13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I enjoy a combo of commercial cultivars and seed-grown plants in the gardens.
Been starting plants from seed since 1986, but with the "discovery" of winter-sowing, that has increased exponentially. I do most of it outside now via winter or direct sowing instead of inside under lights. I love to watch seeds germinate and little baby plants grow up, enjoy the genetic diversity of seedlings, and get a little thrill to discover self-sown seedlings in the gardens. I'm also doing a little plant breeding of my own, dreaming about cultivating an interesting, perhaps even commercially viable plant.
I've got a lot of patience for growing from seed, but still get a rush going to the nursery and buying a few plants for instant gratification! However, I am more cautious. After having lost many nursery and mail order perennials over the years, heck some of them didn't even make it ONE YEAR, I prefer cultivars that are more durable.
When I did a lot of seed starting under lights, I did it mainly because I enjoyed the process and the daily work of caring for all the seedlings was kind of a nice distraction from winter. I really didn't do it to save money. Maybe I did, but then electric rates really started to skyrocket and I couldn't stand the monthly bills. I also simply grew tired of it and really have no desire to go back to doing it.
I guess the only exception, like mxk, is growing veggies from seed, but almost everything is direct sown in the garden except for the tomatoes. Those I start inside. Also like mxk, I save my seeds from year to year, so a packet of beans or whatever lasts me for years. It's pretty gratifying knowing that patch of beans which feeds for me most the summer probably cost me 25 cents if that. I get a kick out of that.
I was recently at a garden center where they were selling plastic pots full of green bean plants already in bloom with some sort of trellis to support the growing plants. The whole thing cost an absolute fortune and I kept thinking who in the word would be dumb enough to spend that kind of money on a few bean plants you could grow yourself - from seed - for a couple of pennies? I'm sure someone bought them though.
Kevin
When I think of big plant I think of Ligularia Marie Britt or Hosta Sum and Substance, or a big Yucca. I do not understand big plants as a perennial that has a lot of one single stem plant. If that is what is needed for the area I guess you need tall plants for the back of a garden.
Really Big plant is a statement plant in my mind.
I really haven't had any problems with overwintering Heucheras, but this spring the majority of them looked like absolute crap. I thought maybe this was the winter that did them in, but I was amazed at how fast and lush they grow and fill in once the weather warms up.
I did have 2 casualties however. 2 green leaved, no name varieties I've had for years. Both were seed raised from a T&M seed packet mix.
Kevin
I planted it 5-6 years and at that time I did not pay attention to the tag. Later on after googling, Fire witch is the closest match I can find. Even though some on line picture shows taller spikes.
Bewitched has different color shade.
If anybody can help ID, that would be great.
Thank you.
Vivian
Full sun should not cause rose foliage to burn, even in very hot climates. Would assume some sort of other issues at play here......watering, spraying while sun is up, fertilizer burn, etc.
btw, the USDA zones have nothing to do heat - they are a measure only of average minimum winter temperatures. For example, I live in a 8b/9 hardiness zone but it seldom gets much above 80F in summer.
Love that one! It does look fantastic to me too, that's a great flush of blooms. Same color as the last one I got for out front, matches the house. The one crispy tip I can see could be the result of a passing nibble.
Is the purple flower Clematis? Never sure when I can't see the foliage too.
KO's are fine in full sun here too, the more, the better, evergreen this past winter. The heat is late in arriving this year, but the past few weeks are near 90, and days in a row of much hotter temps are common, expected later in the summer.
When it comes to roses, I pay no attention to the leaves except to cut the ugly ones off if they're bothering me. When they look as nice as your plant, I do admire them though. After finally getting some long overdue rain and just having trimmed off a flush of finished blooms, I'm expecting a flush of new red foliage to admire, then more flowers.
On any rose, my policy is pretty simple and easy, either there are pretty flowers often enough to be pleasing, or there's a shovel pruning. What disease they may or may not have is irrelevant, because I wouldn't buy a substance for a disease and many roses seem to always have some imperfect leaves but bloom just fine anyway. I wouldn't buy one that had foliage maladies, but don't stress if some leaves aren't perfect later on.
Seems like the more fancy the name and price tag, the more diseased it will be. When healthy roses are really planted in full sun, not just some possibly incorrect idea of how much sun is good enough, they are nearly indestructible. Roses in shade part or most of the day are those that get to looking so bad they make you wonder how they are still alive, especially in the colder zones.
Another vote that it looks fine!
