13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I have about thirty total mixed Callunas and Ericas.
I shear all of them every year after they are done blooming and they all stay compact without splaying out or dead centers.
Shearing is particularly important with Callunas...
You know, I have a friend who has a VERY wet garden - I'm talking standing water in parts of it. Before we redid it to include water-loving plants, she had (and still has - if it ain't broke don't fix it!) a gorgeous peony in there that throve and bloomed and is just beautiful. Granted, it was not in the part with standing water, but it is indeed very wet throughout most of the year. ('m talking so wet I lost a shoe in there! Sucked right off my foot when I lifted it to walk!) I left it right where it was (the peony not the shoe!) since it seemed to like the spot.
So perhaps your peonies will be okay. Obviously yours probably got more water, at least all at once, than my friends do, but you never know. Let's hope for the best!
Dee
I love the trend of grower's working on smaller and dwarf shrubs. They mix into perennial borders much better and with smaller gardens they are better too. With plants such as Forsythia which really only have one season of interest, a smaller plant is easier to mix in the rest of the year too though I have seen one with very interesting variegated foliage but it was too big of a grower for me.
Well, just dig up whichever ones you don't and then pull up the seedlings as they occur. The seedlings have a very distinctive appearance - they are two-leaved (before the true leaves emerge) and usually red in colour. I thought I had a photo but unfortunately I don't... (and I haven't done it in so long that I can't remember how to post photos here anyway!) The seeds are ejected some distance from the parent plant but I'm sure you'll soon come to recognize the seedlings.
And nhbabs' warning about the sap is absolutely correct - wear gloves for handling plants in this genus. (I can get away with bare hands for pulling seedlings, but not for any work that might mean coming in contact with the sap - I have caused myself blisters from contact!)
Kevin, I think maybe it's not the cost per plant per se, but a few other things. One, we used to get three plants for that same price! Okay, maybe we were spoiled, but that's the way it was and we got used to it.
Secondly, the price for the-now-one-plant is for one plant of the same size as one of the three plants. (wow, that was an awkward sentence! Let me try to rephrase!). Not only are we paying, say, $12 for one plant instead of 3, but that one plant is really no larger than it was before, when it was one of a trio. Bluestone advertises that the single plant is larger, but I really see no difference. The POT is bigger, yes, but the plant? Honestly to me it just seems like a plant from the three-pack transplanted to a bigger pot.
Add in shipping, etc., and the price is way more per plant than it used to be.
I too hate shopping in general, and don't even really like nursery shopping. While I have some reputable nurseries near me, they cater to Fairfield County clients with mega-bucks to spend on their landscapes, clients who don't even usually do their own shopping (their landscape designers go to the nurseries to shop) and I find the plants to be expensive, not always in the best shape, and the nurseries have nowhere near the guarantee and customer service that Bluestone offers. So I would much rather continue to shop at a great place like Bluestone.
But if I have to pay $9 for a coneflower, I'd rather zip over to the nursery three miles away and buy a decent-sized plant in a good-sized pot, than order it on-line, pay for shipping, and have it arrive as a three-inch plant in a four-inch pot.
Yes, with coupons and sales you can get better deals, and that is what I now do, but I used to order plants at the drop of a hat with Bluestone throughout the season. Now I check out the local nurseries and limit my Bluestone purchases to sale time.
Some here may think that is better, as it supports local nurseries. To be honest, I'd rather support Bluestone, after all the years of great service and great plants (both better than the local places, IMO) and I hope the company continues to do well. I just can't justify spending the money for the new return there, and will limit my spending to sales.
Sorry to ramble!
:)
Dee
Have to add one thing. I got my Bluestone order this afternoon, and while the plants were small, as expected, they look very good. AND... an astilbe I ordered was huge by Bluestone standards! I think this is one of the biggest plants I've ever gotten from them. If they are going to start sending plants this size, it would, IMO, be worth it to continue to order. But I am hedging my enthusiasm - the other half dozen plants were the usual Bluestone size.
I'll just have to order something from the next sale to see about sizing!
