13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Thanks Lin and Justmetoo for answering the question about how they spread - a bit of a runner. That's OK. This one is planted in a rather confined bed - long and somewhat narrow, so it's an easy bed to maintain if by some chance this plant gets out of control.
The bed itself gets morning sun until around 2 pm or so and because it's in an easily reached area, I tend to water on a regular basis.
I kind of hope this plant spreads through most of this area. So far I really like it. The foliage is interesting, robust and healthy looking and the flower stems seem very sturdy which I really appreciate. Flopping of any sort is a real turn-off for me.
Kevin
Mine is in very dry shade so stays put, it isn't very robust at all there. Which is fine by me - that's why I planted it there in the first place, to keep it under control.
Anemone will spread like gangbusters if they're happy - soil on the moist side, part-shade or sun (but lots of moisture if sunny spot). Foliage is stellar all season. I'm speaking mainly of the Japanese anemone, but same goes for Robustissima. They spread by those running rhizome thingies. They still pop up from time to time in areas where I had removed them.
That is a funny image, Martha. (g) I heard the other day that Mosquitoes can't fly on a windy day, and I thought maybe I should get a fan blowing on the patio on a still night to keep them away. The seedlings could be near the patio and sturdy hollyhocks and fewer mosquitoes with one fan. It is funny, but definitely a very good idea. As a matter of fact, I heard it said to blow a fan on your tomato seedlings for the same purpose when you were starting them from seeds under lights and I did have a fan on them and the seedlings were sturdier.
Just reading mzdee's post about ditch lilies makes me laugh. There used to be a landscaper in the suite next to the office where I work and last summer he had a full truck load of ditch lilies, ready to take off to a job. I just thought "really?". Someone obviously didn't realize you can pull on up off the side of the road, throw it in the yard and you'll have an endless supply in no time. I have a ton in my back yard (came with the house). There's on particular patch that gets abused to no end... the dogs trample them, role in them, dig at them... And I have two pits and a husky so when the dig, run and role they REALLY go for it lol. These things barely even notice lol
False lamium... I have it creeping under the privacy fence from the little woodsy area behind the house. It looks pretty in the pure-shade corner with the lemon balm. I just sigh when I look at it all in all its thug-glory
Hops vine and bindweed are my big banes. You never, ever want to plant a hops vine near a garden. Trust me on this! The wild scentless violets are getting a bit thuggish too. I've also spent a lot of time recently cleaning wild blackberry vines out of my day lilies, though I must admit that I left the ones that actually had berries on them.
I move plants and add plants in the spring and fall and any time that the temperatures and cloudy weather give me the best opportunity. I can't remember the last plant I lost. Some years if I wait too long to get a few pots in the ground, I've sunk them into the raised vegetable beds, cover them with a thick layer of chopped leaves and keep my fingers crossed. I'm always pleasantly surprised to see most of them make it.
I live in SW Va mts in zone 6A, about 3 miles from NC. I often plant perennials in the fall. They need at least 6 weeks to grow roots before the ground freezes. For us, that's usually around Thanksgiving. I haven't planted conifers in the fall though. I suspect it's the wind and lack of water. Usually Sept and Oct are fairly dry and the fall rains begin in Nov but who knows what is "normal" now!
Pot-grown leek:
Pots of leeks, carrots, garlic and strawberries are stored in the garage for the winter. It is possible to harvest leeks and carrots from the pots well into winter.
Peas and a few other things - each pot of peas has a different variety, selected to give a long harvest by choosing different days-to-maturity:
When the peas are finished, a couple of pots are used to grow pole beans. The rest sit empty until they get used for fall 'mums, or as a temporary place to plant summer purchases until conditions are suitable for planting in the ground, or planted with lettuce or other fast crops, or planted with the current year's strawberry runners to replace the oldest pot of strawberries. The squirrels usually plant sunflowers (from seeds in the birdfeeders...) in a few of them!
Pole beans and hibiscus:
Scarlet runner beans at the red 'hummingbird' end of the south driveway border; squirrel-planted sunflowers; empty pots now filled with 'mums and pot ghetto plants....:
The driveway pots aren't particularly an outstanding aesthetic feature of the garden but they are fun things (but a PITA to keep watered!) The soil is just bagged potting soil - the type with 'water crystals' - plus a shovel full or two of compost.
What interesting things do other grow in pots? (We've wandered off topic here - perhaps a new thread would be good....?)