If there are roses bred to grow better in the north, less than full sun, or that are known to be overwhelmed by heat or sun in lower latitudes, I'm uninformed about that, and of course these comments would not apply. Hopefully someone who does know would make that clear for everyone.
absolutely - you can stool cotinus right back to a stump.....and many do for those really extra large leaves.
although they are shrubs, berberis and physocarpus have good deep tones, as does the delightful cercis 'Forest Pansy - which can also be kept small(ish).
OK, now THAT is intriguing. You never know what plants/shrubs will take hard pruning like that until you are told! So, I could basically "sculpt" it, like I do my elderberry to keep the general shape and size that I want. I'm sure these guys grows faster than an elderberry, but it sounds like it will respond to that to keep it in check. Now to decide on variety. I want the darkest red possible, as close to the color in the pic as possible. I am going to do some research and I'm sure I'll have more questions after I dig a little! Thanks so much!
It definitely looks like Kerria japonica however mine was always in mostly shade and bloomed just yellow. It was reliably hardy in my then-Zone 5b garden. It grew larger year after year but never seeded around and after 20+ years was still what I would categorize as a well-behaved perennial shrub. It was never bothered by pests in my experience.
If you do not want to go with a Eupatorium, how about a baptisia or an aster? Both can tolerate dryness.
Both are excellent choices. One gives flowering in the late spring/early summer and the other in the late summer.
(Has anyone had first hand experience with the Decadence line-up of the more compact, vigorous Baptisia?)
This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 5:53
I have Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' in an area that gets about 3 hours of sun and it flops so that I have to support it. I don't know if 4.5 hours is enough sun to make it happier.
In my experience E. perfoliatum prefers it fairly damp, growing rampantly on the sunny floodplain of our stream, but not anywhere higher up. Where I have seen it elsewhere in drier spots, the foliage looks tattered. It seeds around into places where it is happy. Like Joe Pye weed, boneset is a favorite of insects when it is bloom.
I tried wintersowing bronze Chantilly snapdragons this past winter... had a little mishap but I have one growing. It was started a little later than should have but never the less.... It still might be early enough but this is my first time with taller snapdragons so I'm not certain. Might want to try the annual forum
I am in a lower zone, so you should check these out locally, but they have all looked great for me all summer:
Dianthus 'Greystone' (trim off bloom stalks after flowering is finished) - sun
Cranberry/Vaccinium macrocarpon - sun to 3/4 shade
Veronica 'Georgia Blue' - sun to 3/4 shade
If you don't mind an aggressive spreader, vinca/periwinkle is a great groundcover, but mine crawls over barriers into the lawn.
Snow in Summer always looked pretty bad for me after flowering, even when I trimmed it back.
I love pink knotweed. It's always covered in little pink buttons and does well in the heat here in Sacramento. I have it in full, hot sun and it stays beautiful all through summer.
It can spread quickly, but with regular trimming it hasn't choked anything out in my beds.
Dee please keep us posted if you are successful. I would really like a baby from my white one.
I have tried everything everyone has told me and from my research. The branches that nicked and pulled to the ground are still there not rooted last year. Maybe it will take a couple of years. This will be year two. I have not checked maybe they did root over the winter.
I have rooted some common rhododendrons. There can be a huge difference between individual varieties how easy they grow roots, from easy ones to nearly impossible. The ordinary R.catawbiense Grandiflorum roots easily. The easiest one is the old Cunninghams White.
The white rhododendron in the picture above looks like R.catawbiense Album.
There is a book(but do not remember the title at the moment) with an extensive list of cultivars divided according to the easiness of rooting.
Well, technically, the blooms haven't opened yet, so it is possible that it was mislabeled, but doubtful. There was a lot of them together and they all had the same growth habit, a reputable nursery that I have bought many things from and nothing has ever been mislabeled. I think it is more likely that b/c it is a relatively new hybrid, then there is just disinformation out there and this grower just passed on the disinformation. I did notice online that the estimates were all over the place, but nothing near what mine is growing like. It's funny b/c my clay soil usually affords me smaller plants than the estimate, not the opposite!
I've done this a number of times... and still do... the biggest one lately has been (last fall) putting daffodil bulbs in front of bergenia... When I look at it I just wonder what was I thinking? I also put valerian in front of an echinacea and black eyed susan... ha! In my defense, I figured the valerian wouldn't get as tall as it did. It was about 8" high last year, very low growing, so I figured it wont get past 2 feet this year.... Now at about 5 feet tall, the ech is doing fine but poor susan can't get any sun so she'll get dug up and moved to a container until I can rearrange in the fall