13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I agree with the name that plant forum because I think the flower is some sort of verbena (not being familiar with US natives, I hesitate to offer a specific species type). Am very clueless what the other plant might be.

Name that plant forum has ID'd it as common name: Desert Willow. I believe that's what it is. I googled it, and it has lovely pink flowers with long pods. There are 2 such trees across the road, so it probably grew from a seed.

Suzi

Babs, thanks! Where in NH are you? My parents live in Lyme. Some of the biggest and best hydrangeas I've ever seen are in NH and VT. Blew me away. Hydrangeas are some of my favorites.

BBL, I am about 1 1/2 hrs south of your folks, about 10 miles north of Concord. I have lots of hydrangeas because as long as I plant hardy varieties, they are easy to grow here: long blooming, not bothered by pests, polite with neighbors (except Annabelle who likes to sucker), and generally happy as long as I don't give them too much hot and dry conditions.

OK, I grow wallflowers with spring bulbs, especially tulips (which I plant deeply and leave in my sandy soil from one year to the next so they are fairly reliable at returning. In the UK, they are in bloom around May, so I also partner mine with early hardy geraniums (I really like primrose wallflowers with the common cranesbill, Geranium pratensis and G.sylvaticum). I have a few clumps of them growing with common primroses too. The other plants I mentioned are not wallflowers but are flowering in mid spring with similar 4-petalled flowers and will make good companions. I could easily imagine growing them with little clumps of violas, forget-me-nots, short campanulas, and, my favourite, overwintered love-in-the-mist.
Yes, they do have a tendency to flop about a bit - you can cut them back hard after the first flowering - it looks quite improbable because the stems are silvery and bare.....but leafage will follow, along with a later flush of flowers (some autumns).
If they do well for you, you could try growing single colours from seeds sown in May. The little plants will grow over the summer, ready to be planted in autumn, where they will overwinter and burst into fragrant growth the following spring. A lovely clove scent, warm and very welcoming.
You could plant your packs about 8 inches apart - they will spread out but not much - they continue to grow from a woody base clump, branching higher up the stem - I never bother to stake mine as they rarely get taller than 16inches or so and even if they flop, the flowers will still stretch upright to the light.
Wallflowers have always been a traditional cottage garden favourite and, as such, they will look well with scrambling, rambling aubretias, arabis, nemophila, limnanthes and annual flax - not a tidy or formal plant.

Thanks so much for the info Campanula !! That's just what I needed to know.

I have not yet been able to get them planted (health issues) so now I have another question. Some of the leaves on just some of the plants are getting dark.

At first I thought they were just turning a deeper shade, like burgandy, but I think they it's leaning towards black. Does that mean they got too cold? We haven't had any extremely cold nites since I got them.

I can take pic if necessary but didn't want to bother if not.

And still hoping for any pics of these in someone's garden !!

Yikes. Now I'm hearing 80 degrees today or tomorrow. From one extreme to the other! I don't like the cold, but 80 degrees in early April just ain't right either!

Eh, I'm stuck inside all week anyway. Guess it doesn't really matter as I'll be looking at whatever happens through a narrow little window.

Dee

I was almost ready to start a thread titled "Where is wieslaw59" and then I stumbled across your recent post in this topic. Were you in hibernation? ;)

going with gaura too - G. lindheimeri 'Siskyou Pink'?

Well....I dunno where my post went but I sent it before campanula had replied...???

Anyway, had said to Gry...when I saw it, it looked sooo familiar to me but couldn't figure out why. Now I know it's because I already have the G. Lindheimeri Indian Feather 'Pink Fountain'. But it didn't do well last year (neglect) so had forgotten what it looked like. And when I bought it in fall of '09, it was nearly dead and on clearance so I've only seen it healthy for 2 seasons.

But I didn't remember the foliage being that tall and lanky looking. Mine tends to mound more and then the flower 'stalk's get real tall.

Then I said to casey & growlove that I could also see why they both responded the way they did. When I found pics of foliage on the Husker Red on Dave's Garden, the leaves looked much fatter. EXCEPT for one pic, which looked identical to my pic (except plant was a bit more mature).

So I ended by saying I was still confused.....lol.

But now there's campanula's suggestion of the 'Siskyou Pink' so that's making me lean towards Guara now.

However, when I googled so I could compare the 'Siskyou Pink' to my 'Pink Fountain' to see the difference, I could not find any good pics of 'Pink Fountain' (the one I own now) but did find 'Siskyou Pink'.

