13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I get a lot of pollinators in my garden, esp an assortment of bees. The butterflies really vary by year - I've only had a few so far this year, but again, it has only recently gotten warm. One of them was visiting my centaurea montana, which I hadn't noticed as a butterfly attractor in previous years.

Besides that, the bees are busiest around my salvia 'May Night' right now. Later in the season, the agastache and sedum 'Autumn Joy' get the most bees.

Do shrubs count? if so, then it's definitely my California Lilac shrubs (Ceanothus). I think every bee in my neighborhood (and possibly any neighborhood within a mile of here) is out there right now. I can hear the buzzing from inside my house if the window is open!

For perennials, I'd have to say my blue pincushion flower (Scabiosa). There seems to always be a steady stream of bee and butterfly activity on those. They also love my kniphofia and my Early Sunrise coreopsis.

This post was edited by flower-frenzy on Thu, Jun 13, 13 at 17:32

You may want to buy the seeds in winter :) If that is Penstemon strictus the seeds could require 3 months moist cold (40F) to break dormancy before germinating.

Yes. I will do winter sowing.

Just want to give a word of praise for G. maculatum 'Elizabeth Ann'. It is a stunning, easy care bronze-leaved selection with no disease issues. I much prefer it to 'Espresso' (which has equally wonderful foliage) because it is taller with larger blooms. Flower color on 'Elizabeth Ann' is a light almost pure lavender with just a hint of pink, whereas 'Espresso' runs more on the light pink side. A clump of 'Elizabeth Ann' is spectacular in full bloom and the foliage is surprisingly visible in shade. I am hoping to find a few bronze leaf seedlings around my plants in the future.

I have not tried a dark-leaved clone or strain of G. pratense, but I am now on year 2 with 'Violaceum Plenum'. It has been very slow to establish for me but I was pleased to note the other day that it is sending up two bloom spikes. No mildew last year or so far this year. I recently added 'Elizabeth Yeo' and 'Mrs Kendall Clark', so I will see in the future how they perform for me.

I tried it twice and it died both times, and I have a lot of geraniums. Last year I bought the dark leaved Hocus Pocus, and it has barely stayed alive. Never had mildew on any of my geraniums either.

try the scratch test - scrape a little bark off with your thumbnail and look to see if it is green and living underneath.

My hibiscus has only this week broken out in minuscule leafage - we are at least 3 weeks behind this year.
Take heart.

Thanks all.

I hope I didn't give the impression plants were only first poking out of the ground. They are well underway, so the ones mentioned are the only ones showing NOTHING which concerns me.

mnwgal - I was hoping you would chime in since we're probably close by. Now I am concerned about the hydrangia. That was a new shrub last year and I have no experience with these at all. I just couldn't believe they are this late in emerging, so I have a feeling that one is a goner, but I'll wait a bit longer. My brugmansia has been in the ground for well over a month and is looking spectacular. The new growth is exceptionally lush this year because of all the rain.

campanula - Yes, I did the scratch test and did find some green on the larger branches, but whether or not it is true living green or just some leftover dying green is the big question. I wasn't even going to mention my hibiscus which I know is a late emerger.

idabean - I'm happy you mentioned the temp thing. I was wondering if some plants like caryopteris need a certain amount of warmth to leaf out. We were stuck in the 60's for weeks, but now it looks like mid 70's to low 80's are going to be the norm. Last year these were well leafed out in March, but it was a warm year.

Kevin

Thanks so much everyone...

First reminds me of a yellow primrose buttercup.

funnthsun, that is funny about the clay added. I guess what I have read clay is a great soil mix.

FYI..... I add the peat because we do not get good rainfall in the summer and the clay gets hard, dry and kill the plants. Clay is great if it is moist and stay moist but no rain for months and 90 degree temps will kill your plants.

Peat is worse than clay, in that respect. Once it dries out, it is extremely difficult to rewet. Much, much worse than clay in that respect.

It's too green and could benefit with some contrasting leaf colors and flowers other than white.

Kevin, when you have time you could put in some variegated Polygonatum to address leaf colour and a corydalis lutea and or a ligularia to get a yellow shade flower. (The ligularia would give a different foliage height to your garden which I find visually appealing).

Thanks for the comments and responses.

