13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I second what eclecticcottage said... Hostas were mine. As booberry85 said, they seemed the plant to get when you want to throw in the towel, especially here it seems. It wasn't until I got more into gardening that I started to appreciate them. Not to sound like a snob, either, but driving around, looking at houses with hostas in the landscape, now I can see when, where and how they're used either correctly or not. I still agree... I think a lot of people use them when they give up, have no clue, just want to be done with it, etc. but they do serve a great purpose and if used correctly can really make a garden.

I also have to say... I'm terrible about thinking of using shrubs and things. When I first started this gardening thing (yes, gardening thing... to emphasize the insanity) I thought "who needs shrubs". Well, turns out... me. The one area that I redid that features a shrub is probably my favorite garden, so now I'm going back to other areas and reevaluating what shrubs I might be able to move in ha ha

Garlic.

I typically plant in a diagonal pattern, staggered rows, if you will, so it doesn't really look like actual rows, but it is easier to plant than random, I think. I'm no formal gardening girl, but I don't want to put a plant at the back that you can't see because it's too short! That is what I'm trying to avoid, more than anything and I don't want a color issue. I plant more by color and texture than anything else and obviously by height.

I lay all of my beds out on paper, too, before I plant them. With my last one, I'm at about 80% success rate with 20% moving/replacing thus far and this is it's first season, so I understand what you mean. I still think it helps to start from paper, I am much more creative that way than just standing out there, randomly planting. I have no preconception that everything will stay that way, though. Best chance for success starts with forethought, though, I think.

Thanks for the good luck! I am excited about this bed, echs are my favorite flower, so I am really happy that I can have a whole bed of them. :)

I think I have solved the problem, at least I hope. I think if I put the ruds along the 3-foot and 7-foot side of the bed, that will still basically be against the house and will serve as a backdrop for the echs. I think that will work. If not, then I can change it up next year.

Next question on this bed for ech lovers:

If you were starting a raised bed for echs, what blend would you use for the soil in this bed? In other words, what's the best mix of soil for an ech? The bed is about 16" deep, fyi. I have my own ideas, but, as always, some of you may have a better one. Percentages would be helpful! Thanks so much!

I vowed to never buy any of the new varieties since I've wasted so much money and they're so unreliable. I'll stick to the plain ole purples and whites. The goldfinches thank me every year.

Zone 6b

I have more then below, but they are just from last year.. or i forget where they are.. so I will wait until they bloom to verify they are good from the winter.

Tangerine Dream
Hot Lava
Coconut Lime
Flame Thrower
Hot Papaya
All that Jazz
Cotton Candy
Green Envy
Green Jewel
Sunrise
Summer Sky
Summer Sun
Pica Bella
Pink Poodle
Tiki Torch
Raspberry Tart
Raspberry Truffle
Double Scoop Raspberry

Here's the ech beds so far this year. The paradox, pallida, and crosses with them are the first to bloom. Only a few of the hybrids have bloomed yet.

I have good luck with Liquid Fence. The deer were a big problem and ate my hosta. I put the liquid fence on, and the hosta recovered. There is also a granular called Repels All.

I've been getting rolls of flexible fencing and cutting it to size to fit around the plants. My bunnies only seem to go after the plants while they're still young. Once they start blooming, I remove the fencing and they tend to leave it alone. I do this will all bunny favorites.

Thanks ken, I looked at some of the results and they're all talking about cane yuccas, the tree kinds, but then I finally found one person who said fall was the time to divide the clumping kind. I guess I'll try that and see what happens.... Even though I don't picture the leaves making it through a fall transplanting that well, but it can't look any worse than the divisions made in spring.
Weird for a plant that is almost indestructible.

This plant is not indestructible. I could not make it grow here. It drowns very easily in winter.

Neil - I cut back my weigela each year because I planted it too close to my walkway, thinking (erroneously) that it grew to a very minimal (2 ft.) height. It actually gets 5 ft. tall & wide so it's a bit of a problem where it's currently growing. I prune mine back each year after it finishes flowering and, as campanula pointed out, thus far it doesn't appear to suffer from that. It's thriving in fact & currently has rather a wide habit. Even pruning doesn't keep it "in bounds" as much as I need. I've observed that each season it grows back to it's maximum height & width so I offered it to my neighbor next door. I tend to tend her flowerbeds in addition to my own.

As for the Siberian iris, the biggest concern with growing them in dappled shade might be diminished blooms but so far I haven't observed that to be the case in my Z6 garden. It's been my experience they're pretty much indestructible and bullet-proof as well as pest & disease-free.

