13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Ah right, even more reason to stop watering and actually, I really have to disagree with the fertiliser too - the plant has finished its bloom cycle and really needs to be left alone to re-establish itself in it's own time. Agapanthus enjoy the constraints of a pot (they grow in well-drained and rocky soil). Adding too much water or food will simply encourage lots of leafage and no flowers. I can only speculate that the plant was already in blooming mode when transplanted because it is very common for these to sulk for a season without initiating any new flower scapes. It may even not flower next season whilst it rebuilds a vigorous root mass. Even so, these are surprisingly tough and yours will recover with no intervention from you - they do not appreciate pampering and are much like husbands - treat them mean to keep them keen.

Sun scorch. I live in southern CA, and this happens to some agapanthus species when we get those sudden hot spells. They tend to grow out of the damage ok here.

I live in Wyoming and have just planted my first Penstemon plants in well draining pots, in full sun, by my front door. They were in full bloom when I planted them. The flowers are drooping and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. Help!

Transplant shock and maybe dryness.

Have to try to be firm when faced with "clearance sales".

At least, however, gardeners can recognize and avoid Trojan horses. A couple of year back, I was asked for advice from a person who'd apparently bought out a clearance sale with the intent of establishing a mixed perennial garden. I've never seen such a collection of trouble, the worst single thing being the goutweed for the edging.

Nah, it's all downhill from now on into winter. Once that midsummer peak was passed...It is definitely a descent into chaos at mine, when the obvious rididculousness of 'maintaining' 3 separate gardens, separated by miles, in a state of woeful delusion can no longer be held at bay by means of selective vision or wild optimism. Contemplating the blackcurrants (and feeling despair at the inevitable hours of picking (why did I need 12 bushes and how did I fail to prune them enough to prevent every branch from lying on the ground), the vast swathe of somewhat shrivelled strawberries - I failed to halt the rampaging runners last year and my neat rows are now a tangled mat of millions of (much smaller) strawberries, I had the first horrible premonition that unless the entire summer was spent on my knees furiously hand weeding, I would be wheeling out the first of many excuses for future fails, thereby ensuring I will be in this exact place and state, this time next year.

One thing to consider is what zone you live in. In hot climates, many full sun plants actually require some shade for some part of the day. If you are in a northern zone, I don't know how well they would do, but if you are in the south, 4 hours of sun should be enough. I grew pink coneflowers in nothing more than dappled shade in zone 7 Oklahoma where summers are ridiculously hot and they grew and bloomed fine - that is, until a gopher or mole dug, ate or otherwise destroyed the roots. Never tried hollyhocks.

My coneflowers bloom beautifully with about four hours of sun. Most of the light is more dappled shade to tell the truth. However, as Kez mentioned, that could be due to the hot summers here in the DC area.

I think the 'blue' is a result of a sort of waxy coating on the leaves changing how light is reflected. By mid to late summer it has usually melted/washed off and the hostas are much more of just a dark green. I planted a division of one of my big blue patio hostas at the foot of our driveway, where it gets more sun. That one has not developed the 'blue' color that the original one has. So light (and temperature...?) appears to matter. My big blue ones are supposed to be 'Elegans' and 'Bressingham Blue', although the folk on the hosta forum doubt that 'Elegans' is really 'Elegans'! I find the small hosta 'Halcyon' keep its blue the longest - in both sun and shade.

My bluest, H. sieboldiana 'elegans' 'Sum and Substance' in the background.

Annette

What a wonderful display....just reinforces my wish to have a wide variety of coneflowers in my garden. I wintersowed a few different varieties, and bought some this spring, in addition to the others that I had when I started my backyard garden project (digging up lawn, making alot of new beds!)

JUST BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks all. Katob... nice detective work on the bog and arundo stalks. I will post more photos of the garden..

I have three bogs for carnivorous plants... which during this time of year smells quite bad on a windless day. All the pitcher plants are filled with all sorts of bugs.

For the arundo... every year I cut them down... after getting halfway through just chopping them up for the compost... I think... " I should have done something with those!" ... so this year I made the arch. They become quite brittle though. One strike with the weeder and they shatter. The moon flower vines don't seem to be doing much so far... just sitting there as small sprouts at the base... so my plan to have them over the arch probably won't happen.