Yes, I could add some other plants and the suggestions were good ones, but I'm still very content to not do anything. Maybe that notion will change with time, but so far the desire to do so hasn't hit me.

rouge said:
"Kevin, when you have time you could put in some variegated Polygonatum...."
Actually, there is a planting of that on the other side of the azalea which you can't see in the photo. I divided and moved a bunch of that last fall and only kept a limited amount. I threw away buckets of that stuff, so it's going to be a few years before my patch is large enough to divide again.

Dee - No, I'm not concerned about the carpenter ants. I had those years and years ago long before this garden was created and haven't had a problem since treating for them back then.

As to the possible problems with the Podophyllum, I admit that will be an interesting situation to deal with. I did dig some a few years ago and found that it comes out of the ground very easily, with a garden fork. I don't think I'll try to dig it out however. What I'll probably do is just cut sections of it down early in the spring and keep at it if it re-sprouts. If a plant can't photosynthesize because the leaves and stems are gone, it will eventually die. I had that problem with wild, white violets at one point in time and that technique worked on them.

Kevin

Thank you, Campanula! It sounds like I will have a nice little seed project next year! I am not sure why this plant is not more commonly available in the States.

So after reading Jelitto's website more closely, it was actually â¬12 per GRAM of seeds. Still not cheap, but much more reasonable.

They state these seeds do not necessarily need a cold period to germinate so I went ahead and ordered some. They were slow to ship but customer service was very reliable and informative.

I sowed them last night in small pots and will now keep my fingers crossed for good germination. I would like to have some nice small plants ready for early fall planting this year, but I still have a few seeds leftover for wintersowing if it doesn't work out.

I now regret not ordering the Gold Nugget (primed for rapid germination) seeds of Thalictrum rochebruneanum...

This post was edited by ispahan on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 17:34

I have heard the regular Geranium phaeum color is not a garden standout, but there are so many color variants available. I don't yet know how deep rooted this plant is, but maybe you could start with a mess of clones with different bloom and foliage colors and then rogue out any undesirable seedlings as they arise?

Geranium maculatum comes in a limited but beautiful color range from pure white to light pink to mauve to dark blue-pink. It is lovely and charming in all of its variants with colors that are never foo-foo or flat. The flowers always glow like beacons in the shade. It is even available with stunning bronze foliage that is surprisingly iridescent and stands out wonderfully, even in shadows. I much prefer 'Elizabeth Ann' over 'Espresso' for a dark-foliaged clone since it is taller, the flowers are larger and prettier, and because I think it is a generally superior clone. This species is very easy to transplant (or weed out, depending on your point of view) and handles heat and drought by simply going dormant for the rest of the season. If it gets enough moisture, however, the foliage will stay looking nice until it develops good autumn colors before dying down.

Also, for good spreading spring ephemerals don't overlook the smaller bulbs like Eranthis hyemalis, snowdrops, Siberian squill, Chionodoxa, Crocus tommasinianus, etc. And then Cyclamen hederifolium for autumn blooms.

cheers, Ispahan. Yep, bulbs are likely to be my first investment. The ground cover is negligible in the spring woods and poplars are late into leaf so am planning a major spring bulb show. The little blue bulbs are always good value and will probably go for 'in the green' planting for the snowdrops and bluebells.

Having ordered seeds for various large campanulas, including the dreaded rapunculoides, I have been amusing myself re-reading the various warnings about this evil beauty. Some garden writers really let their hair down when it comes to this bellflower. When it comes down to it though, I would rather have 5 acres of campanulas instead of 5 acres of nettles and hogweed.

I love my dwarf aruncus. It's a perfectly round ball of nice ferny foliage.

"Horatio - I've read very good things about this one. I think it's one of the current favorites.

So far Zweiweltenkind is doing really, really well in its new location, but we haven't had any warm or hot weather yet - you know this never ending early spring weather this year. I'll see what happens when the scorching stuff sets in if it ever does.

When I moved this plant, I divided into 3 pieces. Right now the sum of those 3 divisions is much, much larger than the original plant if that makes any sense. To me, that says it's happy.

Kevin

Painter's Palette
Latin: Persicaria virginiana

If you let it flower you get some that are this color

and some are green/purple/red like this. It is the plant behind the fairy house

Here is a link that might be useful: Painter's Palette

Lamium is another possibility.