13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Earlier this spring I saw a "Golden Shadows" dogwood at a nursery. It was stunning. I came an inch from impulse buying it on the spot but it would grow much too large for any free spot I might have had.. I wonder how much shade it can take and still do its stuff?

Anyways with all this rain 'woody', this is the perfect time for planting!

This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, Jul 9, 13 at 5:54

rouge - we're certainly going to find out how much shade the Golden Shadows can take! The place it'll be going is under white pine canopy as well as under the old spruce canopy from the trees in the neighbour's yard with the ugly shed! I'll plant it a bit to the left so it'll get some light from the break in the canopy near where the Wolf Eyes dogwood is.

It's going to be interesting to see how dry the ground is when we plant. That big T-storm in Toronto yesterday didn't affect us here - we only got 11mm. The evergreen tree canopy in the 'golden' area sheds a lot of water so it takes a long, hard rain to really soak the ground under there and we haven't had one of those in about 3 weeks although we've had a reasonable amount of lighter rains.

I hope you weren't on that GO train yesterday!

I can't tell if the little guys are E. purpurea either, they do look very similar but not quite!

I think your plan to pot up some seedlings and put them in a mostly shady spot will work fine. Echinacea seedlings are pretty durable, but I would be gentle with roots and of course keep them moist and give them a little diluted liquid fertilizer every couple weeks.

I have some Ech seedlings sowed in late May, sprouted throughout June, and will probably plant them out around late August, when it starts to cool down at night. They hopefully will establish and over-winter okay, as long I keep them well-watered.

Thanks for all your responses. I may have to wait until fall, just because I don't have time to pot hem up. Plus, my husband has been mentioning how nice the yard looks without all my wintersowing pots and jugs sitting around. I guess I will wait for fall and move a bunch of things all ata the same time.

Martha

I have some of my GA in what could be considered deep shade and although these particular specimens do not grow as vigorously as those receiving more light they still do fine enough i.e. bright leaves with flowering in later August and beyond. (As all of you know I love this particular Persicaria. It is just too bad that it is often the frost which shuts down this plant while still in flower).

Hmm, linaria, it may well be too much water. I was more worried about root competition from the tree under which its planted. So I was supplementing some water, might just be too much.

For what it is worth, the 'Touch of Class' I got last year has done really well. No problems so far with mine. Such unusual flowers on it too...
CMK

This is a stinker (Brise d'Anjou)! I planted two this spring and they did not even make it to July. They were in partial shade where I have Gaura, hosta, and creeping Lysimachia. They just melted... and it hasn't even been particularly hot this summer.

Whether or not your Echinacea/coneflower comes true from seed, it's always an experiment and you may or may not be pleased with the visual results. I've grown so many Echinacea cultivars from seed via winter sowing and after a few years have decided to just plant whatever seedlings sprout, let them grow and allow the critters that enjoy the nectar take it from there. They seem to know how to go on from that point.

My goal has never been what's only pleasing to my eye but what sustains wildlife. If the view also gives me pleasure, I consider that a side benefit. The older I get, the more easily I'm pleased with my garden.

Of all the seed strains and misc Echinacea I am growing, the earliest bloomers this year were Pow Wow Wild Berry and Primadonna White. However, now many other Echs are coming along.

Echinacea cross-pollinates a lot so the seedlings of your light pink plant probably will not seed true, but you might get something similar. The seedlings I've gotten from assorted hybrids (like Summer Sky and Sunrise) did not seed true, and generally get quite a bit a variation in the seedlings that reseed in the gardens.

The seedlings I get from the seed strains bought at Swallowtail seem to seed true and I assume they are developed for more consistent results. I like that because I can plant them where they're shown off to their best, hopefully.

Right now I've got 3 or 4 Echinacea 'Primadonna White' seedlings (3rd year "seedlings" that is), in the front of a bed where they are taller than the perennials behind them. They ended up being taller than expected, so I'll move and replace them with the new 'Baby Swan' seedlings, which are supposed to be a short white at

This post was edited by terrene on Mon, Jul 8, 13 at 21:11

Thanks for the kind words folks. When you garden in the same spot for 27 years you can blindly hit things right eventually.

For the record, the first pic area gets little direct sun, the second pic area gets about 4 hours of morning sun.

tj

TJ-- amazing garden there. I am keeping these shots to remind me to add more dwarf conifers into the garden when possible.

I had this happen to me too, with Stargazers bought from WalMart. I did not water overhead but my ground might have stayed too damp in the winter or maybe the bulbs were bad altho they didn't look bad when I planted them.

Advice I just got from a very knowledgeable local professional gardener is that they have a virus & should be removed. Sad, but I'm going to take that advice.

Mine grow to six foot plus every year. I grow them thru towers may be 5 foot tall. Then use green twine to keep strongest stems straight. By the time I've wrapped twine around the top they stay up straight. Then top flowering branches from an umbrella of flowers at the top. Mine where brought for clematis but wasn't using them and they looked perfect for growing Splendide thru. Tomato towers would probably work as well. I post a pic tomorrow.

Not the best pic but towers really work well. Still allowing Thalictrum to look natural as opposed to tied up and from path you can no longer see the tower. Have not worked in any side branches yet. If you trim top you'll still get flowers from side branches but top flowers are the best.

UGH... Never heard of that before, and wasn't expecting it to be a disease... I think you are right though and thanks for the information. The leaves look fine... the plant is probably about 66% the size of the others...

That's definitely asters yellows... Get rid of it before it can be further transmitted to other echs, rubekia, etc. keep an eye out for the tell tale green petals

Also, in 5 b here it appears to self seed and survive the winters somehow. Mine are not in particularly sheltered spots.

Yarrow foliage has a pretty distinctive smell if you rub it lightly and those ferny leaves. Sedum leaves are always thick and fleshy. Both are tolerant of dry areas, but they just have developed different ways of accommodating, the yarrow with fine hairs to reduce transpiration and the waxy coated, water storing leaves of Sedum.

capecodder - in what conditions (i.e., soil, sun, water) are your two Cimicifugas growing? My own pair are planted in sandy loam, full shade with only whatever water Ma Nature doles out--I've never given them supplemental water. Both plants were purchased a number of years ago via mail order.

As an interesting anecdote, I've learned thanks to mad_gallica's comment above, that I apparently have one each of C. racemosa and C. simplex based on when they bloom.

Hi, My cimifugas are in basically full shade, very sandy soil and I do water when it is very dry here. I also amend the soil every spring with compost and manure. They are between daylilies and hosta that do finel. I really thought it was the soil but all the other surrounding plants are thriving...I did throw on some Osmecote this year.

Thalictrum kiusianum. Much better seen close up.

Miclino, I see you're enjoying "Druett's Variegated" as well. It really is a stunning little plant. I planted five 2 1/2" pots and now have about 2 feet of coverage. They just need to fill in a little more and it'll be a solid wall.

I like that Thalictrum. The flower is adorable. I have so many large perennials, sometimes I forget to enjoy the tiny ones.

Another view.

If anyone is considering planting Yucca, make sure you choose your spot carefully, because once you plant one you will never get rid of it. The roots are huge, tenacious and resilient. And the plants don't react much to chemicals. Just be forewarned.

Martha