13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Yours looks a whole lot better than mine at this point. I ended up moving mine from the front to the back after dismantling part of my front shade garden last year. It is a lot smaller now unfortunately.
On an interesting side note...it had heaved a bit and I buried it deeper a few weeks ago. I noticed the most unusual thing, this Thalictrum seems to have very tuber-like roots to it. There were tons of little tubers coming from the plant. I took two of them and am doing a bit of an experiment (dusted with rooting hormone and plopped under my grow light) to see if they root out. Who knows, maybe I will have a little constellation of Evening Stars around here if it works, LOL. ;-)
CMK
I've fallen in love with coleus. They are easy to grow from seed, and even easier to grow from cuttings. They come in an infinite combination of colors and textures and don't need dead heading.
I feel your pain at not having enough full sun to grow your traditional favorites. I also moved to a mostly-full-shade yard and I'm relearning how to garden. I support the idea of removing trees judiciously, or even just thinning some branches to allow a bit more light to get through. Hire an expert so you're sure the job is done right. Good luck.
Martha
Thank you so much for your encouragement! I've felt so discouraged about it. Today I'm charting sun patterns every hour to determine the sunniest location...I'm going to get that shade book, and I'm also going to try a few sun lovers in sunny spots. Yay for gardening! It's always an experiment, isn't it? :)
Most of the concrete shown in that photo was removed, BlueBirdPeony. We estimate it would have taken 6 concrete dumpsters to remove it all, plus extra weight fees, so we got very creative working it into the landscape design as retaining walls, patios and walks. The concrete removed from both the front and back yards, that we did not repurpose, filled 3/4 of the single dumpster that left this morning.
It was a crazy amount of work over two years, between house update projects. And, of course, there are some future projects to complete. But after installing the 250 sq' sod patch this past week and watching the dumpster disappearing down the road this morning, the feeling that the problem area had finally been dealt with was such a relief! I can take an update photo, once I have planted some landscape plants lounging on the walkway.
WOW Gyr_Falcon that is a lot of concrete.
My problem is the entire yard. I purchased a 3+ acre property that had not been cared for for several years. The couple raised their kids and when they finally were too old to take care of the property the kids put their parents in a home and the house sat with no care for years.
The wildlife moved in along with every sap tree in the state.
It is a work in progress. Acre at a time.
BlueBird I do not see anything wrong with your gardens. I think you just need some hardscape/focal point to pull it together. A bird bath, a statue. It is a room without decor. The plants and trees are good but a living room without a couch is a incomplete living room.
I have a zip loc bag full of plant tags from most of the plants I've bought over the past 8 years. I don't even want to look thru those tags and see how many perennials are now dead and gone. I've forgotten more than I can remember. Many of them didn't even make it 2 seasons!
For example, I bought a Sedum "Xenox" from Santa Rosa a couple years ago, has nice purple crimson foliage. It died over the first winter. Contacted them last Spring and they sent a replacement, planted it in a new spot, close to where several other Sedum like Autumn Joy and Matrona are thriving. It proceeded to die over the summer. Gave up on that cultivar.
This happens a lot and I've gotten sick of it. So I'm experimenting with growing interesting-looking cultivars from seed. A lot of them don't grow particularly well either! But at least I'm not losing as much money.
Biennials are different from perennials. I don't think the term biennial is popular because casual gardening customers that learn it takes two years from seed for the plant to bloom, then it dies, often turn away from them. (The reason for the glut of Foxy foxgloves, that bloom during their first season, at the garden centers.)
As stated by others, perennials can behave very differently in various growing areas. Here, Gaillardia fanfare grows year-round and one of mine is at least 8 years old. And some of the dependable perennials that come back stronger year after year elsewhere, fade away for lack of a cold winter quickly.
Maybe you could join a local gardening club? Gardeners often have free starter plants to share from perennials that thrive in the area and need dividing. I always have stuff to share, ranging all the way from extra bulbs to trees, and containers, too. [And too few customers, sadly. I hate just throwing plants away! :-( ]
I'm glad your garden is doing so well. Mine is just the opposite. We had cold temperatures and rain and overcast skies for most of April. In May we had a week of hot temperatures--too hot for the greenhouse. Then it went to rain in deluges and only the last week it has become seasonable but still cool nights with a risk of frost. My garden is 2 weeks behind.
Last year was a good growing year for us even with the lack of rain in July. My mulched plants did very well because the mulch held in the moisture. So I guess it makes a difference where you are gardening. What is a good year for one may not be for another.
