13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Well, I looked into Joanna Reed nepeta and it is advertised as growing between 36" and 48" tall, so it is a tad bit large for the front of the bed or as edging...

I also checked out calamintha and stachys Helen von Stein and saw some pictures where it was used in combination. Why didn't I think of that sooner. The gray of the substantial stachys leaves and the airy white flowers of calamintha looked stunning together... I think I will try that combo as an elegant edger for a bed of colorful roses.

I have tried to grow lavender many times and failed every time. I am tempted to try thumbelina Leigh in the Spring but might change my mind by next month.

My suggestion for a high impact purple edging plant is Rokey's Purple Aubrieta. I think that there is also a variegated Aubrieta. Good luck!

I like the way you use spring bulbs - just a few clumps here and there. I know the mass plantings can be spectacular, but sometimes less is more. One really gets to admire individual flowers when you're not overwhelmed by something done in mass.

And yes, I also love the Historical Iris. I have very few iris these days, but the ones I do have which I love the most are the Historicals.

A few years ago when I started to get serious about selling plants on Craig's List, I made it a regular chore to start taking photos of everything in my garden which I might want to divide and sell at some point. I use the photos in my ads. It was a lot of work, but it sure is fun having all those photos now - in the dead of winter. I have a few "progression photos" like yours too which are really fun to look at this time of year.

Kevin

The small bulb clumps are more a result of collector's syndrome than the result of any thought out design plan, but thanks. More small clumps mean more varieties but it also makes it easier to interplant perennials for multi season color.

If anyone has pictures to add, feel free. I love progressions and before and afters.

The iris are even thicker at the other end, and I did end up pulling about half out last summer. I wonder if I could have craiglisted them, although I do get selfish about my compost materials.....

I have really enjoyed looking at all of the pictures above. I have gotten some good ideas on what to buy this year. Last year, the temps here reached 103 and my garden just fizzled out. Hope to do more this coming season.

Last year, the temps here reached 103 and my garden just fizzled out.

With the past two hot, dry summers I have come to very much resent those perennials and annuals requiring daily or even every other day watering to look good.

Ken,
I do appreciate that my sis did get the kids out of the house. I did not say a word to her about having destroyed the plant....

Thanks for the advice rosestink. I think my initial reaction was just surprise. Having been here 5 years and deer generally eat nothing except the bulbs in spring.

I spread dried blood around. Just yesterday I threw it around onto the snow where the deer enter my Garden area, where I first saw their tracks. It keeps them away. I've done this for many years. You can get a bag of it in the organic fertilizer section of a good garden center. It's granulated, not gross at all. It works.

PS...on a good note, it may attract predators which will scare away the rodents and deer! I have no problems with it at all and it adds nitrogen to soil.

Last season we had almost NO snow. The ground was pretty bare throughout the winter and I don't think I lost a single plant which really surprised me.

Kevin, this impressive survival rate might be due to the corresponding moderate temperatures we/you received last winter as in that case snow cover isn't as important.

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Jan 6, 13 at 7:59

Possibly, but I know we did have some of that subzero stuff too. Not 20 below, but I believe in the teens below. Maybe it was of short duration and that made the difference.

Kevin

Congrats on your new camera. Once I figured out how to use it, my Nikon point & shoot has never let me down altho' it's a few years old & was my first digital. If you check out the winter sowing forum for a few old threads you'll get an idea of the quality pics it takes. My daughter is a photographer for a newspaper and also uses a Nikon altho' one a lot fancier than mine. Good luck with yours!

Congratulations! That a nice gift.

Thanks, Mistascott for posting the Evolvulus. I was planning to take a photo of mine, which I am overwintering in the house, but it currently only has a couple of blooms and I have no other photos of it. Although this doesn't overwinter outside for me, I have found it quite easy to overwinter indoors. Since it tends to be difficult to find other than mail order, I plant at least one in a pot small enough to bring inside and then try to remember to bring it in before the first hard frost. It's a lovely plant and not hard to keep as a perennial even if it is only half-hardy.

Oh! I had some of this (Evolvulus) several years back. I confess, I had somehow forgotten all about it - probably when we moved to our current property. It is a lovely shade of blue. Thank you so much for the reminder w/photo. I knew it as Hawaiian Blue Eyes. I do need to get some - great for containers.