Great photos of your 'farm' Woody. :-) It's great to find a way around a challenge. I have a little room out front for a few plants, but not as much as you do. Half my driveway is under the dripline of a mature maple, and we use the whole driveway for cars. My vegetable garden in the back is in about 6hrs of sunshine and that's it. Still enough for a lot of things but they never grow as well as if I had full sun.
I think I can fit another 4 large pots along my wide front walkway though. I had two out there this year, and I can do more next year. I just need to move a couple of plants in the bed along the walkway around.
That's a lot of peas and nice healthy leeks! What are the red flowered plants in the last two pots in that last photo?
I'd be interested in another thread on growing vegetables.
I've had a 'Goldflame' that was fragrant, and I've bought a second one that is much less so and the fragrance seems artificial to me, like perfume, which I don't care for. BUT....I had a hummingbird visit the yard briefly today and that was the plant she zoomed over to to get a little nectar before she zoomed off.
I would say, buy them when in bloom and test out the fragrance. I'm looking for a new one that is more fragrant too.
You guys are right, the stuff is evil. Pulling it out was easier said than done. I tried to use my prongy hoe to yank it out but it kept ripping into small pieces and I disturbed a lot of shrub roots. What I was able to pull out had grass and weeds growing into it - no moisture under it at all - BONE DRY. It was wrapped skin tight around the base of my birch tree. I used scissors to free it, but most of it is still stuck deep into the soil. The prickly barberry bush wasn't helping matters there.
I have a bad neck and was in a lot of pain so I finally had to stop. Hated to leave the job unfinished - didn't even get to the flower gardens. But I realized it was more than I could take on. I'll hire a landscaping company to clean it out. Young guys with healthy necks. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I WILL get it out though. After seeing that no water was getting past it, I can't leave it in. I curse the person who invented this. Ptooey!
If it makes you feel any better, even after 13 years of gardening here I am still finding bits and pieces of old landscaping fabric in part of the perennial garden that the previous homeowner installed. As long as most of yours is removed, you can add soil amendments and loosen the compacted soil that was under the fabric, and the garden will be healthier for it.
The only use I have for the stuff is when constructing a garden path where it is of some help in keeping down weeds that sprout in between bricks/pavers/stone. Even then, soil inevitably gets into cracks and supports shallow-rooted weeds.
boday: "Good luck, and teach your children about the evils of landscape fabric."
:)
Whatever species or hybrid is sold in American as the "East Lily", yes they have survived outside in my garden for few seasons, right next to the house, which I assume is slightly more protected in our winters. But i would never consider them reliable around here.
I would assume I'm the "weirdo" being referred to and what I just posted is considered an "attack". Good grief!
Kevin
Kevin, LOL, no, you are not the weirdo this time. So guess again. But if you feel guilty, I can easily find something for you too. It was not you who implied, that if I did not personally grow any particular plant in the USA, then I cannot have a useful opinion about it. Or was it?
This post was edited by wieslaw59 on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 9:22
Earlybird Cardinal is ok. I wouldn't go all out and claim 'glowing'.
I think the best selling points on the daylily is it's from Mr. Apps (I'm never disappointed in performance of his releases after a couple of years of settling in) and it's color blooming at an initial time when most early early are yellow shades.
Earlybird went off this year right about when Happy Returns did in my Central Illinois zone 5 garden. Happy Returns is just now starting it's second bloom this season as is Earlybird Cardinal. Another of Apps very early is Apricot Sparkles. Apps' Rosy Returns in my opinion does not rebloom as much as the others I've mentioned, but it does rebloom.
If you're looking for a dropdead, knock your socks off daylily, well this one isn't going do it for you. But if it's variety of early color , a good first performance along with a decent second bloom later in the season, Earlybird Cardinal will do the job. In my garden though I have noticed that the second bloom scapes do not rise as tall as the initial bloom.
I think for you it going to depend on what you're expecting out of it, your placement of it and what else is going on in that section of your garden at the times it does bloom and rests before rebloom.
Some Butterfly Bushes smell and waft better than others. I would never buy one without sniffing it first.
I have at least half a dozen different varieties and there doesn't seem to be a constant.
On the other hand, these are the easiest plants in the world to root so anyone can have as many as they want.
I LOVE my pink Clethra!
There are so called reblooming Lilacs. Daughter has one that had a few blooms on it last week. She says that after a normal flush of bloom, it will sporadically put out a few here and there over the rest of the growing season.
