13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
When it comes to gardening it's all in the details. The fact this was really a WATER GARDENING question is light years different from PERENNIAL GARDENING where we're talking about plants growing on mostly dry land not in standing water 24/7.
My original post to your question was a complete waste of time and of no use to you what-so-ever because I was missing that little detail about the iris growing in a pond not on dry land.
Once again, an example:
I post the question: "How do I grow lilies in my garden?"
Because people out here are extremely helpful, they start sharing their knowledge of lily culture: Asiatic, species, Orientals and all the rest. Because I know some people are really lily enthusiasts, they will probably go into a lot of detail and give me tons of wonderful info.because they're always anxious to welcome new lily enthusiasts to their group.
After a lot of people have taken a lot of time to type a lot of great information, I suddenly announce: "Oh, I'm talking about growing a water lily in a pond in my garden."
All that great lily information given is suddenly of no use what-so-ever.
Creativity?? Think outside the box? Seriously?
I can think outside the box just fine, I'm rather known for that, but I still need all the facts. That was a big, missing fact.
Kevin
This post was edited by aachenelf on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 16:14
How about parking a large excavator on that bridge and scooping away? I see why herbicides aren't on the menu. If it was water in the west, it would be managed and maybe you could draw it down to more expose the plant. I don't really know if it has to grow in water, but maybe not being in water would make it weaker to whatever treatments you decide to try. There is iris borer. I wonder if they would eat it, or just fly away and destroy the beardeds around the area. Sorry I'm not such a good out of the box thinker, but I do wish you luck.
pippi21 - what is the compass orientation of the affected bed & its sun exposure/shade cover? A number of perennials can survive the seasons in a container but there are others (i.e, lavender) that suffer from too much winter moisture such as snow and/or rain. I was a bit surprised but happy when WS Heuchera/coral bells, delphinium, Astilbe, Agastache, Alchemilla mollis/Lady's Mantle, Platycodon/balloon flower, Siberian iris & Spirea all came through the winter in gallon pots/larger containers on my breezeway.
Phlox sublata/Creeping phlox is a spring-blooming perennial and as long as it gets moved in the fall when it isn't blooming or too stressed due to dry conditions, should transplant in good shape. That's only my own general understanding of perennials speaking--not the voice of experience since I don't particularly like creeping phlox. My spring preference is P. divaricata/woodland phlox which is just as lovely but blooms for a much longer period than P. sublata.
Again, it's only my own observation & what I read in my perennial guide but Papaver orientale/oriental poppies grow from seeds, not bulbs, and spread via rhizomes/traveling roots in much the same way as Missouri evening primrose (whose botanical name escapes me at the moment). It's my understanding they're best moved when very young plants as they don't like to be disturbed.
You may or may not already know this but laying down a layer (or two) of corrugated cardboard under your mulch will be a huge help in discouraging weeds. I've found the cardboard is free & readily available at my local grocery store, package store or else the recycle bin at the town landfill. A judicious application of ordinary vinegar at the edges early in the season tends to discourage most weeds.
I highly recommend bike shop as a place to get large sheets of cardboard. Those bike boxes really come in handy.
I moved an oriental poppy, and it did just fine in the new spot, but it also grew back from the very deep roots where it was before. So it might be hard to get rid of if you are set on moving the spot it is in. They do have a sort of dormant period here in the midst of summer when it is good and hot, which might be a good time to try. I don't know about all this putting into a pot and so on, if that will work for it or not. I think the more fussing you do during the plant's active growing time, the less success you will have. I have moved a small creeping phlox to a large pot, and then later to a place in the garden which worked well, but I did this in the early spring. I think that what is the best for plants is not always what is easiest for us and fits into our time schedule. So if you are set on doing this now, you just have to try it and see what happens, and if it doesn't work, then be ready to replace the things that don't make it.
It's not a sun problem. Half a day from noon onwards is plenty of sun for normal, full sun plants. It will fry a fair number of part sun plants because they have to transition quickly from shade to bright, hot midday sun, but full sun plants won't have that problem.
It may also be a water problem. Young man who does the hardscape/hard work pointed out that this is the upslope side of the garden, water flows down, etc etc. I have a well, and rarely water anything that isn't a new planting. His theory is they are chronically water deprived, and would thrive in the lower portion of the same garden.
How are daphne with limited water?
Letting the plant keep its leaves until they are yellow allows it to put energy into the tubers and make for a stronger plant the next year. They most often yellow as the weather gets hot. With the rain and cool weather we have had this year mine are still green.
'funn', none have bloomed but all are growing vigorously. (Just today i got my first bloom on my 4 year old Rozanne).
HB are definitely not compact. In fact they do not grow upwards at all but grow close to the ground spreading outwards...almost like a messy ground cover. The question is how much smaller of a spread it has relative to Rozanne.
I will post a post a picture or two once it has a significant number of flowers.
This post was edited by rouge21 on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 21:08
Based on this thread, I am getting into heleniums. I have several in my garden and am looking for more. This year I have I planted some seed, (Red Shades) bought some from two garden centers (Tie Dye and Rotgold) and this week found some at Lowes. Has anyone had good luck growing from seed? I keep wanting to pull up the Red Shades because the foilage looks like a grassy weed, but luckily I notice my plant marker before I do.
This is Mardi Gras, planted last year. It's a blooming machine. The newer ones have not bloomed yet.
At Lowe's, got two.
