13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
UPDATE:
My mistakenly selected Ranunculus acris "Flore Pleno" has turned out to be a worthwhile addition to our garden. It bloomed for close to 4 weeks and although it does send out runners that do root (rhizomes?) they are easily removed and I see no evidence of seeding.
My Bright Eyes has been blooming for several days. It has more mildew than I remember it ever having; it is usually mildew resistant. "Minnie Pearl" has been blooming two weeks. No mildew at all. It is shorter than most paniculatas and definitely has a place in the garden.
Oh, it was so very wonderful to behold--and it's in the process of being restored--I was there in the 90s before it fell to neglect. If you're interested in looking into it, do a search for Heronswood. You could also choose *images* and probably find lots of pictures. Plant explorer Dan Hinkley created it then after some time sold it to Burpee Seeds.
I imagine there are some here (Gardengal) that know Dan and more of the history. I met him there and he is awesome and has a wicked dry sense of humor. There was a large plant nursery there way back when and I still am growing plants from it in my garden.
It was purchased by one of out Native American tribes in the last 2-3 years (I think) and is being restored--Dan H. is there helping plus the public can volunteer on certain days of the week. Wish I lived closer, I'd make it my part-time job!
There are several Open Days throughout the year--hoping to go to the next one on September 19th--will take more pics if I do! It will a lot different by then, I'm thinking! Thanks all!
This is all just lovely. I really enjoy it when people post tours of their gardens, particularly pullback shots where you can see more than just a couple of plants in combination. I am not in New England but I often read the New England Gardening thread just because of the running photo threads there! Your combos with the astilbe and the eryngium are particularly wonderful.
I've grown bleeding hearts at other locations over the years & never had them spread. this spring is the 1st time I've ever seen this occur. I also have several volunteer bottle brush buckeyes & smoke trees.
I read the info on that link. how would you divide these? dig them up & split the roots?