13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I read this thread because I saw a huge CostCo display and bought a few boxes last week. I haven't opened them yet --- I'd like to get closer to the end of March before I do. We have a thoroughly heated basement and no garage so they'd have to be potted up and put outside.
I'm sure that my packages will contained shriveled items too, Ken--- only I made this mistake after 40 years of gardening!
Very chagrined Molie
You may want to refer to the recent post "Bagged perennials from Home Depot", lot of replies (including mine) on there regarding this subject.
If you mail-ordered, hopefully the plants will not arrive for a few weeks, the reputable mail-order places won't start shipping to zone 5 yet. So, keep in mind the advice may change if the plants don't arrive for another few weeks or a month.
Rouge - I love shade plants! You could regret asking... :-) 'Liberty' looks like it could be a difficult one to pair something with because the edge supposedly changes from yellow to creamy white over the season. Actually last year I bought a hosta that is supposed to do that. I can't remember its name and can't find the tag. Maybe it's Liberty....! Behind the silver area in the picture above, I'm in the process of trying to make a 'golden path' leading under the pines. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see a young golden 'Full Moon' Japanese maple with golden forestgrass in front of it - those are the start of the golden path area. I planted the hosta that is supposed to change from yellow to cream edge near there to serve as a transition plant to tie the silver and golden areas together. I hope it works - it'll take a couple of years to see how it looks once the areas are more established.
I have not been keen on yellow-foliaged plants in general because they always have looked sickly to me! But I had a 'lightbulb moment' a couple of years ago on a local garden tour where I saw golden forestgrass paired with a yellow tree peony. Yellow looked great with yellow! I've been wanting to make a golden garden ever since. I started working on this one a year ago. In addition to the JM, golden forestgrass, and the transition hosta (whatever it is), there will be yellow-green heucheras (if the @#$%! rabbits ever let them survive the winter!), Sum and Substance hosta, some yellow-variegated euonymus, and anything else that strikes my fancy and has the right color! This is a bad picture of pairing a yellow-edge hosta (Francis Williams) and golden forestgrass, but shows the yellow-with-yellow that appeals to me:
Much of the shade garden is green and white. White corydalis seeds itself around and has become the main groundcover in many areas. You can see it here with the fringetree in the patio blue hosta bed. The white in the bed in the background is Persicaria polymorpha (which grows surprisingly well in shade).
And here is white corydalis (amongst other things) along the path under the oak, heading to the 'wet corner' in late May:
I like Japanese painted fern in combination with the dead-common Palace Purple heuchera - the heuchera goes nicely with the dark center of the fern.
As spring approaches, one of the things I most look forward to is the return of the trilliums. This is one of my favorite combinations:
The trilliums like the conditions here and are multiplying by both offsets and seedlings. But it will be many, many years before they achieve the look of those in the nearby woodlot:
I could go on ad nauseum! Your 'my page' says you're in Canada and I have the impression you're maybe near Toronto...? If so, you're always welcome to come check out our garden in person if that might be of interest to you.
Hope you have the good one - the evil one definitely does not need sunlight to proliferate. I chased down a bunch of them today, in virtual darkness under a group of conifers. Blooming size is easy to deal with, but I'll have to shovel out the first year 'rosettes' (as pulling them simply slicks off the leaves as mentioned above) which will be next season's bloomers.
The problem is the different species - I had Adenophora lilifolia and it is the plant from hell. It was fine for 3 or 4 years in the shade of a large shrub. When the shrub was taken out it exploded and spread. I tried to pull, cut it and sprayed with Round-up. I even sprayed it with stuff to kill brush - it just kept popping up again. Last fall I started to dig it out. Masses of thick taproots everywhere. It still resprouts from every piece of root I missed. So far I have dug over the bed three times - and still it sprouts. I have left the bed fallow, until nothing sprouts for an entire season.
Funnthsun,
Just recently my husband was telling me about some rainbow leukothoe that he saw that were very colorful and beautiful, so that's definitely something to look into. Last year I planted 3 brookside geraniums to the left of the giant bush we are considering moving. I will be interested to see how they do this year. Is there a difference in shade tolerance between the brookside and cranesbill?
