13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I have at least five or six different lamiums. Everything from Pink Pewter to Lemon Frost for the shade and Anne Greenway for the Heucheras. As stated above tear them up and keep them moist until they root. A little goes a long way as long as you don't want instant gratification. All they need is time.
I have lots also and divide them to get extras every spring. They are so easy to root. I especially love 'Whlite Nancy" and mine are all in full sun. I think the taller perennials give them all the shade they need.
IMHO this is the ideal ground cover!!!!
Even by tissue culture, propagation is a slow process; hence the higher prices. BUT you should be able to pick up gallons anywhere from $12-$20 depending on variety and nursery. Of course, dark-leaved varieties are slower growing.
General info:
The plants formerly known as Cimicifuga are typically later bloomers, get huge, and have seed pods as opposed to berries. They like some afternoon shade, but should be in a bright location with some direct morning or evening sun. They are typically woodland edge/savana plants. They don't want to be dry, but I don't find them to be water hogs once they're established either. Treat them like most plants and the'll be fine. They can tolerate full sun with extra water. I highly recommend A. 'Black Negligee' as it has been the fastest growing dark-leaved variety I've tried.
Actaea pachypoda, rubra, and a few others are the baneberries. I often see 'Misty Blue' being listed without its species name; it is a form of A. pachypoda. A. pachypoda gets white berries in summer. A rubra gets red berries, though there are white-berried populations. A. nigra is european and gets black berries. They are spring blooming woodland plants and tolerate shade very well. They all have white flowers followed by berries, either red, white, or black. All berries are poisonous. I find them growing here in maple/beech forests, which tend to be very dark. They get 2-3' tall depending on species and variety. A. pachypoda tends to be taller and more upright @ 2'-3', A. rubra is more bushy and shorter and closer to 18"-24". Best bet for success is rich soil with lots of organic matter and even moisture. Some morning sun is good for vigor, especially with A. rubra, but afternoon sun should be avoided. Currently the only one I'm aware of being vegetatively produced with any regularity is 'Misty Blue'. The rest are either seed grown (and fairly expensive- it takes up to 2 year to germinate the seed and another 5-7 years to be a salable plant) or wild collected. Wild collected material should be avoided unless you can certify it came from a construction site rescue. Plant to pay $10 or more for 4.5" quart pots for A. rubra, somewhat less for A. pachypoda as it's a bit faster growing.
Both groups are easy to grow, but require some patience.
The Plant Geek
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Good drainage and crumbly, well aerated, really good woodland soil is best. Too soggy/wet in winter and spring can rot them if they aren't yet established, and soaking wet around the crowns in summer can rot them too. Better to let them wilt a little before watering, but then again, too much water makes them wilt quickly too as the roots have rotted and they can't take up moisture again. They also won't tolerate really compacted soil which may cause them to not flower.
I grow both Cimicifuga (I refuse to call them Actaea quite yet) and Actaea and they both seed about a lot. Atropurpurea is my tallest at 6 to 7 feet with amazing flowers in the fall. White Pearl flowered too late for me to enjoy before a hard freeze. The dark leaf varieties color best in bright sunlight up until noon, but also grow fine in the shade. My soil has a lot of organic matter so it drains well, and I don't water these but once or twice a week through the summer.
Chris
This post was edited by ctopher_mi on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 17:20
hey Gal ....
discussing ambient moisture.. as you know is very hard ...
in my mind.. the greatest difference between the PNW.. and MI ... is that after rain.. in july/august.. i go back near 90 degrees ... whereas.. IN MY HEAD ... i picture the PNW.. staying cloudy and much cooler ... i sear i have had rain counted in inches.. and a day or two later.. the and is bone dry ...
its not always about volume or water dropped ..... but how long the moisture .. lets say.. hangs around ... there is nothing like a nice rain.. followed by many hours of bright clouds but no water sucking direct sun.. IF that makes any sense .... it give plants the time to access what was provided ....
then the polar opposite would be .. the cold of winter.. but arent talking about that ...
i would hazard a guess.. our spring/fall are pretty close ... its just that you are much more temperate.. and within that definition.. is the fact.. that the extremes of your seasons.. are NOTHING like the extremes of my seasons ..
i mean really ... isnt much of the PNW actually north of me [near toledo OH ]... yet you are zones higher than us.. whats that all about.. darn heat sink of a puddle.. lol.. the ocean ......
so many questions.. so little thyme.. lol.. see what i did there. ...
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: 
72 hours of twitchy, half-blind paranoid hallucinatory anxiety.
