13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Well, I just might remember. Miracles do happen, though not ususally with my memory. The experiment will better than you imagine. I also planted hundreds of Bluestone muscari and was really mad when they ran out. But I was determined to finish the border, so I order from Colorblends. The muscari were at least 2 if not 2.5 times bigger. But we'll see in two years.
BTW, the idea of the blue sweep on the back hill was yours, Mindy, about 4 or 5 years ago. It takes me a while to get around to some projects.
I inherited some yellow tulips from my mother 4 years ago. Maybe it was 5 anyway last year they started to heave and I put more soil over them because I did not have time to deal with them. This spring they came up and they were beautiful however way too many leaves so I dug them up after they bloomed and had finished. And I have at least 100 bulbs. I am asking this because some of the bulbs are smaller some are quite large. Will the small bulb bloom? And if these bulbs die out every year why do mind keep blooming? I have a few varieties but we're given many so I'm not sure what they are.
I've been lazy with photos this year but remember when we were sowing tall verbena seeds? Mine are up and blooming, a bit thin so far but they are working well with the 'Los Lunas' Little Bluestem plants I ordered from HCG. Its a work in progress. Did yours come up? I couldn't find the old post so I'm posting it here. I plan to let these just go to seed and naturalize in that spot and hope for a better showing of them next year. They are tall and a couple started blooming since late May, some are still short.
Did yours come up?
Good memory tr2.
I got sidetracked this spring and it was so late by the time I put them in the ground and to make a long story short they went in a location which has tall wild grasses and thistles and raspberry canes. So I have no idea if they germinated and are able to compete with all the nearby 'hellions'. If I see nothing by September I will purchase more seeds this winter.
I'm growing it in a difficult, dry, mostly shady area among other low growing mostly native plants that will take the conditions like echinacea, purple hyssop & scarlet sage. I found mine in an abandoned field slotted for leveling and commercialization and brought it home just for that purpose, along with a couple others -- white asters, liatris & maximillian sunflowers.
To get irritatingly technical, I don't think of native wildflowers as weeds. If its growing in a place where its not wanted, any plant is a weed and that includes trees.
I garden in deer country and I make a serious effort to grow almost nothing that is really appealing to them--no hostas, only 6 day lilies, no yews, only two hydrangeas. in the shade garden, where they tend to enter the yard, the only appealing plant is Solomon's seal (which they sometimes destroy) and Begonia grandis, which I keep sprayed. Other shade plants include Brunnera, Pulmonaria, Epimediums, ferns, primroses, Actea, Geranium macrorrhizum, etc. Ini the large sunny beds, plants are also highly deer resistant--Agastaches of many types, Salvias, Coreopsis, Irises, Pardancanda, Nepetas, Achilleas, peonies, etc.
I feel that if you garden in deer country, there is very little point in planting a free lunch for deer when there are many alternatives.
I live two blocks from the county park, so lots of deer. I use something called "Deer Solution" which has a cinnamon smell. Deer leave everything alone, including hostas and lilies. The on;y thing I won't plant is tulips - they love that so much that I'm not sure anything would deter them.
interesting, Dowlinggram,
Only have several of the Arizona series which were purchased as plants in flower a couple of years ago and they're still going strong.
As indicated, the Arizona series contains the first Gaillardia introduced for which vernalization of the seeds is not required.
Think that the Arizona series consists of seed strains of Gaillardia x grandiflora (itself of hybrid origin - both perennial and annual); indicates variability from the seed propagation. It will be interesting to see whether yellow creeps back into the flower colour. Whatever the case, sounds like you're going to get something good.
Laugh. Should you feel guilty over plants found in the alley in the trash? I've stooped that low before but it was many many years ago. Perfectly salvageable plants just sitting there when all they needed was a bit of trimming and TLC, I couldn't resist. Dumpster diving at its best but seems I heard its illegal now.
Thank you all for the comments, and especially texasrangers photos- that looks exactly like what I saw. I think the fact that some areas were more "webby" than others made me think it wasn't just the way the plan grows, but maybe it was different stages of development. And I swear, when I did the paper test there were two different type of crawling bug-dots.... Wonder what they were? In any case, thank you all and I'll ask before panic next time. Hopefully these plants come back, but if not the $4.50 tuition isn't too bad. :-)
Such a great selection of plants...very nice Cat!
Your geranium is "dark rieter". I have a few but they are verryy slow to do anything...plus they get lost in my mulch with being so dark. Thought about shovel pruning many times, but I keep telling myself to wait...
Marie, if you add information on location you will get much more helpful responses. What's perennial in TX is really different from what's a shade perennial here.
Here are directions to adding it to your profile so it always shows up when you post in GW.
Go to Your Houzz in upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone.
If you add info on your state or the nearest large city you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures.
Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.
