13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
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
Count me in as another lover of Brent and Becky's.
Although this year I never got a chance to do so, most years I buy a few dahlias from them (I am just too lazy to dig them up at the end of the season.) I've bought other things from them over the years, always extremely healthy.
Two years ago I bought some Kniphofia 'Alcazar' from them and left them in my garage for two weeks during a heat wave completely forgetting that Kniphofia is not a bulb. When I finally planted them, the plants drooped for a while but eventually settled in and are now gorgeous plants. Now that's impressive and a testament to the size and health of what they sent.
Hi trovesoftrilliums,
Sorry for not replying sooner, I'm using an Achla Lattice Trellis, which is okay for right now, but isnt that sturdy and is only a placeholder until I can find something larger and sturdier.
April
Here is a link that might be useful: Achla Lattice Trellis
molie, I am sorry I missed your question. The daylily does not have a name. On another garden forum a lady sales her seedlings that she has hybridized hopping to get something to register. So it is a mix of other lilies to make this one.
She has sent me some pretty different looking daylilies. I think they are better than what I have purchased with names.
I have loads of these Red Milkweed Beetles and their eggs, all over both varieties of my swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, pink and white varieties). They eat the living daylights out of the leaves every year, and some of the leaves are discolored and blackened like yours, but I don't think that's because of the beetle. The plants have been hardy and come back fuller each year, so I doubt they're harming them all that much. Besides, the bees love the flowers, so I leave it all as is and let nature do its thing. Cheers!
Here is a link that might be useful: NickiGreenwood.com
I get swarms of milkweed bugs every year and I never touch them. Milkweeds are seed producing factories imo, so if the bugs want to eat a few of the zillion seeds produces, have it.
At this point, I dead head that plant religiously anyway. I have two nice stands so I don't need any more.
I had a clematis last year I thought was dead. It sent up a vine or two and crisped up promptly after that. When I gave two other clematis away I gave them the "crispy" one, too and said best of luck to ya but I promise nothing. Well, this year its growing! I guess not as much as the others but its giving it its all.
Depending on the nurseries in your area (and I'm even going to say Lowes and HD) you should definitely go look in the fall. I went last year around mid september and bought boxwoods for like 70% off and limelight hydrangea for like $5 and ech. ruby star for $3 all from lowes. I went to a local nursery and came back with a few russian sages, sage meadow salvias, creeping sedums and it probably only cost me around$10-12. And, for me at least, it seems like everything I planted last fall is miles ahead of things I planted last spring!
listen...
i said.. told you .. what i do ...
what i do.. on 5 acres.. is move things.. and forget.. lol ... remembering and caring for 95% of them.. and then next spring.. i find the dead stubs of the others... lol...
and you can NOT forget such.. in july/august... as just a day or two with no water is a killer ...
so the default... and the easy way.. are you listening newbies... is simply not to do it this time of year ....
but if you can insure sublime perfect aftercare... you can do just about anything... anytime..
if you are going to be there.. every day for a week or two.. dig up the clem..and find out what is going on underground .... its really hard to guess....
ken
No, the compost pile got them as soon as the snow melted in the middle of May.
I know for those in warm climates, similar to their natural habitat, they can be planted in the gardens and become beautiful specimens. For me the storing and gauging light and dark cycles, trying to coax a rebloom etc. etc. is just too much trouble... especially for an inexpensive plant, fresh and readily available just about anywhere beginning in December.
Yours looks good - already being late July.
Oh another thought- Utzy if your plants are all new nursery plants, they will need some time to settle in to your garden. Their growth pattern in a container will not be the same as when they're established themselves in your garden soil. Plus the nursery may have been over-fertlizing them. Next year they will no doubt have a better appearance!
Re: milkweed, well I manage mine closely! Ma nature knows what she's doing, but her beautiful order has been terribly disrupted by mankind, so the Monarchs need all the help they can get. I patrol them milkweed plants regularly for insects, many of which are predators of the Monarch larvae, or degrade the quality of the foliage.
I also regularly pinch and sometimes cut back the Common milkweed by half or so, because this prompts them to send up tender fresh new shoots, which are much more palatable for small Monarch caterpillars (they have a hard time chewing through the tough big leaves).
Now I just need some Monarch mamas to come through!
Pea sticks look more natural than wire, plastic, velcro etc and are hidden as the plants grow. They need to be put in before the plants get too tall.
Here is a link that might be useful: Supporting perennials
I agree with those whose strong advice is don't use them in mixed perennial borders.
However, walls and concrete or (deep) gravel paths can stop them dead.
Planting next to other thuggy plants and also poor growing conditions help.
In my experience runners are much worse, in mixed perennial borders, than seeders. Seedlings tend to get shaded out by taller plants and deadheading, to extent bloom time and enhance flower attractiveness, is a big help.
It's the runners that scare me. I have a small garden and not a lot of places to put a thug. The only two plants that are considered aggressive are vinca and lamium. That's about it. The lamium is in a 4ft wide alley between my house and the garage and has stayed put. The vinca is under my front Maple that is bordered by the street on one side, the driveway on another, a fence line on the other and the fourth side is a rock edging that has about 15ft of mulch on the other side of the rocks. I haven't had any trouble with it going anywhere.
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.?