Enjoy your gardening weather and think of others not so fortunate
It's been a beautiful spring here in SE Michigan. Yes, the temps have been flipping back and forth, but there's been a fair amount of spring moisture and the general warm-up came right on time (not too early) - the flowering trees bloomed spectacularly around here, simply joyous. :0)
plant them ... its not even June yet ...
crikey.. up here in MI.. i havent even planted my tender annuals yet.. and we had a frost last week ..
and what.. you think summer is over... lol ...
you are worrying too much ... if you can shade them for a few days.. maybe just a lawn chair.. for them to get the roots pumping before blistering sun.. that might help ...even better if you can do it with a little rain or a few cloudy days ...
harden them off properly first.. if grown indoors ...
ken
I'll preface my comments by saying I have never grown an American wisteria - but do successfully grow both a Chinese and a Japanese wisteria as 'trees', and have read widely on wisterias in general. Peter Valder is considered one of the world's experts on them and his book on wisterias is the best thing I've seen (IMO there's a lot of nonsense written about them by people who've clearly never grown one successfully themselves!) Peter Valder (from Australia) appears not to have direct experience growing the American ones either but this is what he has to say about them:
'Flowering as they do on current year's growth, the American wisterias do not usually display their flowers well if grown on pergolas, though the long-racemed introductions of W. macrostachya may prove to be exceptions in this regard. In general, however, they are seen to best advantage against walls, around verandahs, over fences or as pillars on wooden or metal supports. Under these conditions they may be pruned to keep them within bounds at any time of year. However my experience with these plants is such that it would seem unwise of me to be dogmatic. I suspect, though, that two or three light prunings during the growing season may lead to greater floriferousness than a severe cutting back in autumn or winter.'
Aunt Dee is a W. macrostachya (macrostachya means 'long spikes') so is of the kind he's saying would be suitable for a pergola. It is generally said that the long-racemed types display best on pergolas or grown as 'trees' with tall trunks so the flowers have space to dangle freely - how tall is your pergola? Could someone pass under it when the wisteria is in bloom without brushing through the flower racemes? (bees love the flowers!)
Checking information on various US Extension university sites, pruning after the spring flowering is generally recommended. From my experience with wisterias, I'd say wait until spring flowering is over and them prune the whippy, curly new growth back into the desired framework as often as needed during the growing season to keep it neat and promote flowering. I suspect that even these 'new wood' flowering wisterias may develop the short woody spurs that bear a lot of the flowers. Pruning the new growth back regularly certainly promotes the development of those growths in the Asian wisterias so I'd guess that it would be good for the American ones too.
The other thing I'd be sure to do is to remove and seed pods that you see after the leaves fall and the pods become visible. You really don't want them to seed themselves around. That is probably as true for the American ones as it is for the Asian ones - and perhaps even more so as the American ones are said to be hardier and, one would assume, therefore more likely to germinate well from seed!
I bought Morden Sunset for my mother for her zone 3 garden. When she moved she took it with her as a container rose in zone 4. They always had good snow cover though.... still those 5 to 10 nights a year that it gets down to about 30 below are going to be brutal for some roses.
Victorian Memory (aka Isabella Skinner)- I've heard much about this rose. Does she climb for you? How far down do you need to prune?
Every so often someone wants a cold hardy climber and there is much discussion as to wether she can really climb in such cold climates. (She's a rebloomer!)
It sounds like you have done very well with your roses in zone 3!
My Victorian Memory might climb, I am not sure, I have never really tried to get her to do it. I do have to say that most years the most of the canes freeze out. I just trimmed her yesterday, there are only 2 canes that would be long enough to consider training. And of course they are on the wrong side, away from the tower. I usually mulch her too, but I don't get the tall canes! This last winter she suffered from a lot of rodent damage, which could be another reason they died.
I have to say though I love that rose! The scent is awesome, I just wish I had planted her in an area that was easier to access to smell her! I am going experiment this summer, and see if I can propagate some cuttings from her.
I have about 6 in front now. I purchased three new ones and plant in one area in the front. I had three in back that I moved and planted with the new three. This was in early summer probably. The new 3 did great last year where as the 3 I moved from the back yard just looked okay. They laid flatter on the ground and the flowers shot out in all directions (when they flowered finally). I moved them all AGAIN in the fall where they are today. They all look wonderful now and I even have seedlings springing up in the various places these plants had traveled to in the yard last year. Love it!
So.... my inclination would be that they'll bloom next year if they don't this year. Sometimes splitting and transplanting can hinder blooming for a season.
slugs eat the crap out of my salvia.
Put out saucers of beer and they will drown themselves in it --if they are the culprits.
Another trick I recently heard is to put the rind of half a cantaloupe in the dirt nearby (upside down, like a hut? ) and check it every day- apparently they will go hide there. (this advice was given by someone in a very very dry climate..... possibly won't work in normal humid gardens).
If you can find it, Tordon will kill the buckthorn with one application.
Paul, I know this is almost exactly a year later but I am curious as to the health of your stand of "Indian Pink" last summer and now this new year.