13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
boday, you are kind of butting in front of me ;) as I had posted earlier this week looking for a compact long blooming phlox that is very much red.
So far it is "Red Flame" but I am having difficulty sourcing it
:(.
Here is a link that might be useful: compact RED phlox?
Why not use copper tape on things in pots/containers. You can see videos on youtube. If the tape is not that wide then you should double up as the bigger ones can be determined.
Some people go as far using a battery to create a mini electric fence on containers to try them.
No you aren't alone! Slugs and snails take over the yards here especially in spring( here being Portland, OR). I stopped bothering with the "natural" solutions bc it was like trying to take out an army with a slingshot. I use sluggo (iron sulfate) it's the only thing that works that I can stay on top of. Luckily we had a super dry spring and summer so for the first time in years the slugs didnt eat all of my pole bean seedlings :) but even with that, my hostas have a few small holes as I haven't been on top of it. I only have a light green thumb though!
Can't say it's a sure thing but as far as I know the botanical name for hardy hibiscus is Hibiscus moscheutos. I grew them from seed via winter sowing and am just now seeing them bloom spectacularly after 3 years of waiting and not really expecting them to perform. They're covered with buds and I have hopes they put on quite a show.
RyseRyse_2004 - I'm terribly sad & sorry to hear you're having such a difficult time with the JBs. Sadly, I'm guessing this might be the only year I can enjoy my own blooms before the JBs infest & destroy my own plants.
My hibiscus is amazing right now. A very strong minded and somewhat bossy older friend of mine called me one Saturday morning years ago and said "Chris, come over right away! and
drive your station wagon! When I got there she had about half of a huge clump of flowers, right side of clump dusty rose,left side pale pink dug out of the ground. I thought it was a bush. We wrestled it into the back end of my wagon and I had to drive home with the hatchback up. I had no idea where I would plant it
It took me years to realize it hadn't died over the winter when it waited until Memorial Day to show itself! After several years I realized it wasn't a shrub but individual plants growing together.
For several years I rose at dawn with my Dawn dishwash filled quart yogurt container to plunk the JBs in plop plop.
Now climate change or something means we have lots fewer of them to deal with. I've had a dozen or so seedlings over time. They get toddled over to the May garden club sale or saved for the fall sale. This year so far there have only been pale pink flowers. They're located in the corner of a fairly narrow L shaped sunny bed which surrounds our parking spaces.
My friend is no longer with us in body but every mid-summer I share a bit of her generous, managerial spirit and I can almost hear her say, "I know this plant is what your garden needs."
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.