13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
blue princess is sold by Plant Delights. I purchased some of those this year and they are doing quite well. any of the verbenas on Plant Delights are all hardy in zone 7, so you can be sure that any of those would do well for you. I'll see if I can get a pic for you today. let me know if I can help further.
Noooo, don't say unkind things about sweet woodruff!
When it comes to groundcovers, the closest to "well-behaved" is "won't strangle your other perennials & you don't need a flamethrower to control it". Sweet woodruff is positively demure for a groundcover. If you don't like sweet woodruff you may want to reconsider & switch to mulch.
Why do you let them turn yellow and slimy?
In my beds above I have roses, ornamental small bushes and daylilies. When the BB are done blooming they are cut down. I also have a lot of daffodils, tulips and other Spring bulbs.
The daylily, roses and ornamental shrubs take their place and the beds are mulched at that time. It is the beginning of my Summer clean up for the Summer flowering plant show.
I cannot cut the other spring bulb leaves but the BB do not need their leaves. Cut them down do some weeding, put down some much and you end your slimy ugly mess.
Trust me, that isn't as bad as it could have been. Each year Steve Bender of Southern Living has a competition for the best (worst) "crepe murder" of the year. This isn't even close to being as bad as his "winners."
This is not too bad of a prune job...probably could have left a little more branching structure. You may get some droopy limbs this year, but it should be fine.
It looks like it's already been butchered in the past. I see those big 'knuckles ' near the bottom of the frame.
Looks like this poor tree will require lots of pruning from now on. In my opinion, it has outlived its usefulness for this particular location. If you were my client, I'd strongly suggest that you have this damaged tree removed and that you plant a nice specimen far away from the utility lines.
Foxglove can be spectacular. Last year I had a couple nice patches, started from seed the year before. This year, only a handful of plants made it through the winter, lost most of last year's seedlings to crown rot.
Digitalis 'Excelsior hybrids' & 'Camelot Cream' -
Lovely! So yes, it is foxglove. It seems like I have two types of flower buds. One developed normally. The other is open that whole time and the petal just grows outward while open. Attached is a more developed photo of the process. The ones which have turned colors were the ones originally photographed. Then you can see one which is developing normally which hasn't developed color yet. Thanks you guys for all your help!
Well I was wrong. The 'Cosmic Eye' out front did survive. It has doubled in size, so is about 4in wide now?? LOL. The bugger was hiding behind a salvia ;-)
The 'Moonbeam' a GW trader sent me last year has come up without a hitch btw.
CMK
Molly, your mom won't be disappointed with tree peonies in Z5b NH. I have a small area of my garden pretty much devoted to a bunch of tree peonies and shade perennials. The tree peony I have planted in full sun is much larger than the others in shade. In the shade the flowers hold on longer and don't tend to fade as much as the one I have in full sun. Just a couple of things for her to think about as she chooses the planting site.
Here is a pic of one of the peonies in a shadier spot:
One of my all-time favorite plants in the spring even if the flowers are at times fleeting. The foliage is great all season long, no pests, no fuss......
They are reliable bloomers but may be slow to reach maturity and bloom the first time. I think the foliage is attractive even without a bloom. For me the bloom is spread out over the season and not a lot at one time. I find the seed pods attractive and would probably get more bloom if I removed them. Al
A seek after posting this question, my Glaucium / Horned Poppy is forming flower buds. Most poppies bloom here in March and april, so I assumed these would too if they were going to bloom. Now. is there anyway to divide this multi-stem plant? It appears that the stems meet well above the soil line and do not have any roots. My book only mentions propagation by seed.
I was going to suggest succulents also, Sedums especially. With just the foliage, you can have an amazingly colorful display. Moss roses would appreciate that it's going to be dry. Especially if you like your stump, as mentioned above. If you put something you have to water every day or two, you'll be shocked how fast it degrades.
I agree the coneflower will be washed by the dogwood- plus I think those dogwoods get really big. Perhaps you have a different dwarf culitvar of some type...but mine are about 7 feet round. It will eat whatever you put near it.
How bout putting one (or two) in the middle of the bed in the first picture. Looks like everything will be done blooming in that bed otherwise so you will have late summer color with it there.
Limelight makes a pretty good sized bush too- roughly the same size. It will also lay it's blooms on anything nearby.
This post was edited by lola-lemon on Wed, May 8, 13 at 19:53
Lola, I have the ivory halo which has a dwarf habit growing to five feet tall. I have also seen them pruned to be kept at a smaller size. I'm hoping that I gave the limelight enough space especially since it would be hard to move later (fingers crossed). Can you believe that I bought it that big? I felt like I scored big time when I found it :)
Gardenweed, my concern with the coconut lime is that the color of the bloom would be washed out with the light green and white foilage of the v. Dogwood. I did research on the Double Delights and the reviews (some from gardenweb members) were very good. Have you tried this variety? Did they not do well for you? Is there anything special I should do? I really love the flowers on them. I also heard that they are easy to propagate by burying the whole sead head. Any luck with that?
Trovesoft, the problem with planting the pinks next the dogwood and the coconut lime next to the pinks is that the coconut limes are taller than the double delights. I'm afraid that they would not be seen from the street. Maybe I should just take the coconut limes out of the equation. I am thinking though of planting just three double delights in an upside down V then planting two razzmatzz at the back to make an X with a total grouping of five echinaceas. Then maybe planting three agapanthus close by? What do you think?
Linlily, I'm sorry that your double delights died. Did you only have one planted? Maybe you should give it another try? The blooms sure are lovely!
Beauty.
Thank you all for the kind words. I have to admit that I did very little of all that work. I did, however, lend much moral support as my better half labored away. I delivered nice cold drinks, brownies and popsicles throughout his 3 1/2 days of hard labor. I love the sharp edging, but it is impossible to keep that look over the whole growing season. As all gardeners know, in the blink of an eye it seems, growing things will get ahead of one's good intentions. Good thing that we have a little less that an acre to work against us here. At least 2 of the larger island beds are in need of redoing and those hostas in the first picture need to be removed. They are suffering from too much sun since a very large American elm died and had to be cut down 2 years ago. The elm was replaced with a tulip tree, but it will be years for it's shade to be of any help.