13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
You don't want peat with lavender. It will retain far too much water and eventually the peat turns into a sponge. I would use a cactus/succulent mix with some added pebbles/stones.
I would only water once, maybe twice a week if it is really hot. How often are you watering? Your potting medium is too moisture retentive if it is staying moist for three days baking in this hot sun. They are not fans of a ton of water, but this is more of a problem in winter.
English lavender does fine in my swamp. A lot of Mediterranean type plants seem to like a fair amount of water, no matter what the books say.
In other words, my in the ground lavender has handled several inches of rain a week without getting at all offended. I don't think it has ever heard of crown rot. The plants really don't read the same books we do.
Ditto Ken & nhbabs - Preen is a pre-emergent* weed seed application that doesn't work on weeds that have already germinated from seed or spread via runners or roots. Assuming you're planting bulbs, it shouldn't affect the growth of your lilies. Since it's a petroleum-based product, its environmental impact & consequences is an entirely separate discussion.
* prior to seeds sprouting
You deadhead every day? Wow. I wait until the foliage looks terrible and then I go over them with the lawn tractor, deck set very very high. A few weeks later, they're all green and tidy looking again. I learned a lot of short cuts when I started gardening on three acres.
Sounds like powdery mildew or downy mildew. I have been trying milk and baking soda to control powdery mildew on a few of my plants. Hard to tell if it is working though. GL!
From UCONN IPM site:
Downy Mildew
Downy mildews symptoms appear very rapidly and tend to be much more difficult to control than powdery mildew. Conditions that promote leaf wetness, such as high relative humidity, overhead irrigation and close spacing, favor downy mildews. With a hand lens, closely examine the bloom of sporangia (microscopic stalks bearing spores) on the underside of the oldest leaves. (They will look like many tiny branched trees, each bearing tiny lemons). This can help you distinguish downy mildew from powdery mildew. Aster, Artemisia, Centaurea, Geranium, Lupinus, Potentilla, Rudbeckia and Viola are susceptible to down mildew.
Here is a link that might be useful: UConn IPM site
flower-frenzy..do you have any photos of your sombero series of echinaceas? Are these a new variety?
Boday...the Snowcap shastas..were they once named Snow Lady or are these two different varieties. I used to have Snow Lady shastas one year and they were about 18 in .tall but didn't know then to try to collect/save seeds. My former neighbor had "Snow Princess" which is about same height. When she passed away, the landlord allowed me to pull the seed heads when they were drying and I have something to remember my neighbor by each year.
This debate comes up every season. Of course it is preferable to transplant/plant in the cooler spring or fall but as others have stated in this thread it can be done very successfully even during the inevitable hot, dry days of summer. I am way to impatient to wait for the best time but It has been my experience that for perennials, taking all of the root ball and hopefully (much) more + lots of water on-going will lead to a very high rate of success. If you can wait till the Fall then good for you, but I can't.
This post was edited by rouge21 on Fri, Jul 19, 13 at 22:31
Thanks!
I think Ill wait until it gets cooler. 100+ degrees the last couple of days sooo definatly to hot right now! As far as them getting brown in the sun, thats ok with me. I dont much care for how the leaves look after them bloom anyway.
Will they do ok if I mow down the leaves after they bloom? Ive got a serious bug problem at the moment and Ive considered mowing them over, but havrnt because I dont know if they will come back!
Thanks again!
With LOTV, your black thumb shouldn't be a factor. They're tough as nails but if you're transplanting them, I'd recommend you do it in the fall rather than in mid-summer--reduces the number of casualties due to hot, dry conditions. Generally speaking, mid-summer isn't when you want to start transplanting perennials, bulbs or shrubs. For spring-blooming perennials it's best to transplant in fall; for fall-blooming perennials it's best to transplant in spring.
When I moved here I had a friend come with his backhoe & scrape up a huge patch of LOTV from where they were growing--in full sun--and dump them down along the back boundary in full shade. Judging from the fact they were growing on the north side of my house in full shade as well as in full sun, I'm guessing they took off where he dumped them. Like periwinkle/vinca, in ideal soil/growing conditions they're virtually indestructible.
As for soil, I can only vouch for where it grew here which is organic sandy soil.
Word to the wise--plant it where you'll want it several generations down the road. When I moved here & tried to dig it up with a shovel, I discovered roots more than a foot below the soil that were as big around as my thumb & almost 24 ft. long.
prairiemoon - You're absolutely correct about knowing what you're getting into.
I just figured out why I'm having a problem deciding about this plant. It originally came from a dear friend. At the time, I had no idea what it was and neither did she. When it bloomed, I figured it out. Her plant came from her grandmother and she always referred to it as "Grandma's bush".
My friends plant died, so this is the last of it. She also does not live in that house any longer and is renting, so she doesn't have a garden. She doesn't stop by all that often, but when she does, she looks for this plant in my garden. If it's suddenly gone, what do I say? For the record, I can lie when I know it's the better thing to do, but I don't like to do that generally.
I've kind of decided, I want it gone, but the other situation makes me take pause for the moment.
Kevin
Yes, that is a dilemma. Such a treasure to have a plant from a loved family member. Something I've never had. It's too bad that this person doesn't have a garden, because that would have been perfect if you were able to offer her the plant or a portion of it, back again, after she lost hers. I wonder if she has a friend with a garden that could accomodate it? Even if you save the seeds from it? Or maybe there is some institute that she or her family frequent that would like a donation of the plant for their grounds, like a library or something? I've seen a lot of traffic medians that are planted now. Maybe in the town her family grew up in, might like a plant to add to a median strip? It might be a nice project for your friend to find a location for it. Maybe you can find a compromise that is a win/win for both of you.
