13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Thank you all so very much. It has been a while since I visited here, but the weather has finally reminded me that I am behind the eight ball. I went to Costco yesterday and came back with Aubrieta. There are three nice size pots in their holder. What do you recommend I do with these? I will be researching as well, but value your first hand experienced opinions.

i would recommend that you start a new post.. with the name of the plant in the title ... many peeps do not return to the same old post .. over and over..

AND ... the title will be searchable for the next person who wants to know about this specific plant ...

good luck

come back more frequently ... lol

ken

ps: if you cold add a big city name where it says 6 next to your name.. it might matter with some plants ....

Power, you sound like me! Lol

In general, no. I am running a garden here, not a plant hospital. :)

However, I will admit that I have picked up a few forlorn plantlets from the bargain rack at the local big box store, but only (formerly) expensive plants that have only cosmetic issues.

To further elaborate on Purpleinopp's elaboration, a lot of the more common garden plants that often require a lot of water are actually native to eastern North America. Things like Phlox paniculata, which is the first thing in my garden to wilt. So usually when people are talking about the drought tolerance of 'natives', they are really talking about the drought tolerance of natives from considerably further west than I've ever lived, and a drastically different ecosystem. To the point that it is fairly common around here for these plants to be poorly adapted to our wetter years.

Excellent!

Ken's got a good point about not compacting the soil in your garden beds. I normally don't even consider doing anything more than pull weeds & cut back ornamental grasses this time of year and always do so from the paths/lawn that edge or surround my beds.

stepping tones in a border help limiting the damage plus you dont accidentally kill some sprouting thing.
Do you have heavy, loamy soil? If heavy soil is too wet, it doesn`t crumble when you turn it with a spade but is rather putty-like. That`s bad and you should wait.

and out of curiosity, where do you want to dig? In a perennial border it is not necessary and rather disturbs the plants.
bye, Lin

Mine did not survive it first winter, disappointingly!

I hadn't heard of "Kit Kat". And yet if I had room I would like to try the "Joanna Reed" catmint. Its description sounds perfect as well.

I am going to hunt a few down this year too. As Ech noted, they will set seed as normal, but i don't believe they won't come true from see like most hybrids. It will be just a genetic mix up as to what you end up with.

I've grown the species from seed as well as one named 'Screaming Yellow' but the plants haven't matured enough to bloom yet so the jury's still out on whether they bloom true from seed. My mature named cultivars all form seed pods.

If you are new to Heuchera and don't care about them being "designer" varieties I would suggest Home Depot or Lowe's. Already this season I found HUGE plants in 3 gallon pots for 15.00.

Lowes has some of the new varieties here. Santa Rosa Gardens is a great online source with great prices!

This is good news. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I've been looking for a decent-priced, mail order place for shrubs and based on my experience and what all of you have said, maybe I've found it.

Before I ordered from Jungs, I was putting together an order from another source with a great reputation, but OMG! The shipping costs were equal to the cost of the plants themselves. I just can't do that, unless it's something I just have to have and can't purchase anywhere else.

Kevin

This is my first time ordering from them. The plants were small but they are taking off, esp. the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea! I received some decent side gladiolus too. Very happy with them. I would order from them again.

Hi David,
We call those "fiddle heads" and they are newly emerging fern fronds. Once established, generally fern prefer to be a little on the dry side, but not dried out.

I'm curious, when you placed the order, did it indicate if this "variety bag" of fern are perennial in your growing zone? You can indicate your growing zone with your name and that would be helpful when you post :-)

I've added a photo of my Glade Fern fiddle heads which are a little different. They are planted in my wild flower garden. Your fern may be another variety such as Holly Fern. I'm only suggesting it because Holly fern are readily available and have woodier (crispier) fiddle heads and frond stems.

Deb

Hi Deb

Thanks for the response and picture! Would you believe the order confirmation and packing slip don't mention the different names. I know the bags they came in had the names on them but I threw them out without thinking to look at the packing slip to make sure they were listed there, too. I looked at information on a couple different ferns and those at least are hardy in my zone and listed as perennials.
I emailed them to see if they could tell me the different varieties so we'll see. I'd like to look into the different ones as I only have two of the five planted showing any fiddle heads (love that!!)

Thanks again!

In the UK, we call it the 'Chelsea Chop' in that we do it during the week of the Chelsea Flower Show (final week in May) - things like asters, helenium, monarda, sedum, get cut back by half to avoid later flopping and stimulate side shoots.

Campanula, love that "Chelsea Chop" too cute

I do my Perovskia too