However, many of those look identical to my 'Pink Fountain',which has pink blooms -- yet other pics have a much more vivid fuschia bloom. So THAT has confused me, too... since I cannot seem to find pics of MINE (the one already have) to do a comparison.

What I'm trying to say is, I know what mine looks like but can't find any decent pics of it - AND - I CAN find pics of the other one, but many of the pics look like mine.

And why does this matter and what does it have to do with ID'ing the original plant?

Well, nothing really...LOL. I guess I just want to figure out if what I have is really what I have (I still have the tag but we all know about how they can't always be trusted) so...if the mystery plant DOES turn out to be the 'Sysyou Pink', then I'll know it will look different than mine.

Does that makes sense...???

Thank you so very much! I trust you as the expert. =]

It's a tough decision, but I have a feeling I will fall in love with bellflowers. So I imagine there will be more orders in the future, giving me ample opportunity to explore the many varieties!

Thank you so very much! I trust you as the expert. =]

It's a tough decision, but I have a feeling I will fall in love with bellflowers. So I imagine there will be more orders in the future, giving me ample opportunity to explore the many varieties!

not a care in the world.. for hardening off to the sun.. in the PNW ????

especially with a greenhouse grown plant that has been indoors??

just plant them out there and forget about them????

ken

Nope, not a care in the world, Ken :-) If these were coleus or impatiens, I might have a second thought but these are all cold tolerant plants, two of which act like or are considered perennials in mild climates.

There is another world out there that is not the tundra of zone 5 and where it is well and truly spring :-)) We've been planting early annuals here since the middle of last month and all manner of perennials are in full bloom. In my area, NOW is the time to plant.

My permanent ones are fine, Campanula. But some of the potted ones are very stubby, although they do have flower buds coming. Just bog standard greigii and some Darwin-types. Today the sun came out!!!!!!! Things seemed to have grown in just a few hours.

That said the daffs have lasted about 7 weeks in a suspended bloom time.

I know, I still have snowdrops blooming!

Living in hope for the tulips (thanks for the heads-up, Flora) - along with roses, they are my major single genus obsession. Finding Peter Nyssen bulbs back in 2005 (buying bulbs by the 100...and cheaply too) removed 'moderation' from my vocabulary, overnight.

Thanks, Babs that helps a lot. It's. not that I really need/want them to be smaller, just that I noticed how big they got in one season. And didn't want them to run out of room. Sounds like they will be ok.
Also, now I'm worried that they aren't particularly healthy given that everyone thought they were grass!! Do/did you fertilize them at all?
Thanks!

In your second set of pictures "And here is another picture (further away) of the second clump " the blooms are hard to make out but to me it does look like thrift (Armeria, rather than Dianthus). Have you checked pictures of Armeria on line to compare? Armeria is commonly known as Thrift but another name is sea pink because of the slight resemblance.

Anyhow, as others have said, none of them need any pruning now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Armeria

any echinacea left? if so, karenlau@swbell.net, thanks for your generosity!

I would be interested in the rudbeckia and echinacea, if I'm not too late.

I'm new here, but I have a suggestion for keeping rabbits away from your crocus. I used a clump of human hair sprinkled around the base of the plant in my vegetable garden last year. As long as there is plenty there, it worked for me. Looked a little strange though :-)

Martha, I truly feel your pain about the crocuses. The rabbits have been particularly voracious this year and have been merciless with my patch of 'Snowbunting' and several species of autumn-blooming crocus (which are--or should be--just foliage this time of year, although now they are all bare pathetic stubs). What's worse, there are multiple patches of crocus in my neighbors' gardens that have been completely untouched by the stupid rodents. It makes me so mad! Grrrrr.

So, I finally got fed up last week and tried two things:

1. I bought some Plantskydd soluble powder. Though it is supposed to be applied with a sprayer, I have just been mixing it in an old watering can and applying it that way.
2. I bought 5 lbs of bulk hot red pepper flakes and have been sprinkling them in all of my flower beds.

So far, this regimen seems to be working. My 'Snowbunting' crocus have started to grow a little bit and are even producing some smaller secondary flowers. I just hope the corms are not weakened by the endless rabbit attacks over the past month. It remains to be seen whether my fall crocus will recover.

In addition, using the two things above has also caused a reduction in the number of pesky squirrels digging in my flower beds.