13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I'm with your parents and would like to eliminate them as well due to their sloppy habit of falling over but chances are you'll find them cropping up in other spots--they do seed around. Check them out on Google if you're interested in more information. As christinmk mentioned, Tradescantia is the botanical name; the common name is spiderwort. While they do attract pollinators, they're not my favorite perennial thanks to their floppy habit.
They are pretty sad looking. At my house I have lots of areas bordering the woods that I want to landscape with wildflowers and natural plants. I think they'll work out well there. In exchange, I gave my parents the iris tubers that were also ID'd on this forum. Love a good trade :)
Wow, lots of great things here! Reading through this thread, I realized I have more tiny things than I thought!
I just bought two variegated Mouse Ears hosta (I think they are called Frosted Mouse Ears) and hosta Cameo, another mini (which is kinda funny because I also just bought a hosta Empress Wu and Komodo Dragon - for another thread, perhaps?). I was enchanted with them as soon as I opened the box!
I also have some tiny astilbe, whose name escapes me, cyclamen, creeping sedum (one very tiny one again whose name escapes me at the moment). I used to have oomphaloides, but they died out on me. I also love primroses and portulaca, and lily of the valley. Love creeping phlox but sadly it does not love me.
As for spring plants, I do have a lot of the minor bulbs - crocuses, iris reticulata, chionodoxa, scilla, grape hyacinths, dwarf early narcissus, snowdrops, and species tulips, all of which are very welcome sights in the spring! I've got some fall-blooming crocus as well.
Akebono, you reminded me of bluets, which I never would have mentioned because I never planted them and thought they were a "weed". For the 17 years I've been here, every spring they just pop up in a large spot in my so-called lawn. Everyone loves them - even my husband and son mow around them when they mow the lawn. I never knew what they were till about ten years ago when I got curious and finally looked them up.
Funny how walking past all these little things can bring a big smile to your face!
Dee
Hi all!
I saw Franeli's photo and comments regarding the lingonberry. I'm right at the borderline zone for it to grow. My mother tried once and it did not work. I may give it a go. Could you tell me how many mature plants are needed to make the 1 cup sauce? I always buy it for the holidays. If I could grow it, I'd feel like I'd get an added bonus! thanks all for letting me diverge.....
I grow little bluestem 'Blue Heaven' in part shade which stays two feet tall and is bluish with reddish accents in summer turning reddish purple in fall. It only gets a few hours of full afternoon sun. This is also near a large maple tree which may be a factor in keeping it short and compact. My hakone grass is in the same bed just a bit over with little sun and gets only 6-8 inches tall.
Beautiful garden. Perhaps some low growing plants for the front of the border-dianthus, moss phlox(subulata),or campanula'clips'. Or low growing foliage plants like thymes or sedums that come in different colors, bright yellows,reds, and varying shades of green all which do fine with minimal water. All mentioned do well in my zone 5 sunny gardens.
Hey Dee, have you thought of mixing groundcover sedums to form a bit of a patchwork on your slope? Does your slope face up where you'll see it head on? There is a garden near me that did about the same size slope as yours and they massed a handful of different kinds and it looked really interesting. Just a thought if you can't find a lot of the one you want.
Thyme, I actually have thought of that. Some of the websites I've looked at offer mixes, and the photos of roofs and slopes are pretty interesting. And I do love sooo many different kinds of sedum!
But since I've started with the K and have a nice little swath of it started, I think I'd like to keep it all the same. I may have to go to the mix, if that's really the cheapest option, which of course is more work since I'd have to dig up my K and mix the other stuff in.
I've got an email in to a Canadian nursery. We'll see!
Dee
I have 'Honorine Jobert' in northeastern Pennsylvania zone5. Foliage emerges mid-spring and it is starting to bloom now. It spreads and overtakes other plants in my partial shade garden with rich soil. I pull out 1/3 from here every year.
In a sunny bed with no amendments and only thin mulch layer,1/2-1", it does fine. No invasive traits. I have to do nothing with it.
Leaves are med-dark green, thick, 3 palmate toothed margins and get about 3-4" diameter.
Blooms are so pretty, I thought it was an artificial flower the first time I saw it-pristine white petals and vibrant yellow stamens surrounding pale green center.
This plant is beautiful but don't plant it too close to other perennials because it spreads over time with tenacious roots. I have been pulling out leaves and roots popping up all summer from a huge plant I dug out this spring. The root of the main plant was 3" thick. It keeps putting up leaves all over a 4 foot space and I pull them everyday to try to get rid of this.
I planted it out in a meadow where it can do what it wants. I love the flowers but the bloom only lasts a few weeks and isn't worth the space it takes up in my average size garden. Leaves are nothing significant, just green. The flower stems are very tall even in full sun. Where I live it dies down over winter with ratty looking leaves, and I have to cut it back to the ground.
There is this very, very useful tool called a lawnmower. The ignorant think it is just for manicuring grass. The enlightened know it as one the easiest, most efficient destroyer of truly horrible weeds commonly available. It is amazing what will rather die than be kept at three inches tall. The number of trees I have killed must be measured in the thousands by now.