Thanks all for your responses and advice. On closer inspection I would tend to agree with leaf miner damage as well...I had a slight problem with it last year and looking back at pictures of my columbines it looks more like the classic squiggly line leaf miner patterns. Have trimmed off the affected foliage and removed it, may just let it finish flowering and trim the whole thing to the ground. Was so happy when it came back so strong this year and now devastation lol...oh well, it did flower beautifully

dsbirdwell, you might consider applications of neem oil, beginning early in the season. Neem won't kill the insects, but is very helpful in preventing them from laying their eggs in the first place. Neem is also an anti-feedant.

Be sure to read and follow the instructions when using neem oil, or any product.

did the yard get standing water in it before during similar rains?

I am sure the fabric isn't helping with getting some water to drain.... And I would also think that with the crushed stone under you new path that it would drain away a bit.

There's always rain gardens!!

What several have already said about digging up the plants in fall, removing the weed fabric, and adding soil/amendments as needed ... after correcting the drainage issue if necessary. Did water pool there before? If so, might there be compacted soil or a clay hardpan? You'll have to break through this to improve drainage. Also, since you're adding soil on the other side of the walk, make sure you're not going to be directing water towards your house.

Fall is actually the best time to plant. The air is cooler, the sun's rays weaker, putting less demand on the plants, but the soil is still warm, so encourages root growth.

With very few exceptions, plants (whether annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, trees ... whatever) should always be planted at the same depth at which they had been growing. Their roots have developed at the proper depth to provide the water, oxygen and nutrients the plant needs. Changing the soil level will, at best, stress the plant, at worst, kill it. (Tomatoes are one notable exception. Since they have an abundance of adventitious buds in their stems that will produce roots, you can bury a goodly portion of the stem when planting, to encourage a larger root system.)

Maybe that's why the wasp decided on your geraniums. I'd cut open one of those galls and see if there's anything inside

1) It really doesn't look anything like the oak hedgehog gall. They are round and furry.

2) That wasp will not use geraniums as a host, no matter how close the geraniums are to the oak.

3) Looks like a gall from an erineum mite or other mite, but I can't find a picture of said galls on geranium, in particular.

I do think that these are galls, but I must say that I've never seen anything quite like it.

In Maine, I can almost set my watch by their arrival. Usually on the 4th of July, although I noted something nibbling on a rugosa rose last night, I didn't see any sign of the 'do-er'.

The devils are out there making lace out of my cherry tree.....I carry my little soapy water container whenever I go out, and flick them in. I have gotten about 15 off of the monardas, 1 or 2 off of the roses.

The butterfly is lovely!!

hey campy ... lin is in chicago.. more attuned to my winter ... we are talking ground freeze ...

late fall summer/fall sowing will get you nothing but spring hatch .. depending on how late ... and that is fine for the two plants asked about ...

cat.. i used to weed ... back in suburbia... on a small lot ...

ken

the other trick ... since they need to contact soil .. rather than be spread on top of mulch ...

is to clear a one foot circle ... and so when 20 of them pop up.. in that circle.. odds are.. they will be what you planted ... and the circle will tell you you did plant something there...

they can be moved at the first true leaf or two ... dig a new hole.. pop the whole little plant out with a hand trowel ... insert in new hole ... do it on a cold rainy day .. in spring ... the idea being.. you get the whole tiny root with it.. and it never know you did it ...

you cant wait until its large .. no real sense of humor about that..

ken

My only qualm is that all the x arkwrightii pictures I've seen show reddish foliage, and this one's foliage is definitely green, I don't think I've seen any reddish tint.

Yeah, I wondered about that, too. I thought it might be an arkwrightii at first, except the absence of purple leaves doesn't fit. But my daughter has an 'orange gnome' that was pictured in the catalog as having purple-bronze tints to the leaves, but hers has never had much purple in the leaves at all. I believe the purple foliage is mainly in the spring(?). Maybe this year's crazy weather patterns has something to do with it. Or has it had all green foliage in previous years, too? Still, whether arkwrightii or another variety, it surely is a lychnis of some sort.

'woody', what is the variety of your dogwood that I have seen when visit...it is smaller and further back in the shadows but just glows in the low light?

rouge - that is the Wolf Eyes dogwood - I thought it was dead this spring but it has leafed out on the top. There is a lot of deadwood that needs pruning out. Since that one is under the shelter of the pines, I thought it was well-protected, but obviously not! It had a fair bit of winterkill last year too, so I wonder if it is a weak tree - or maybe it doesn't like being protected! Maybe I need to try another one in a more open location...

green_go - up there you are obviously not subject to 'the lake effect' :-) But it's surprising that your redbuds did better than ours here - we obvious had a really abnormally cold winter here!