It gets it from the soil. If that's the case try cutting it back and then mulch and see what happens. Be sure never to get water on the leaves when you water. You can't do much about rain but you want to keep the fungal infection from splashing up onto the leaves. Be sure you dispose of all the infected foliage(in the garbage). You can always pull them out if it doesn't work
Call around for tree service. We just had a dieing maple that was 50 years old and at least 50 foot tall removed from our property. I got quotes from just about every tree service in the area that was listed as having liability insurance. If it wasn't listed in the phone book as having insurance that was the first question I asked. Then I asked for an estimate. I also asked around for recommendations from people who had had tree service. Even people I didn't know were happy to tell me of their experience. I was surprised at the wide range of prices when I got the estimates. We went with a guy who charged $550--the cheapest price. They had ranged from double that and more. He was also one that had been recommended by a couple of people and he did a good job.
Be sure you get in writing exactly what you want done. You may save some money by doing the cleanup your self and not having the stump ground out. We called a guy we knew burned wood and he was happy to remove the logs. A quick rake of the ground around it got most of the sawdust and small twigs. We asked that they leave the stump as level as possible which they did. I covered it with landscape fabric laid stones in a circle close to the stump then mulched up to the stones. I placed 3 bricks on top of the fabric covered stump and put a barrel planter on top. The fabric keeps the tree from sending up shoots and still lets the water through to begin the rotting process. It was a perfect solution. If you didn't know you'd never know there was a tree there.
Now is the perfect time to get a pile of quotes. Oh yes consider getting it done during the slow period approaching winter. You may get it done cheaper then too.
Time flies....! I just noticed that my first post referred to the winter of 2012-2013 - of course, it should have said 2013-2014! It somehow seems longer ago that that! :-)
I'm actually not too worried about the cost, although I'm sure it's going to feel outrageous! :-) I'll definitely leave it to the off-season - tree companies are busy like mad around here taking down dead ash trees! I'm sure none of them are too interested in a relatively small job like a pine when they can be making big bucks on taking down ash trees! It'd likely be a repeat of our experience with trying to get a quote to re-sod the lawn - either they never returned our call or quoted a very high price. Our neighbour with a garden center and design business says the industry is crazy-busy this year around here. I suspect it might be related in part to taking down all those ash trees - people suddenly have sunny spaces that need planting....! So, off-season appears to be the best bet for both service and cost!
I went out this morning taking more pictures. The whole tree looks dead, and there's dead stuff in the neighbour's pine close by, but theirs still has live stuff at the top.
and you can see that it's still pretty barren in the area under it after the 2013-2014 winter-kill:
The white redbud just outside this area almost died this winter too. Only the top leafed out - very late! And after DH pruned out all the dead stuff, it's a pretty skimpy tree!
Interestingly, from outside this area (e.g. from the lawn or house) you can't see how barren it is under the pines:
This picture shows the barren area under the larger, surviving pines - picture taken with my back to the dead pine. In early spring 2014 there was snow-melt and rain that flooded most of this area for weeks - the ground was frozen so deep that the water could not drain away. I think that is what killed most of the things that died. And killed seeds too I think - I expected the Sweet Woodruff to return from seeds but it hasn't....
A similar view from July 11 2013 so you can see some of the stuff that was killed that winter:
Like in the area around the dead pine, the winterkill under these pines is not obvious from the 'outside':
The growing conditions under the pines are difficult - very dry shade with root competition from the trees. I hope some of the survivors of the 2013-2014 winter gradually spread back into the barren areas they used to occupy. The area where the dead pine is might offer new opportunities for other things but I think I'm going to have to wait until next year when the tree is gone to assess what that does to light and moisture before deciding on new things to try. I will probably leave a log or two from the dead tree to act as a 'nurse log' to help new plants get established there.
I have had malva for some time. I don't know what kind because it came as a self seeded plant from a friend. Mine looks very much like yours and I have it in white too. Mine does sprout from dropped seeds in places I don't want it and I transplant it. I find if I give it a bit of protection for a few days it transplants better. They have a tap root so make sure you get the whole root. Try putting water in the hole where you want to put it and letting it soak into the ground before you plant. This lets the roots hit moist ground right away. Then cover the plant with an upside down flower pot and leave it on for 2 or 3 days. You may have to put a stone on top to hold it down. Then take it off and watch it for a couple of days to see if it wilts. If it does then cover it for a day again. Covering the plant with a flower pot allows the plant to set down it's roots without coping with hot sun and other environmental hazards until it gets it's roots established.
A note--If you cut it down after most of the flowers are gone and it has a lot of seed pods it will send up new shoots and bloom again. Try saving some seeds and sprinkle them on the ground where you want them in very early spring or winter sow them
I second the suggestion to sprinkle seeds where you want them to grow. That way you don't need to bother with transplanting and fussing over them. If they pop up where you don't want them, just yank them out.