13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Another vote for 'Zagreb'--I have two patches of it that enlarge in size each year. I wouldn't call it invasive but it definitely expands each growing season.
'Moonbeam' has much lighter, paler blooms but hasn't been particularly robust where I am. Since most everything else thrives in my soil conditions, I prefer to blame it on the cultivar rather than where I plant it.
Unlike 'Moonbeam,' 'Zagreb' is reliable, needs little in the way of supplemental moisture or attention from me other than to enjoy it & the pollinators love it.
Thanks to all with input. Interesting to say the least. It's a far cry from the eight geraniums and fourteen marigolds that most of us grew up with. I've found that size and sight lines come into play.. Then there is the size of the garden as well.
A small garden needs harmony and a setting - to create an ambience. A larger area can have various focal points but also needs a flow.
Endless possibilities, limited resources.
Mmmm, dahlias - nothing much doing here, but to be expected, especially after this cool delayed spring. Tbf, one of them does have a puny bud, but I am going to whip that off because the plant still needs to bulk up. I lost half a dozen but, those which have come through (I leave them in the ground over winter) have enormous tubers with many growth buds. They vary between30-50cm high but would expect them to double that and flower some time in early August. Tomatos (yep, they seem to run in tandem) are fattening up and a few of them even have tiny little green tomatoes on the lowest tress (especially the cherry types). The earliest tomato in the UK is ready by the 2nd week in July (although that would be a potato leaf early)along with a couple of waterlily dahlias (Arabian Knight. various 'Bishops'). We are between 3-4 weeks behind.
I wouldn't be worried by yours Bluebird - they are the sort of plants which grow in 'surges' (sweet peas are another). Yours look healthy and ready to take off - plenty of time yet. Don't be stingy with the fertilizer. For me, August is a blur of feeding, watering, deadheading and tying in, trudging remorselessly between the tomatoes, dahlias and beans and sweet peas - I am usually quite OK with the first killer frosts because I am knackered.
Oh gosh, so many choices, it's really up to you.
I have Siberian iris growing next to Annabelle in one spot - I like the contrast of the foliages. Another good one is Geranium magnificum, which stays in a neat mound, not rangy like the ones you mentioned. I also have hostas and coralbells and Autumn ferns (dryopteris) next to Annabelles in other locations, and also variegated Euonymous (? sp) bush.
I've come to the conclusion that Annabelle is a thug. A good thug, but a thug nonetheless. If she's happy, she will encroach upon anything and everything in the path of her spread. I'm constantly cutting mine back and chopping out runners. Wouldn't be without her, though :0)
I love the orange of daylilies with the creamy and lime shades of Annabelle. Either Siberian or Japanese Iris would do fine there. I also have a couple of broadleaf evergreen shrubs next to my Annabelle to provide a distraction from her homely winter appearance, a variegated boxwood and a rhododendron.
I have found that smaller, stationary plants like bulbs, Heuchera or Pulmonaria get swallowed up by Annabelle, but spreading groundcovers like Veronica 'Georgia Blue' or Ajuga do fine.
Nice pic - very cheerful! I love daisies and can't grow one at this house to save my life. I've resigned myself to buying a pot in full bloom and slipping that inside a nice piece of pottery, enjoying the show while it lasts, and tossing when bloomed out. :0)
Well, a Rose of Sharon is a Hibiscus, but all Hibiscus are not necessarily Rose of Sharons, if you know what I mean. Rose of Sharon is just one of the common names for Hibiscus syriacus. There are lots of other Hibiscus varieties that wouldn't be called Rose of Sharon, like the more tropical ones that most of us are used to calling Hibiscus as a general name. I agree with the assessment of it being a Rose of Sharon, definitely! This is the typical scenario of blue that is really lavender/purple. Gotta love that!
marquest, those are wonderful pictures and as you have written they for sure complement your garden decor.
I think the reason that ferns may be underused or under appreciated it that too often they are planted at the very back of a garden. I am guilty of this practice. Here are some just fine Japanese Painted ferns of some type that soon will be 'unseeable' from the front of the garden as other plants in front of them will be too large and so block one's view.
Actually, I was focused on taking the photo of the lilies not on the hummingbird feeder so I was surprised to see the hummie when I viewed the photo. I can't remember the timeline but I started with two plants in front of the window and divided them about four years ago. They get sun for approx. 8 hours per day. Cameran Quantz is a prolific bloomer and gorgeous in person. Some more daylilies - These are Benchmark - another tetraploid.
Back to the 'plain old green hostas' & their blah lavender flowers--I divided two POGHs several years ago and planted the divisions around the base of a huge old oak tree in front of my house. Last year was the first time I actually looked at them when they bloomed and it was a surprisingly pretty sight!
Second only to attracting/nourishing bees, butterflies & hummingbirds, my garden is designed for curb appeal so I'm quite satisfied that I've achieved a look which pleases me. I now let my hostas, heucheras & several others go ahead and bloom where in years past I did cut the bloom stalks off. After I observed so many bees on them in the past couple of years, these days they stay as they are and I'm content to let them do their thing.
Yarrow seems to be my problem plant.
It comes up in the Spring all pretty and fern like, send up nice blooms in red and yellow, then bleak, lays over and looks brown and scraggly the rest of the summer.
This year I've decided to whack them off when they start that stuff, giving other more behaving perennials room to shine on.
You can see it here behind the Veronica.
Deb
If your not up to pulling a few patio bricks to get at them easily why not pull as many as you can and coddle half and plant half. See what happens.
SCG