellent in a wilder area, but not so much so in a more formal bed. I think that more than anything they need acid soil, and IME the source of the original selection matters to its hardiness. I had a Dirr selection (perhaps Sixteen Candles?) with a southern provenence that had serious die-back every winter, although Ruby Spice has no issues. It was a smaller size with excellent form.
My Clethra RS are in full sun in a seasonally wet area (though some wet years like this one it's all season) and don't have issues with leaning. They also have nice later fall color, a clear yellow.