13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I've grown them from seed. If you start them early enough --like in January they will bloom the first year. I never tried fall sowing so I couldn't tell you how they'd do. However why wait until next year. I'd buy a couple of plants now when they are likely to be on sale. That way you'll have bigger plants next year. Clips comes in white too but it's not as hardy as the blue
Thanks! It's good to know that the white isn't as hardy.
I'll keep an eye out in the big box stores, the main garden centers in my area don't have that great of a selection. I have a couple boutique garden places near me that have way better selection, but their plants are like $20+ each, so I try to avoid them for the most part.
Thanks for the information, GreatPlains1. The best discription I have read about lantanas and their hardiness is, "wait and see." :-) lol
But I am seriously doubting my Dallas Reds will come back. Here it is July 11, and the stems on my D. Reds haven't hardened off yet. The Confettis' stems have hardened off somewhat, so they may or may not return. I guess I'll just have to "wait and see."
Pruning should be done in late winter/early spring, just as the new growth buds are beginning to form. In my area, that's around the first of March. However, there is not an issue of pruning now if the plants are ailing or the need arises. That will not necessarily reduce the need to prune again in spring......depends on how much new growth is generated this season after pruning.
Given how popular RC is on here, we'll have to place boday in the quarantine section of GW
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You people are covered - I did the pentagram, cast out nines and there were enough curses flying around to exorcise any demons.
But this is, very bad, obviously it overwintered - a lot of time and money went into this, all for naught. I'm scrambling around trying to patch holes. Definitely not gruntled.
It's sickening to see your plants go down like that They can go into remission during high heat. But as far as I can tell AY will eventually kill the plant. I'm sorry about your veronica. In case some may not know, watch your phlox, campanula, gladiolas ect. Thats what scared me about veronica Blue Bomb, the flowers looked like a witches broom. Another symptom of asters yellow. Sure hope it wasn't.
zooba72 - Spring or fall are the recommended ideal times to transplant perennials. The middle of July is certainly not optimal transplanting season but if you need to move things now, there are ways to minimize the risks of them dying. Things transplanted into containers need to be sheltered/protected from harsh weather so if you have a north-facing or other area where they'll be out of the sun most of the day your chances of having better success are greater.
Sorry to rain on your parade but 12" containers are rather small to grow hosta or iris year-round. I don't grow miniature hostas--most of mine are mid-size--and there wouldn't be sufficient room in a 12" pot for the root ball, let alone enough growing medium to sustain them. That said, I've got smaller hostas growing in larger containers that have come back year after year. Most were grown from seed via winter sowing.
You don't identify what sort of iris you're growing but Iris Siberica/Siberian iris quickly form a very large clump in the ground. Bearded iris don't have massive or deep root systems in my experience but I question whether your pots would provide them with sufficient area in which to thrive.
I'd suggest you post your USDA hardiness zone in your signature/login since that will provide folks with answers to your questions that are likely to more specifically meet your needs.
I have many clumps of Siberian Iris that can be divided and put into the pots. I also have a lot of very large Hosta which also could be divided. I wouldn't try putting anything large in these pots. I'll get something started and then transplant to the ground the following year or so. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. I appreciate the info, Thanks
urk, have avoided making any response to this thread as I am currently in deep daily denial about the scale and scope of tasks awaiting us in the coming months (years). 3 years ago, we completely ripped out the old home garden, rebuilt from scratch and are now enjoying the results......but (there is always a but), we also bought 5 acres of untamed neglected poplar plantation, 60 miles away from home and have also spent a decade whipping a couple of allotments into shape. Thing is, neither house, not allotments belong to us - they are leased from the local council....and their temporary nature is what led us to make the leap into buying a bit of land. For various reasons (mostly planning and zoning) woodland is the way to go in the UK (especially if you want to actually live, at least some of the time, on your land (and we do). So, while we would dearly love to settle back and enjoy the results of hard work, we know that a heap more is coming down the pipe, in the post, on its way. Frankly, the idea of attempting to transplant a decades plant collecting, huge investment in time and money (which, of course, we do not have) has got me stuck in a limbo of indecision. Starting small, and guided by economics, sowing seed is going to be the way forward (5 acres to fill!!) and embarking on a steep and utterly new learning curve is simultaneously thrilling....and terrifying.
Foxgloves, 100s of them, ramping campanulas, umbellifers (although the wood is stiff with them already) epilobium, meconops.....the greenhouse is stuffed with pots and trays while we desperately jiggle our time between Cambridge (genteel, civilised, a sort of Boston, Mass) and Norfolk (an English Iowa or Idaho, fields and fields of flat fen and huge skies). Hopelessly disjointed, living day-to-day (planning has never been a major strength) and trying not to think further ahead than the nest day or so - both therapeutic and terribly anxiety inducing, in turns.
No wonder we are a bit stalled.
Thanks Karin for the details of how you are creating the walls. Not that I'm planning any wall building at any point in the near future (g), but I am always curious about how things are done. So I will just enjoy watching you build yours. :-) And yes, you absolutely have to go out the next day and see if what you've accomplished is standing up to scrutiny. And I do hate that when you see something amiss the next day!
Campanula, that feeling of being overwhelmed is the worst! I think when I am at that point, (often, and for a lot less reason than yours), I have to get to the point of accepting the situation the way it is, then do my best. You know that old saying...'grace to accept the things that can't be changed, courage to change the things that can, and the wisdom to know the difference.'