==>> sounds like my teenager.. on a NORMAL day ... lol
well campy.. that story gets the gold star of the day ...
sounds like it sums up that old Grateful Dead mantra: what a long, strange trip its been
all the things you peeps are talking about are annuals in MI ...
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: Sometimes the lights all shinin on me; Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been.
Hippie druggies not withstanding (haha), moonflower is usually grown as an annual. Datura could be also. Doubt very much if it was brugmansia, tho that could be grown in a greenhouse and brought out in the summer. One point: datura flowers are upright, while brugs hang down. Moonflower is also upright, and opens up in the evening. On a cloudy day, they could be open until nearly noon.
Never tried jimson weed myself. The idea scared hell out of me, pretty toxic. Ha never smoked pot either. I missed that whole hippie free love thing. I was busy raising kids while that was going on.
Sandy
hmmm, named varieties of aquilegies, apart from the species and oddities such as the Barlow varieties are always on a doomed trip to general cross-pollinated randomness. They are so promiscuous, unless you go to all that bagging and isolating business, most special types will soon interbreed and lose their specific charms.
Too many busy bees (keeping foxgloves white - another doomed attempt at control).
hmmm, named varieties of aquilegies, apart from the species and oddities such as the Barlow varieties are always on a doomed trip to general cross-pollinated randomness. They are so promiscuous, unless you go to all that bagging and isolating business, most special types will soon interbreed and lose their specific charms.
Too many busy bees (keeping foxgloves white - another doomed attempt at control).
Actually there are very few dark leaved plants that are truly for the shade. Heuchera, Actaea, Rodgersia, etc all will lose color without some sun. They shadier it is, the greener they will be. Also, most of the darker-leaved plants will lose vigor in shade as well.
And as stated already, there is the color contrast thing. Want to make a yellow Hosta pop? Back it with blue-green (Kirengeshoma comes to mind), plant something fine textured and dark or medium green to the sides (maybe Chasmanthium latifolium), and front it with dark-leaved Heuchera (obsidian, gotham, etc). That one yellow hosta will nearly hurt your eyes.
The Plant Geek
www.confessionsofaplantgeek.com
www.botanophilia.com
www.facebook.com/botanophilia
I suspect that the tall variety you have is hardy ageratum, Eupatorium coelestinum, and its arrival in your yard doesn't have anything to do with having planted annual ageratum.
In my garden hardy ageratum spreads/reseeds some, but the excess is easy to remove. I see complaints from deep South gardeners about its invasiveness, so apparently it can behave more aggressively there.
There's a few streets in my area lined with Bauhinia purpea. They look amazing for a month or so, especially in the wet years, but (like redbud) are rather nondescript otherwise. Still, a very well behaved street tree -- no sidewalk cracking, massive pollen loads, bug infestations or rampant invasiveness.
I grow the bronze-leafed rodgersia but it only starts out that colour in the Spring; by summer, it's fully green. It is a long-lived plant and not too fussy. I have it growing under a tree and it has never needed dividing. My growing season isn't long enough to produce blooms, but apparently, they aren't all that showy anyway.
I see this new introduction called Tie Dye.
Here is a link that might be useful: Tie Dye Helenium
I am going to get the new intro Ruby Tuesday this year. The perfect color to compliment my shutters! :) The reviews on this one are really good and they say 150 blooms a season. I'll take that any day! Looking forward to trying it out.
Well... I'm not nearly as far south as Georgia. I'm on the east coast, near the border of NC and VA, very near the shore. That's why I said Im in zone 8, but barely. It has been a little warmer than usual for February - really the whole winter. I have geraniums that have had flowers this whole time, and a snap dragon that didn't flower much but stayed green. Anyway, I really appreciate all the input!
I wish the Chipmunks would go away. Every year there are more and more and more. A master gardener friend told me to put gumballs out for them. They love them but cannot disest them............. I can't bring myself to drowned them.
I put milky spore down -broadcast- about 1 acre. It made a HUGE difference in the population. I can't say that there have been other environmental issues that would have had a great impact on them. -I put it down about 5-6 years ago, backyard only (cost/test). -All my plants are pretty much in the backyard. Even though it is pricey, one application lasts for so many years/
GC
Well, last year the Japanese Beetles came late -- I thought maybe they forgot about us like the mosquitoes did but they did arrive in late July. I sprayed them with 'Bug Stop' by Spectricide and I never saw such a good result with any other killer! I only had to spray them once and didn't see them again.
We had no rain, however to wash it off the leaves but my perennial Hibiscus was not bothered and neither were the fruit trees.