13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Actually, I didn't get rebloom, but that may be because I'm growing in too much shade.

I wasn't really replying to your post about deadheading - sorry if I sounded like I was disagreeing. It just reminded me of my disappointing experiment, so thought I'd share. :-)

I do a random stem cut back of all monardas early June,then cut blooms for bouquets or dead head asap. I have 'blue stocking','jacob kline' and 'purple rooster'.

trove, it just proves that you never know with deer. After all, conventional wisdom is they pass up anything in the mint family including monarda.

I am finding that with deadheading, the rebloom is not anywhere near as likely to have the caterpillars.

Everything is so gorgeous. I am now equally aware that all my day lilies look like cr*p. Must spray for rust next year.

Lovely, Wagonwheel.

I do not ubderstand. My Lobelia is planted where it gets wet feet in the Autumn, winter and spring. It is very dry there in the summer most of the time unless we have a very heavy rain. The very opposite of the link. It also gets afternoon shade. Here is a picture of mine this year. It seems to really like this spot. I have to say that it is next to a small drainage ditch. Maybe 6-8 inches deep. Maybe mounding it is the answer. Finicky little buggers : /

I planted the straight species in 2010 and Queen Victoria in 2011. Its come back every year with no problem including last year which was a very very winter with a lot of tempertaure flucuation.

Here's a picture from August 2011.

Behind this planting is a birch tree, so it's in a fair amount of shade.

Too funny, MulchMama. My mom called them funeral flowers too! I can't bring myself to grow them because of that memory.

Jerseygirl -- too too funny! GMTA, I guess. When we moved to this house in 2007, the original owners had "landscaped" the foundation in an 18" strip (argh!) with gladioli. I had just gotten my landscape design cert back in Chicago and was like WHAT??? That's a foundation planting? Glads??? Oh yeah, there was also a dwarf Alberta spruce that had been eaten by spider mites.

I yanked them all before we prepped large foundation beds (15 feet out) and every year a few come back. I've pulled them, I've sprayed them with glyphosate, they still come back to haunt me.

I had purchased a Crazy Daisy 5 years ago and it never really grew well for me. The flowers did not all open, some buds browned and dried up before they opened. Many of the buds that did open produced flowers that were mis-shapen and small. The plant decreased in size every year and just looked sickly. There was just a small piece left this spring and I dug it out and gave it to my neighbor to see if it would do better in another place.

I received Esther Reed in trade last year. It bloomed late in the summer and this year it has put on quite a show. Every bud has opened and I'm pleased with the shape and size of the flowers. It is just now finished blooming and I would say that it has been in bloom for 2 months. I need to dead head it to see if I will get more flowers and I plan on doing that tomorrow, if it doesn't rain here.

Linda

Esther Reed is a beauty! It's apparently been around for a while, which likely means very hardy.

If the water is in the top 2 in. of soil, then that is where the poplar roots are. I don't know what your plans are for grass removal, but it might not be too hard to get rid of the poplar roots as well. Then if the garden is edged, the poplar roots would cease to be a problem, and you could plant what ever you wanted, and still have less mowing and something nice to look at. I still would go with more xeric plants, like Agastache cana or rupestris or one of the various hybrids that there are, salvias, penstemons at least for the sunny spots. Does your soil drain well? Or some ornamental grasses. You have a lot of good choices there. Harder to think of are things for dry, hot shade. I think back to when I lived in CA and there was a lot of PIttosporum bushes, lantana, StellaD'Oro and Agapanthus. But I was in San Diego.

Some of the large roots are above ground. When I try to mow, the mower blade hits the roots. As far as the grass, right now I am spraying it with Roundup to kill it. This fall, when the weather cools, I will plant the area, then probably cover the dead grass with mulch.
I like the idea of xeroscaping, I also like the ornamental grasses so will incorporate them, as well as some other colorful plants. I don't know about hydrangea, I like it but it may not do too well there. If I can find a small one, I may experiment. I love lantana, and have had good success with agastache (in my former home which had different growing conditions).
I had no idea ferns come in colors, will have to check them out. Lots of good ideas here, thank you all.
Cheryl

don't forget the Veronica royal candles! Mine haven't missed a beat in full sun, always looking nice and lush when everything else is looking dry and helpless. Blooms forever.

Asclepias tuberosa can tolerate lots of sun and no water. Long lasting yellow or orange blooms that attract Monarchs and other butterflies and hummingbirds. Easy to start from seed or get established plants from many online sources. Disease resistant and doesn't reseed the way some natives can.