Each day you can only do just so much and having done that to rest and let go the rest. Maybe there is some resource for more help with all this work?
gardenweed - beautiful pictures. Love the walk-way garden! And such a nice setting with all the woods behind your house. Thanks for the inspiration.
aseedisapromise & barb - thanks for the iris information! I have a few very small ones that were just beautiful last year but I don't think they ever bloomed this year... They bloomed in April/May last year and, bearing in mind we had a slow start to the season this year, I never saw any flowers on them. I'd love to get some big irises and I just love the yellows! Thank you!
BlueBird - what a great mass of coreopsis! It looks great and I totally agree about the foliage - such a different shape than most.
a2zmom- love the yarrow and kent bells. I have Adenophora Tashiroi which are somewhat similar to the campanula. I think I chose these because they were slightly taller but I wanted either Kent Bells or Sarastro. Do you find you have to stake the flowers?
I'd love to try and work Ligularia britt-marie crawford into the mix, even though flowers are somewhat similar to my heliopsis.
Normally Kent Belle does not need to be staked. This season however with the continual flash floods, the poor plant just couldn't stand up to the onslaught.(It also browned out very quickly as a result). Normally very trouble free - increases slowly, doesn't seed (I've had the plant for 10 years and got one seedling), deer bypass it and quite hardy.
Last year, maybe mid summer (in horrendous heat and humidity) I wanted to move some iris, so I plowed ahead and then after digging them up lost my get up and go and so set them aside until I could get them planted. Fall rolled around and I really did mean to get them in the ground....hmmm...didn't happen, so when bringing in some dahlias and cannas in late fall, I tossed the now pathetic looking iris tubers into the container of dahlias and cannas and stuck them in the basement in a fairly cool room. This spring I almost tossed the poor shrivelled up iris which still had the brown crispy leaves hanging on. Instead I set the tubers in a shallow pan of water out in the yard and ignored them. I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained! :-) When I looked at them about a week or so later, they had plumped up and had big white roots growing out of the tubers. I would love to say that I planted them straight away, but I was then starting a complete overhaul of the garden they would go into, so they sat for another few weeks. By this time they had nice green leaves. I finally got them in the ground about three weeks ago and they are doing great.
Daylilies?... well in doing the overhaul of that garden this spring, I took a shovel and "sliced off" a piece of my 'anzac' daylily. I gave away a big piece but the smaller piece that broke off got tossed beside a shrub. The shrub leafed out a bit more and I forgot the piece of daylily for a few weeks....okay about four!. Last Saturday I found it and not only did it look fine, but had produce two stems with lots of buds on each, so I took it to my son for his new garden.
This post was edited by greylady-gardener on Wed, Jul 10, 13 at 6:55
I have 2 of them - one has very pale, glaucous foliage (pinnata sub.sp neapolitanus) while the other is a deeper green with brighter yellow button-like flowers (S.incana?) It is usual to cut the little flowers off (they are frequently kept tightly trimmed, practically topiaried) but I like to leave mine - they do grow well in poor dry soil, full sun, and do well with lavender and thymes. Like lavenders, it does need shearing back every season (and you can cut quite hard to keep it neat). It also makes quite a good hedging plant (a substitute for box). Not spectacular but a deeply useful and versatile shrub for a mediterranean type climate.
I don't know if I will get any seeds from these since the interior of the flowers were so packed with petals. It might have stopped pollination. If there are seeds I will put some in my seed starter next February. I'll have to wait two years to see what they turn into. If I get seeds I will send them out to anyone who would like to be involved in the experiment. I will also have to come up with some kind of system to support the individual flowers. They are too heavy for their stalks and they are all bent over where they connect to the main stalk.
Must be one of those power plants. ;^)
How about this drama. The gulf fritillary caterpillars often climb to the brick overhang to enter their next life stage. The passion vine obviously wanted to extract a bit of revenge during it's immobile period. But just as the branch grew long enough to send a tendril reaching for it...the butterfly emerged this morning and escaped!
Nice! I've picked up a few pieces of pottery over the years at TJ's, some things better quality than others but can't be the prices, especially when they mark stuff down. I love TJ's - worth hunting through the junky stuff to find the treasures, especially cookware, high-end purses/shoes.
Very exciting 'woody'!
It is always fun buying and planting new stuff.
That dappled sunlit area "under the pines" is beautiful.
Yes, rouge, it's always fun to plant-shop and find new 'stuff' that fits the spot :-)
'under the pines' sounds a bit grander that it actually is - there is not a pine forest on our little 1/4 acre! There are just 2 white pines in our backyard, one each on the neighbour to the north's property and one of the two neighbours' properties that back onto our lot. The other neighbour behind us (the one with the metal shed and the two little dogs you can see in one of the earlier pictures) has several rather ratty old spruces. Together all that creates the 'under the pines' environment. The pines have thinned out quite a bit in the last two years - there were a lot of dead pines around this sping! Summer droughts and a couple of almost-snowless winters have taken a big toll on them. Looking out from the living room window just now, this is 'the pines':
The path with the golden planting is the left side of the short loop that runs from the silver area a bit to the right of the shed to the center path that comes out at the north edge of the lawn. You can see both the begining and end of the path in this picture:
Using our green shed to orient yourself, you can see all our garden's backyard paths and beds in this drawing and should be able to figure out where the golden one is:
So, while I'd love to have a real forest to play with, I have to make do with our miniature 'woodland' and try to make it look much more than it is! :-)