Dee
torajima - I planted liatris several years ago for the butterflies but ultimately decided I didn't like them. Dug them up, gave away as many as I could find homes for and threw the rest over the hill behind my garage. When they came back even after such rough treatment, I decided to give them a second chance. I still don't like them but since the butterflies do, they're here to stay.
Fingers crossed my woodland phlox returns--I just planted it in May of 2011.
Usually peonies are moved and planted in the fall, though if they aren't bare root, they can be moved early spring. If you need to move it this spring, take lots of soil with it and don't damage the one leaf stalk.
Here's a page from the U of RI, so relatively close to you, about care of peonies.
Here is a link that might be useful: URI peony care fact sheet
JoyBee, you don't indicate what climate zone you're in, and it could make all the difference. If you are in a warmer zone, say zone 9 or 10, then it would be my guess that your local garden center is right in putting heucheras into the shade. Here in southern California, morning sun/afternoon shade is about as far as we can push the envelope, and dappled sun is even better.
Kay
Kato_b, that picture is gorgeous and makes me almost drool! It is such a shame that this species is so uncommon here.
Hmmm... Maybe regular Leucojum vernum is normally twin-flowered?
Please let me know if you will be able to get a few bulbs. Do you grow this in your own garden? How has it performed for you?
The photo was taken in another garden and the flowers are normally twin flowered. I have the single flowered version in my own garden but it's only just now recovering from a bulb fly attack which almost wiped it out!
They are easy to grow once they get going, but seem to do best in areas that stay wet. They get a little leafy after bloom but bloom so early it's another great late winter flower.
Mine are all done now but I did get one picture of the only bloom. I'll look into getting you a couple!
I have ZD and a different clem (viticella purpurea plena elegans) although the clem blooms the same time as jackmanii. Zepherine is a fairly early rose and has gone through the entire first flush by the time the clem begins to come on song. In the UK, we rarely get a good second flush with Zephy....but, because I do a summer prune, I do get fantastic new claret coloured growth in July/Aug which will look tremendous with a darker coloured clematis. Mine is a small flowered, deep red and harmonises with the new growth of Zepherine - the deep blue of the Jackmanii would look terrific too.
So, I was walking through the arbor where my ZD is, where I want to plant a clematis, and what do I see popping up at the base of the arbor? A clematis! LOL. I forgot I had planted a clematis there. I think it's a roguchi, and I think I plopped it there because it desperately needed to get out of its pot, so it's not a permanent home, at least not yet.
I did buy the jackmanii. I figure even if I don't pair it with the ZD, it's a good clematis to start with (not counting the roguchi, lol) and I'm sure I will enjoy it wherever I put it.
Thank you all for your help.
Dee
I have several of the Pow Wow ecinacea coming back. This is a first for me after many attempts. One thing I did differently was that i created a berm about 6 inches in height of soil mixed with ground pine bark fines ( sold as soil conditioner at Lowes). I Also planted them as early as I could get them and removed all the flowers they came with when I planted them. I lost three out of ten, but they died in August of some kind of fungul disease.
I lost three out of ten, but they died in August of some kind of fungul disease.
It is definitely not unusual to have health and or performance issues with coneflowers...read the link below.
Here is a link that might be useful: No more coneflowers for me
6 inches! Mine are still only half that (but look sturdy). Delphs are usually bone hardy so you could harden them off over the next week or so, then get them in the ground. But (there's always one of those), the worst thing about planting them out is not weather but exposure to the slug and snail hordes, all of which will crawl over any amount of coffee grounds, eggshells, brambles and dried holly leaves, to feast on gourmet delphinium.
When did you sow yours, Clairey? I did an October sowing and a January sowing - the early ones had to be chivvied over the winter and are actually weedier than the ones sown in Jan.
They are really billed as high-shade/moisture plants here because the tendency is for them to dry up in summer -- they really need constant moisture and that necessitates a shady spot. Not sure if that explains why people have had trouble with their longevity or not. I think the ideal location is under deciduous tree cover where they get plenty of initial sun before the trees leaf-out so they can bloom well and are eventually protected from the hot/drying summer sun by the tree cover.
This post was edited by mistascott on Sun, Apr 21, 13 at 17:06
Yes I think it's Touch of Class Christin, it's a pretty plant and nice to hear it's rugged.