Thank you both for the help!
Brookside and Rozanne are similar in most respects, including shade tolerance. The main difference is zone. You and I are both in 7b and that is the edge of Brookside, but Rozanne is rated to 8b, so a little more room there. I would say if Brookside doesn't come back for you or doesn't show enough heat tolerance, you may want to give Rozanne a go.
Well, that is great to hear! Hopefully, my regular Anouk will do as well as the Silver, then. Perfect. Now, to find a great big spot for the Phenomenal...I wonder if the neighbor will notice the new rather large plant straddling the property line? :)
IâÂÂm not sure! I was drafted this winter to be the media personâ¦.without really knowing what I can do that would not eat up all my time. I started the Lily Society Facebook page, but apart from that, the only thing I know to do is put notices on GW.
I do know a couple of people who live further away came to the fall bulb sale because they saw the listing I posted on GW last fall. They told the pres., which is probably why I got drafted.
Someone did join at the previous meetingâ¦but I donâÂÂt know how he heard about it; he didnâÂÂt say.
Lily is one obsessive gardener, and a real prima donna. But she is so lovely, and fits in so well, she can be forgiven. IâÂÂd like to think it was named after my aunt, who really was named Lily.
I will try to bump the notices down after they occur, but I had a class yesterday, got home late, and forgot.
no such thing as a dud.. per se...
too much shade will force a flowering plant into producing greenery only ... but it has to be pretty dark ...
if you slaughtered the root system.. it would not surprise me that it was spending energy on regrowing roots .. over flower ...
only time will tell if they bloom this year
ken
I know I am in the minority here but last year was it's third year in my garden and so far I've been seriously underwhelmed by it. I'm hoping it shows me some reason to keep it this summer. I'm starting to think it should have been called Emperors New Clothes.
Hi CMK, I think it's pretty widely accepted that hot composting is better than cold. It doesn't kill any nutrients (not sure where you'd get that idea) though it does kill pathogens and weed seeds, especially if you can get it good and hot for a good long time. It also is a much faster process, so you can make a lot more compost in the same amount of space. It does help to have a strong back to turn it, but turning it will make and keep your back strong. :)
I use a bit of organic fert here and there, for veggies and annuals, in potted plants, on my tiny bits of lawn, and often when I transplant. But mainly I topdress with compost several times a year. It keeps down weeds and feeds the soil. After many years of this, my soil is very rich and my plants get huge. I make most of the compost that I need, but I supplement it with the occasional pick up truck load, which I haul myself and costs about $15 for a half cubic yard.
@Rouge: by October Rebecca made it to the top of the lattice and Candid reached the top piece of the arbor.
Actually, looking again at this photo again, I can see the tiny Wisteria we planted on the right --- kind of on a tripod of sticks. By late fall it had crossed over a few feet onto the top piece. So hopefully the Clematis and Wisteria will meet this year.
I second the coleus suggestion. They come in hundreds of varieties with fabulous colors that are even more beautiful than some flowers. And they last all season with no dead heading. Can be grown in containers or the ground. And I'm finding them very easy to over winter as simple cuttings in water. Good luck.
Martha
I have a New Bradford pear and don't have any trouble growing anything under it. Maples are a different story, but can be a success story. Have posted many times about planting under maples - and no, removing the tree was NOT the solution... Board search should yield lots of posts re: planting under trees. :0)
Molie you did not make a mistake in buying those plants. Just don't expect too much the first year. Next year and the following year they will show their true colors. Al
I know, I know! Not much in the way of "beauty" will come from these bagged perennials this season. And while I don't mind waiting a year for the lush growth, my real regret is that I have no idea what I'll find until I open the boxes. (And this coming from someone who scopes out each potted plant carefully from all angles before buying it at a nursery --- turning it around, standing above it to see growth from the center, etc.) I'm usually very thrifty and not a gambler. I think this winter has gotten to me.
Molie