Martha

that must be some great soil.. to be able to use a spade bare foot .. whats that all about ...

i tend to just tear them apart ... they break at NATURAL weak spots...

it was suggested to me once.. that in general ...[not iris] ... that large cuts can rot faster .. comparatively speaking...

and do fan them for sure...

i dug out about 100 in the last week... and gave them all away ... actually.. lol.. i dug out 20.. and ended up with 100 ... lol ...

go for it peony.. this is a foolproof plant to work with.. and because all the pieces are so big.. you can really learn a lot ...

ken

Did you ever check out the FAQ on the iris forum? They have a good explanation of how to divide.

Here is a link that might be useful: iris FAQ page

A. Syriaca smells good too. As far as I can tell, it's the only milkweed that smells so good. I like the leaves on it too. If you are worried about it spreading, you could plant it in a large pot in the background. It smells so good!

Mary max where do you live? If you are in the western half of North America, and have a semi-wild area that the milkweed can grow and spread then yes definintely.

I have winter-sown A. speciosa, got a couple seedlings and planted them in a fairly sunny, well-drained location and it barely survives. I don't think it likes the generally wet climate we have in the northeast US.

I've attempted to grow other western natives and overall this has not worked very well. One exception would be Cal poppies which grow okay along a dry lean sunny edge of the driveway.

This post was edited by terrene on Fri, Jul 26, 13 at 20:57

I grew Luzula nivea on amended heavy clay in part shade, and found it was very "wimpy" in those conditions, nice in its own way, but just not much of anything.

I have been growing several Luzula nivea for 3 years in partial shade in improved well drained soil here in SE UK..
Plenty of soil improver (composted bark) but no fertiliser or manure.

It grows well, flowers profusely then lays itself down from midsummer onwards.

I reluctantly cut it down and threw stems and flowers out. I wonder if the location is maybe too dry although there are no signs of crisping of the leaves.?

hey purp... was tooling around the web.. and though of this post.. when i ran across the pic at the link ...

the name of the plant is in the link name... i think... lol

ken

Here is a link that might be useful:

marquest, I'm curious which online vendors you used. I'd say at least half of my plants come from Bluestone in the days when they had that fantastic June sale.

Apart from that though, there are cultivars I'm interested in that most wholesalers don't carry. If the wholesaler doesn't have them, your nusery can't order them. So I turn to online nurseries. I've gotten some great plants that way.

Adam, mine reseed without any help from me as long as I leave them for a little while after they have bloomed to let the seeds ripen. I don't save the seeds, just let some of them drop for next year's flowers. They are an old-fashioned single that's a deep red-marroon and are in an area that isn't mulched. I do have problems with rust most years, and those years I just rip them out, though this year they are perfectly clean and have been really nice. The seeds must be long-lived since I have ripped out the small plants due to rust for the last 4 years, but a few came up each year anyway despite no flowers for several years.

Thanks for the info Sandy. I wish that there were a nonchemical method of preventing rust since I'm not willing to do annual applications of a systematic.

nhbabs, for organic controls try Neem oil. Safer makes a sulfer based fungacide that is a better option than other chemicals. And some people say that corm meal mixed with water and used as a spray prevents hollyhock rust.

Certainly not deer - they only crop off the growth tips and any buds once they form.

I forgot to mention this. I've noticed especially in drought years, squirrels will go after my lilies late in the season. They simply chew the stems to shreds. I don't know if they're looking for moisture or the carbohydrates in the stems or what, but they leave them alone all summer and then they attack. Like I said, I've observed this behavior very often during droughts, but sometimes they do it in good years too.

Kevin

I wondered if it wasn't something like park rules keeping you in the box. These things happen, and you have to work with what you have. Well, vary the height and leaf shapes of the plantings, keeping in mind that the box at the base is kind of small for some tall perennials. I liked the idea of grasses, too. So help bluebird with her coneflowers! Whatever tall perennials you plant will have to be divided often due to the smaller space that you have. Do the boxes have bottoms, or can the roots get into the soil beneath? I like the idea of getting a taller trellis for the clematis, and using the pegs or flag holders or whatever they are for vines as well.

Can you plant outside the box? I was just thinking that if you varied the plantings in the box for height and foliage, etc., and then maybe planted some low-growing stuff in the ground around it,even just another "row" and around the sides if possible, it would give the bed that two-dimensional look height-wise. Might make up for the lack of depth.

Just a thought....

Dee