Funny, how sometimes we don't know what is blocking us from a decision about something and then suddenly...it dawns on us.
I have both Honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler' and a variety of clematis. I don't think I would put them on the same trellis since the honeysuckle is more woody and the stems twine around the support, while the clematis clings with its leaf petioles and has softer stems. I'd be worried that the woodier honeysuckle would crush the stems of the clematis. However, since I haven't tried it, I don't know that it would be a problem. They would most probably have different pruning needs as well. I'd get a second clematis that is the same pruning type and about the same size for the clematis trellis.
My MW is only in its second season, but I've seen an older one and it's quite attractive, quite thick and full with lots of blooms and foliage that I find attractive, so I've put mine by itself on an iron tuteur.
I spend most of my time on the butterfly forum, and most areas have had a significant lack of butterflies this year. But, things are really picking up just this week in many regions. Last summer was a terrible drought, and this spring was cool and wet. So, things were off to a slow start. But, it's getting better. Just keep growing the native plants and heavy nectar annuals, etc., and you'll be rewarded with visits eventually. Thanks for taking the time to respond to the post and spread the word to gardening folk and others.
Martha
D'oh! Of course you're both right. I thought sure I had taken a photo of Serastro before I yoinked it out, and when I saw the big plant with the purple blooms in that photo this morning, I re-posted without really looking at it. Rummaging through my pix post-coffee, it seems I don't have a copy handy of the photo I'm thinking of.
But I *did* grow it, and it *did* overstep its bounds quickly. THAT much is accurate. :)
I've grown Kent Belle for years and it's never spread. In fact, it's now being squeezed out between a salvia and a catmint.
However, my original plant seeded way across my yard into a different garden 5 years ago. That plant has held up very nicely during the many torrential rain storms we've had this summer. A few of the outside braches flopped, but the main part of the plant held up.
Hmmmmm..... I always knew I liked grilled cheese with tomato soup! I actually like the color of this one, and I'm not that huge a fan of the new coneflowers. But I do like this and 'Tomato Soup'. They might make quite a stunning combo on the menu in the garden.
The moonflower vines I planted are using circumnutation to climb up the fishing line I wound around the porch post. I knew there was a more technical term for that kind of vine, TY! (Assuming I've used it correctly.)
Speaking of spores...
pro÷thal÷lus n., pl. = pro÷thal÷li:
A small, flat, delicate structure produced by a germinating spore and bearing sex organs. It is the gametophyte of ferns and some other plants. (If someone can explain gametophyte in a way that makes sense to me, TIA!)
Photoperiodism = the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of day or night. IE, plants that bloom when the days get longer/shorter.
I had a coneflower with buds looking similar to yours. I finally took a bud, sliced it in half and looked at it under a microscope. I definitely found mites. I could not see the mites just by eye or with a magnifying glass. Of course, this does not rule out aster yellows, but it did make me feel a bit better. I decided to keep that plant.
If you do not happen to have a microscope handy, you might be able to take the sample bud to a local group or agency that does have one. If you live near your county extension office (run through your state's land grant university), they might have a plant diagnostic lab. A local university or community college might have a plant sciences/ag department that could look at it. Sometimes even state parks with education centers have microscopes available for community use. A local Master Gardener group might be able to look at it as well.
gl whatever you decide to do!
karin, I enjoy my mums and have no complaints about them. I have been surprised to find enough mums that come back for me every year. IâÂÂve ordered some from Bluestone that have worked out to be pretty hardy, but I donâÂÂt know about zone 4. I just went to the Bluestones Perennial website and see they have a new feature, you can search by zone. I plugged in zone 4 and only three or four mums came up, so there are a couple but not a large variety. IâÂÂm in zone 6 and most people still use mums as annuals here. Do you use asters at all? I see there are a lot more asters to choose from for your zone. I have a couple of asters I'm happy with too.
I can certainly see the use of Pawnee Buttes and I think it has a nice airy quality to it. If you have a photo of a bed thatâÂÂs edged in it, IâÂÂd be interested to see it.
IâÂÂm going to look for those two roses, because IâÂÂm always wanting to try something that performs that well. Good suggestion. I just looked up the Drift rose series and it does have a lot of colors. You have the pink drift, right? The size of the bloom reminds me of a âÂÂFairyâ Rose.
I just looked up that âÂÂHoneybushâ Honeysuckle and I was surprised to see it is a native shrub? Could that be right? The photo I saw is a very cute little shrub. I see it is said to spread to 6ft and get 3ft tall. Does that mean it suckers? Is it fragrant?
IâÂÂm so sick of that side of the bed, I may pull out a lot of what IâÂÂm trying to get rid of and throw in some annuals for the rest of this year. I would rather look for roses in the spring then buy something that has been sitting around the nursery in this heat this year.
Here is a photos of asters I've been happy with. They usually bloom just before the mums and not together with them.
And here is another shot of an aster in the upper right of the photo with a mum next to it, so you can see it's not ready to bloom yet. That same little aster is huge this year, I'll have to get a photo of it. I think this photo was back in 2008. I've only had one year that the weather made a mess of it.