I agree with miclino - more pictures of the overall garden, rather than close-ups of specific plants, would be good. I remember your thread on building the pergola and the garden. It looks like everything is growing and filling in well so I would like to see pictures that show how it is shaping up overall... DH has a tendency to take all garden pictures as close-ups too - unless I specifically state ' you have to include [whatever] so I can see the context' :-)

People here have good ideas I've never heard of. Sunflowers, who would have thought it? They wouldn't fit into spots I have in mind.
I know about the "chelsea chop" but never heard it called that. Been cutting and pinching back at least once early in the season phlox,monarda,asters,astermoeia (whatever it is called now), boltonia for years.
I'm sure the centhrantus can take it but I wouldn't dare try it on the poppies.
I don't have an interest in achillea anymore. But huge orange poppies with geranium magnificum and tall purple allium and a dash of yellow something are too gorgeous to give up. Honest, it gives me the biggest thrill of the gardening year. This year I propped the poppies up earlly with pea sticks and a harness and they look ok. The geranium magnificum is big and floppy too, but pea sticks work very well.
Can the geranium be cut back before blooming and still flower successfully? Of course if the bloom is delayed too much it won't flower with the poppy.
I find the idea of sinking a pot with the correct medium interesting. Can't hurt to try.
Thanks everyone,
idabean/Marie

Raised beds!

mid summer is a lull in fragrance....

but come august.. the hosta species plantaginea... with its 6 inch trumpet flowers is sublime ... as well as many of its progeny.. like royal standard... etc ...

also.. here in the great white north.. august is time for many things that self seeded... to finally peak .. and a large area of 4 o'clocks.. can fragrance the whole yard ....

and then in fall... the fragrant autumn clematis ...

and then its winter.. and its all over ...

my point.. if you missed it.. is that there is NOT one 'best' ...

you need to plant for fragrance.. in waves.... so they bloom... one after another.. always with something coming.. something to anticipate ...

my theory.. for whats its worth ... is that the scent is a bee attractant... and by the heat of the summer.. bees are not as active.. most of their work done ... so things sorta peter out .... also.. a lot of the late summer things.. are night bloomers.. attracting the night pollinators... like moths ... [both the 4 o'clocks.. and the plantaginea]

ken

Viburnum carlesii, Lilacs, Rose 'Rhapsody in Blue', Honeysuckle, Mockorange, Kolkwitzia, Variegated iris blooms smell like grape juice, Honey Bee Blue Agastache smells like rootbeer when you touch the leaves or harvest the seeds. Lilies, 'Casa Blanca' & 'Orania', Butterfly Bush, Herbs like Fennel and Basil. Four OClocks as Ken mentioned will drift their fragrance over a 25 foot area on a warm night. Heliotrope in pots have that vanilla scent.

L. perenne reseeds year after year for me. I have to pull the seedlings sometimes if there are too many.

Campanula - So far I haven't had the luxury of becoming bored. Zoning regulations in the town where I live require no less than an acre of property per dwelling. While I don't necessarily pine for a 'postage stamp,' the swath I'm required to maintain is already roughly six times the amount of space I can even dream of singlehandedly caring for and planting. Fortunately I have the help of migrant workers from Guatemala who gladly share the labor and willingly perform the most back-breaking tasks.

Additionally, I can't say any two years running have been repeat performances in my garden thanks to extreme weather events--the October Snowstorm (2011)*, Storm Sandy (2012) & various hurricanes & tornadoes. My sun/shade patterns were altered due to extreme weather which impacted how things grew in the beds I so carefully designed & planted.

* when I was without power/phone/running water for a total of 11 days straight & had to keep my woodstove down in the cellar fired up 24 hrs. a day

Trust me when I say boredom has not been a factor.

Neil - thanks to the consequences of my parents planting things they didn't know/had no way of knowing were invasives 50 years ago, I'm very cautious about what I plant. Every state has an invasive plant list posted on the Internet which I check before setting anything into the ground.

Don't skip your due diligence before you commit what might be a colossal error & keep a large jug of vinegar in your garage year-round so you can eradicate any errors without introducing poisonous chemicals into your garden soil. Vinegar kills everything it touches--I use it primarily on poison ivy & violets--but at least it eventually dissipates (unlike Preen or other chemicals) without poisoning the soil for generations to come.

Keep in mind, Neil, that things which grow with such exuberance do so because they're invasive and you may regret planting them down the road when you attempt to remove them from your garden. When I first moved here after my Mom died, I actually hired a neighbor with a backhoe to remove lily-of-the-valley that had overtaken my front foundation beds. Who'da thunk that would be an invasive?

Don't mean to rain on your parade but a conscientious gardener thinks a lot more these days before planting. Sure would hate to read a GW post down the road about what you wish you hadn't planted.

Thank you so much gardenweed for the guidance. I will definitely be watchful. I'll also do more research before implementing something.

Btw, I'm out right now in the yard. It's 11:45pm, maybe 50f. A bit cold especially I'm just wearing shorts and a shirt. I'm enjoying the fragrance of Honeylocust's flower behind me.

I've planted Honeysuckle Goldflame today. She is really beautiful and the fragrance is out of this world. The fragrance is still not strong yet.

Again, thank you so much!