Okay, I'll round up some potting soil today or tomorrow and pot them. I have room in the garage to keep them, that won't be a problem. Actually, they've been sitting in the garage since I bought them, I hope they're still viable - they don't look dried out, though. Never thought of forcing them for Easter - good idea! :0)

yes.. that is precisely what all the local greenhouses are doing.. since in MI ... ALL EASTER FLOWERS ARE FORCED ...

of course.. you have the ease of not having to worry precisely .. about getting them to market 2 weeks in advance.. so enjoy them whenever ...

tulips should have been planted in oct ... so as to grow roots.. for spring growth ... you might have to think about that fact that yours are still bare bulbs ...

and after you think about it.. WING IT.. lol ..

ken

gb - I got your message and replied to it just now. This computer is set up to receive messages from all our different e-mail addresses.

Hi Woody!!

I received your request:) Yay!! You can go and click on my friends or anyone else's to see who they are friends with. If you recognize any names, just click on it and you will get a friend request box. I sent you suggestions of everyone who I know from Gardenweb. There might be a couple you don't recognize, but you will get to know them from their posts:)

Drema

Hi Corrine,
Yes I have tried many variations of deterrents to keep the deer away but they have miserably failed. My first effort was with smells, this included millorganite and iris spring soap. The millorganite works if you put a fresh pile of it around and area every three weeks. I used to buy 5, 40lb bags of the stuff for a couple of years only to have all the plants eaten anyway.
Then I went with sound, I took motion sensor light fictures and mounted them on post with one flood light and a radio under a 5 gallon bucket. The deer set the thing off repeatedly until they were not afraid of it any longer,
Now I can put a flood light on them and they smile back at me and stand there.
Then I bought two Scare Crow Motion pulsating sprinklers. These were also set off by the deer repeatedly and they protected the areas just adjacent to the sprinkler heads but the plants were eventually eaten anyway. I think I got hit by the sprinkler more then the deer did.
Then I invested in four motion sensors with a base station in my house that would sound off every time a deer passed by. That let me catch a lot of deer in the act but when I was not available they had a field day.
I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have run after deer only to have them run through some plants and cause damage.
We have now learned that it causes much less damage to just let the deer know we are there but don't scare them. They will wander off after a short while.

My last resort was to invest in a 7 foot metal and plastic fence. I have about 1/3 of and acre protected with the fence and all my sensitive plants are in there.
Occasionally a deer will get in the fence and they cause more damage breaking back out, then when they broke in.
Within the fence I have a number of wood cut-outs, a cow and two dogs. These are life size and swing freely on wire. The movement spooks the deer and during the growing season I have gone without one deer breaking into the enclosure.
I have loved growing for years but this deer problem almost makes me want to move.
So now I will only plant absolutely deer resistant plants. The toughest I can find.

There is a great book I have been reading by Ruth Rogers Clausen called "50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants. It is very well done with plant discriptions and cultural information. There are also good suggestions for plant combinations.
This coming year will be the year of the deer resistant plant.
I'm done with wasting money on a plant I will never see mature.
Thanks,
Mike

Mike - great book. I've read that, too. I took notes, so I could remember her growing tips as well. I live in a clearing in the woods at a camp & conference center, so the deer presence is strong & they're used to people also. Besides gardening around our home we work on gardens around the camp where there is no fencing to keep them out. I don't apply deterrents there, but some staff members stick soap in the soil near the rose bushes. In one area another staff family has a dog that deters them so we can plant edibles for our childrens' gardens.

Sounds like you have good experience to deter deer from your newly planted specimens. I hope to scare them before they enter the garden and are just walking on the driveway. Like you I've had them break off stems or sink in rootballs by jumping through in spring when the new growth is out and the wet & soft. Sometimes their feet do tramp through gardens, so I've learned to plant closely & have paths in back of borders that are next to a fence or the house. When the deer can't see over it or can't find a path through it they don't enter, but do attempt to nibble around the front. Barberry prunings from my daughter's place crisscrossed & laying on the path prevented them from getting to seedlings & small plants in the spring. I removed them when the plants were larger.

Some root well from cuttings in spring, so you can multiply what you have to make large groupings or repeat in the border. Sedum, Nepeta, Lamium, golden creeping jenny, & vinca minor can cover quite a bit of ground after awhile like a living mulch. The deer eat the tall sedum at our parents' island home, but haven't eaten them here. I was pleasantly surprised with Nepeta cuttings from new spring growth, stripped lower leaves, poked my finger in soft soil directly in the garden where I wanted the plants, & inserted. I moved a few of them further back as they matured as I put them too close to the edge, but other than that they've been easy.