Linlily, that Leptodermis Oblonga may not live up to Bluestone's hype. I have two of them. It is an ok shrub, probably would make a decent shrub for hedge even, but A blooming machine they are not. Late to break dormancy, they aren't fully leafed out till late May. Moderate bloom follows mid June. The rest of the growing season there are very sparse showings of tiny clusters of the lavender flowers here and there. At present each shrub, clipped in April to try to maintain a 3' x 3' bush, has maybe a 1/2 dozen of these clusters of 3 or 4 small (individual 'lilac' sized) flowers. You have to really hunt to find them.
This post was edited by gazania on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 10:11
terratoma - "Is any of this making sense?" Sure it is; we're gardeners too. Odds are some of us have asked the same question.
For height/habit + leaf contrast, toad lily grows tall (3+ ft. in my zone) but is taller than it is wide--it grows mostly upright which I've found makes it ideal to grow between my hostas. It blooms late as well which was another advantage in both my shade as well as part-sun beds.
Astilbe has fern-like foliage that is an attractive contrast to the bold foliage of hostas.
Alchemilla mollis/Lady's mantle has attractive, velvety-textured foliage that's rounded--raindrops tend to accumulate along the edges of the leaves.
Aquilegia/columbine - delicate, scallop-edged foliage with dainty, early-season blooms that normally come along before the hostas have fully emerged.
Chelone/turtlehead - bold, late-season blooms that actually look like a turtle's head + attract pollinators.
Polemonium/Jacob's ladder - delicate & pretty blue flowers in Spring + fern-like foliage
Persicaria virginiana/Virginia knotweed - heart-shaped variegated foliage right through until frost, with each leaf sporting mottled green & white with a contrasting burgundy chevron. Very unique.
Hi all.
Sorry for the absence ... have been putting in a butterfly and hummingbird garden the last several days. But I've also managed to pick up some plants for this 'afternoon sun only' area, thanks to your many recommendations. They include 'Peach Flambe' heuchera, colubine, astilbe and gaura. Not sure whether I'll have quite the amount of sun for the gaura to survive but it's certainly worth the chance. Along with the astilbe, it will provide me with some 'see through' plants I am after. I'd really love to use Brazilian verbena (the epitome of 'see throughs') because I've read they are butterfly 'magnets' but,again, they may need more sun.
Deb, that 'Dazzle Berry' is still eluding me ... can't find it anywhere around here. Ditto for the 'Red Salsa' Echinacea ... nowhere to be found. And I love that true red cone!!
Again, thanks to everyone for your patience, helpful suggestions and, most of all, willingness to share
Speaking of daylilies...One that I got by mistake a few years ago is a big favorite for it's height, long and heavy bloom and just plain good looks. It has been around a long time. That would be Kwanzaa.
I would like to add ornamental grasses to this list of plants that bring joy. This is Pennisetum orientale 'Karley Rose'. Late to break dormancy, but quick to start sending up those rosey plumes. Adding new plums constantly till frost. Many types of grasses out there, I think that Karley Rose is one of the best to add inetrest to a mixed bed or as a stand alone.
If you don't want them reseeding, and don't need the seeds for trading or planting elsewhere, I'd trim them back as far as the nice leaves. Then they won't droop so much. If the seeds are ripe, I'd throw the trimmings into a small paper bag and let the seeds dry. Then you can trade for other seeds you might like to have, or share them with friends or neighbors.
Martha
Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflora) does much better (IMO) if it's whacked back to a third of its height early in the growing season so it doesn't grow so tall it flops over. According to my notes I cut most of my plants back in mid-June. All are blooming with gusto at the moment & growing fully upright. There are plenty of seedpods but I haven't decided whether or not to harvest seeds this year since I'm not committed to growing more of them via winter sowing. I may harvest seeds only from the double white & double blue varieties.
Be aware the term bellflower is generally used in describing campanula rather than platycodon. Larry Hodgson's 'Perennials for Every Purpose' describes them as "kissing cousins" but in my garden campanula blooms much earlier in the season than platycodon/balloon flower.
You can certainly deadhead them if you have no interest in the seedpods or harvesting seed. I generally just leave them for the critters who might benefit from the seeds. Whatever you decide, it's your garden so do what pleases you.
It looks to me like Oenothera fremontii Shimmer which did fine for me for two seasons before succumbing to a too wet winter.