LOL, yes, I discovered that the former owner used that very method to control the bazillions of Rose of Sharon seedlings trying to colonize the backyard. (said Roses of Sharon will be severely pruned and possibly entirely removed under the new management ;-) !)
Trouble is, the houttynia in the ground-level bed is well and truly woven in between, betwixt and behind several layers of shrubs and other (desirable) perennials... thus the Lawnmower Method is too non-selective in this case.
(That said, it has been my experience that wild garlic laughs at lawnmower blades, however low and repeititive, and simply throws yet another bulbil-propagation party underground afterward.)
I have two false indigo plants growing in my butterfly bed, with lots of other full-sun perennials growing around them, including Shasta daisies, Echinacea, Nepeta/catmint, Rudbeckia, Caryopteris/blue mist shrub, rose of Sharon, peony, & butterfly bush.
My artemesia has gradually diminished over the past half dozen years so I no longer count on it returning every year while cushion spurge (Polychroma spurge euphorbia) has been with me for more than 25 years.
A low-growing option that requires zero care is Stachys 'Helen von Stein.' It's a sterile (without the ugly flower stems) lamb's ear cultivar that just looks great 11 months out of the year.
I thought I had a better photo of an earlier season, but I didn't have time to look longer. If I would just label my photos consistently so they would all come up in a search, I'd make my life easier. But this is Baptisia australis with Nepeta 'Walker's Low', two varieties of Cranesbill and Ninebark 'Summer Wine' which I think is the same as Babs. It only gets less than 5 hrs of sun in the afternoon here and it needs support because it flops, I assume with not enough sun. Not sure I'm loving all that purple color.
I'll ditto Dee's welcome even though I don't grow what are annuals here in my colder (than your's) zone. Here Gerbera daisies are (I believe) also called African daisies which means they're not perennials here in the colder climate zones. They're colorful and attractive--I'd love to have them year-round but when the snow falls, they disappear beneath it, never to return the following season.
I would agree with echinaceamaniac that it needs more light but it may also be growing where it gets too much moisture. Where I am there's generally sufficient rainfall each season that supplemental watering isn't necessary.
LOL on the bloody marys, Marie. I have memories from when I was teaching that one of my 6th graders, the oldest of 5 kids, came to school on the first day and announced that his mom was home partying to celebrate the first day of school.
I'm with GGal - just plant the new one along with the smaller one and divide in a few years. You get instant fullness.
I would actually plant it elsewhere in the garden. Who says each plant has to be only in one place? Why not enjoy it in a few spots?
Ah, Ken, just wait. My kids are in college now and I miss those summer days when they were little and at home . It just goes by too fast....
Dee
I don't grow the 'Purpurascens' form of Osmunda regalis, but royal fern is native here and we have quite a bit of it growing wild. It likes wetter than average conditions and at least part shade unless it is growing in standing water IME. It is fairly airy compared to something like an ostrich fern and taller than many ferns once it is mature as long as it gets enough moisture. (It isn't worth growing if it doesn't get enough moisture, so if you don't have a way to keep it damp to wet, I'd choose another plant.)
I'd put 'Purpurascens' where I could enjoy the color in spring since it turns green later in the season. I find royal fern ornamental, but not in a formal way, so I would probably plant them in a less formal area with other plants that like similarly damp conditions. I have a preference for mixed beds, so I can see it with shrubs such as Clethra, Itea, Rhododendron viscosum/Swamp azalea, along with perennials such as Iris versicolor/blue flag or Siberian, cardinal flower/Lobelia cardinalis, marsh marigold/Caltha palustris, or marsh lady's tresses/Spiranthes odorata.
karin - Yes, ungainly is a good description. When I planted this one, it was kind of a test, so it got stuck near the back of the border. The Rudbeckia just happened to be there. Also, the Hollyhock bloomed way longer than expected and the Rudbeckia bloomed way early. They were never meant to be companions.
It's been a long time since I've grown Sidalcea. but maybe I need to try that one again.
woodyoak - I agree. I really don't like the doubles either. (So why did I order this one??)
I'll check out the 'Queenie Purple" and nutmeg - the Hollyhocks in that photo are exactly what I was looking for. Very similar to the big ones in growth habit, just smaller.
Thanks for the comments.
Kevin
It isn't Linaria purpurea- the stem/foliage on those are pretty glaucus. Plus the flowers are distinctly snapdragon-like ;-)
While I've never seen a purple loosestrife in real life, I always thought the flowers were "fatter"?
I'm fairly certain it IS a Veronica. Could be a Veronicastrum if the whole head (with side shoots of flowers) wasn't picked. My bet still goes with Veronica though ;-) I've noticed the flower density/how close packed the flowers are really differs from cultivar to cultivar. It always seems the longifolia types are longer and "sparse" looking somehow.
Pic below of my 'Red Fox' Veronica to show how the stigmas are left behind. Link shows it on Veronicastrum...
CMK
Here is a link that might be useful: Veronicastrum
Picture certainly looks similar.
From memory, I'd have said not Veronicastrum virginicum.
Unfortunately have already cut them back.
However, picture of 'Lavendelturm' (Lavender Towers: in the reference picture) in our garden in July.
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This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sun, Aug 25, 13 at 1:39