I'm not sure about the Lowe's plant tags. I saw the plants at two different Lowes and the redder Helenium (versus the more yellow/orage one) seemed to be labeled differently at the two stores.
Mine are just now starting to bloom, they are all very, very tiny. Tons of them, though. I think it's cool how they start out so very small, like little miniature blooms and get bigger and bigger. This pic is of Ruby Tuesday. Can't wait to see her in full bloom!
Cheyenne Spirit will (hopefully) be available this Fall. It may be receiving an award, and the breeder needs to have a large quantity of seed in the bag before it can be released. The Rudbeckia Tiger Eye is an F1 Hybrid, so in theory, will NOT produce progeny exactly like the parent plant that weed is collected from.
Be sure to get some of the monarda bradburiana - it started blooming here a couple of weeks ago, much earlier than all my other monardas (I have Raspberry Wine, Jacob Cline, Coral Reef, Fire Marshall, Purple Rooster, Grand Parade, Grand Marshall, Peter's Fancy Fuchsia, Dark Ponticum, and probably another one or two), those won't start blooming for at least a couple more weeks.
My Raspberry wine and jacob cline are both blooming at this time. The Raspberry wine variety was sent to me by a generous member here and I paid for the shipping cost. BB does spread fast and it's leaves do smell like mint. Their roots are like runners. I will be glad to save some seeds for you, might even have some in my stach from last year but not sure. I'd rather wait and give you some from this year. Email me and give me your address.
Kevin,
The garden is awash in chicken wire! The bed where the VJ was planted has a wire fence, but something came over, under or through it. We have so many possible culprits - baby rabbits, pack rats, quail - the only way to protect everything is to fence it all in fine hardware cloth.
The drought has been hard on everything. I made up a homemade liquid fence using a recipe I found online. It's a disgusting mix of eggs, cayenne, garlic, wilt-pruf and water. You leave it to ferment for a week. Something come over the garden wall, dragged a gallon jug of the repellent over to the side, punctured the jug and drank the lot!
Cheryl
I'd give Lithodora one more try. I lost my first one which turned black a few weeks after planting, thinking it was an easy plant to grow. But It is quite a fussy plant if put in the wrong soil conditions and over-watered. Here is a pic of mine below once I got it right. and here are some tips.
Lithodora is lime-hating, so if you live in a hard water area you shouldn't simply water from the tap to begin with. Plant using ericaceous soil, or add sulfur powder mixed in with normal soil. That takes 2 months to make the soil sufficiently acidic so that tap water can be used as a means for watering for establishment of the plant..If you are fortunate to live in a soft water area then you can dispense with this preparation.
The soil texture needs to be porous and well=draining, so use a peaty soil with plenty of grit mixed in. If you have a clay soil then that needs to be made porous by digging in plenty of peat and grit before planting..
Lithodora needs watering weekly for the first 2 months after planting. If you get plenty of rain in this period you can skip on the watering. Once established it shouldn't need further watering unless you have a prolonged hot dry spell. If you tend to have hot dry summers you need to mulch thoroughly so that water is conserved in the soil. Gravel placed on the surface around the plant works well as a mulch. But remember that once established Lithodora is drought-tolerant, so never over-water even when newly planted.
Finally plant in full-sun conditions or part-time shade if not possible. If planted in full time shade it won't flower much, if at all.
This post was edited by bendipa on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 11:05
My goldenrods are budding now. Kinda strange. I would hesitate before cutting buds back because the plant has already expended the energy necessary to prepare flowers and depending on the plant, it may not be able to generate enough energy to make another attempt by fall.
Maurice, you are adding to the end of a very old thread on the perennial forum... try posting your question in a separate post on the vegetable forum, you will get more answers.
Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Gardening Forum
Oxalis was choking out my lawn. Weeding last year caused it to come in more thickly this year. I was about to remove my lawn--it was driving me crazy.
This year I found Weed Beater Ultra for broadleaf weeds. It cost about $22 and covers 10,000 sq. ft. It does not harm most grasses-safe for bluegrass, rye grass, fescues, bermuda, and zoysiagrass.
I used it and to my amazement it thoroughly worked. All the oxalis in my lawn is gone!
Sometimes if you plant perennials that you buy at the greenhouse that are in peat based potting soil, and you stick them in the ground, "poor, dry, rocky" in your case, they never put roots out into the surrounding soil and therefore they don't increase, especially if the soil is on the heavy side. Sometimes the peat can hold too much water and rot the roots so they can't get out into the soil that might be more to their liking. You say the plants look okay, just not bigger, so maybe that isn't operating here, but it's just something to think about. I often bare root anything that is a lover of poor soil before I plant it if it comes in peat. I have the varigated sedum k, and it seems to be a slower grower, but the plain kamtschaticum down at the park had spread to be about two or three feet across, and even reseeded a couple of other places, but someone hit it with herbicide this year, I'm not sure why.
Sedum K behaves very well for me when it's in dry soil. Most of my yard is moisture retentive. If given a nice moist soil it spreads out of control. It is easy to pull out where it's not wanted. It's been kicked out of the yard in all but two places. On the North side of the house by gas meter. Where it gets not one drip of sun light. soil is wet in all but August. It's spreading quite nicely and is very happy and healthy. The other spot is by the woods in back yard were I had thrown a bunch of it away and yes it rooted in two years ago it's now an 8' x 4' patch. It and a few others are native to Asia and can live with moisture. This sedum can live in sun or shade. A swamp or air. The only thing it won't do is die.