Another tip besides starting seeds -- find a free plant swap near you. Those plants are going to transplant well since they've already acclimated to your climate. No heartache if they don't make it because they were free! Just be careful to clean up any stray weeds before you plant them. Sometimes I just wash that soil all away before planting out. I've received rootbound seedings that sprouted in bark on top of plastic in someone's garden. A bit of root prep & they've been great plants.

Have you tried some ornamental grasses either stand alone or in groupings? Some can be grown from seed. I've received some of my best ones for part sun at free plant swaps as divisions or seedlings that will mature & reseed again for me. Spring planted starts establish quickly. Some are well behaved clumpers and some are spreaders. Be sure to read up which fit your situation. The spreaders are in sunken pots to keep them as a clump. What ever is new to me becomes my favorite at the time.

Hope that helps,
Corrine

mums root freely.. and quickly..

i put no stock in the suggestion that a mid-summer cutting.. was too immature to winter over outside..

presuming the mum itself was hardy ...

in my z5 MI ... ALL MUMS die to the ground in winter ... coming from what i think is called basal shoots.. right at ground level..

that is where OP should be looking for life ...

and next time.. bring them in BEFORE the first hard freeze.. not AFTER ...

what i would have done.. was take additional cuttings in mid fall.. before frost.. and started those indoors.. and cycled thru few generations of cutting during the cold winter.. shooting for a few young vigorous plants.. come time for them to go back outside ...

and.. as noted above.. MANY of the mums 'forced' for retail.. are not fully hardy in many areas ... and you dont find out.. until they dont came back .. lol.. [in other words.. you never know about that store that ships all its plants from ARKANSAS ... whether they will live in z5 over winter] ...

ken

mistascott hit the nail on the head with the question, "Is there new growth at the base of the plant under this year's growth?"

Keep 'em out of winter rains & protect from slugs come spring. Slugs will nibble any new growth, so you won't be able to see if plants made it through winter. Inspect sides of pots for slug eggs (white or transparent). Use a popsicle stick or tongue depressor to pop the slug eggs against the side of the pot. Every egg hatches you know...

Don't water without poking your finger in the pot. The roots rot if too wet.

We bought up a bunch of display mums in November & put them out of the rain. You can't beat 29 cents for 6" square pots. If the mums don't make it the 18" oval pots as well as 12 inch squares were only $1.29 and will make display pots for herbs or annuals. Hubby laughed at us buying the dead looking things, but there was new growth at the base.

Corrine

I don't want to freak out the neighbors setting clumps on fire, so that's out. I think I'll try tying the stems together and sawing through them with a pocket horticultural saw, as soon as my poison ivy-infested hands heal (I was trimming back multiflora roses that seeded on the edge of the property and apparently didn't notice a woody poison ivy vine mixed in).

I love cordless tools! I have a cordless pole saw and it is quite powerful, although I have never used it on grasses. It's probably too short a blade length. My grasses are not terribly big and my manual hedge shears usually are fine.

Cordless Pole Saw

But as far as power goes, it is plenty powerful and I see no reason why a similarly powered cordless hedge trimmer wouldn't be powerful enough for grasses.

I can cut 4" branches with the cordless pole saw with no problems. I also have the B&D cordless trimmer and blower. They all share 4 niCad interchangeable batteries. If I run out of juice on a large job, I just reload a fresh battery. The trimmer, for example, can trim all my beds (15 or so? 1 acres worth) with one battery. The blower isn't as effective. Two batteries are needed to clear pine needles or debris off my 75' driveway and it is not effective on the lawn, but is extremely handy to use for frequent light touch-ups on walkways, etc.

I'm a big fan of cordless lawn tools. I hate gas and cords. I also use a Neuton battery mower. At some point I might have to invest in new batteries but so far all is great for the past 3 seasons with all my cordless tools.

You can cut them back now or in early Spring. I would leave a couple inches of stem above the soil line so you ensure you don't damage the crown or new growth that sometimes begins just a bit above the soil line.

I've had Euphorbia polychroma for nearly 20 years and have never done anything to it in any season--just give it full sun, leave it alone and let it do its thing. Picked up some E. 'Bonfire' a couple years ago and so far they've done just fine with the same hands off treatment. It's among my most carefree perennials.