13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
-twrosz, that is one fantastic little plant you have there!
Rare double flowers are also a temptation of mine- particularly little woodland plants! Sigh.... if its not the variegated/colorful foliage plants attempting to lure me in it's the doubles, lol! Thankfully I haven't yet had the best luck with Trilliums, else I might easily be suckered into getting one like in your great pic. ;-)
CMK
Thanks, clematisintegrifolia. I updated my post accordingly. I want to make sure the info is 100% correct so that people don't get misled if they stumble onto this thread.
Terrene, there is an edit feature but it only appears to work for recent posts (after they added it). It should be under the clippings menu to the right of the post. I am also overjoyed that they added it because I tend to want to edit my posts constantly.
This post was edited by mistascott on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 15:51
Cool! We can edit posts, and I learned about specific epithets from Clematis! Is it still called a specific epithet when there is a subspecies?
I LOVE growing plants, and have worked hard to learn the proper nomenclature for them. If you really want to know what species you're growing, it's a necessity.
river_crossroads, I received some cuttings of a Hummingbird Plant late last spring and they rooted well. They did not get very big, however, probably due to the time it took to root them and get them potted up. I kept them in the pot the rest of the growing season and have them growing indoors now. And they are doing well inside. I hope to keep them going until the warm weather returns here next spring and then plant them out. Thanks for posting that pretty picture. I now know what my plant will look like when it blooms.
Linda
I would personally get rid of the Achillea ptarmica Ballerina. This is an extremely aggressive species and you will have it everywhere. It is also very easily grown from seed. The Salvia New Dimension Blue is from seed and a first year bloomer. The Delphinium Magic Fountains series is seed grown and pretty common in most nurseries. With the exception of the New Giant, all of your Campanulas are from seed, and the Papaver n. Flamenco. All are fairly easy.
Magic Fountain Delphs are great. I have some that a friend grew from seed and 2 of the 3 have returned for 5 years. No staking required unless they are blooming when we have a heavy, heavy rain. Then, I shake off the flower heads and they right themselves. Even if they only lasted a couple of years, I think they are worth the trouble. The blue ones are really blue, too. You should get faster bloom from started plants instead of starting seeds.
Linda
I had to fix a garden last year that was heavily compacted from having a large tree and it's stump removed. This was midsummer, but I found that tiling with a pitchfork did wonders. That, plus the frost heave from winter, loosened up the soil so I could work it and so that the plants were happy. I did have to replant part of it, but it rebounded nicely.
I'm with the "do your best to wait" camp. If you're out there tromping around in a compacted, mostly dormant garden right now, you're bound to do more harm than good. Try to sit on it, watch for signs, and wait, with as much patience as you can muster.
campanula - it is growing in 100% home made compost and is clipped over a couple of times a year. It came from the bargain shelf of moribund plants at a local garden centre. It is a bit leggier at the moment and will get a clipping in the spring.
Jelitto seeds
Hardyplants in the US
Ebay have a few.
I have amassed quite a few thus far and wanting to add to the collection,I have never had scutellaria incana germinate here
in Australia yet had this little gem germinate and flower from
the water hole in a pot a few weeks ago, wasnt too sure what
it was but I am leaning towards it being scutellaria ovata, it is so pretty.After googling a few the foliage matched a few pics.
I have also got another unnamed scutellaria that I have never been able to id, it is labelled as scutellaria formosana on my flickr which is a synonym for scutellari
javanica which it isnt...
Cheers Annette
Here is a link that might be useful: Scutellaria ovata
I grow a sterile variety, Lambrooke Mauve which, being sterile, does not set seed and flowers continually throughout summer whereas P.caeruleum and P.carneum run to seed quickly (although they respond to deadheading). LM is a rather lovely shade of lilac.
linlily - I harvested seeds from my established Jacob's Ladder this year and will winter sow them to get more plants. I'd like to have a fairly good-sized clump of them for the impact they make in early spring.
The seedpods ripen gradually. I kept a close eye on them & harvested seeds as soon as I found the tiny pods open so I could grow more. My DIL has a nice-size established plant that got me interested in growing them.
One feature I especially like is they need ZERO attention or tending throughout the growing season. Reliably perennial + low-maintenance = my kind of perennial. Swallowtail offers seeds of a white-blooming cultivar.
Thanks everyone.
My mom planted the balloon flowers so I'll need to see if she's okay with me trying to transplant them. Otherwise maybe I'll try a smaller raised bed towards the back where we have open space without any of the perennials that I don't want to risk killing.
Last year I worked the soil open parts of the soil 4-5 inches with a rototiller. Then added compost and top soil and worked that in. Maybe it just wasn't enough, but the soil compacted back down again. I tried some root crops this year but none of them seemed able to grow well in that soil.
I had some success with my raised bramble bed using 1/3 peat, 1/3 top soil, and 1/3 compost. But those like acidic peaty soil.
--The kale BTW will be over by next summer anyway--
It's already 5 years old and a 3' high monster. I had to hack it back a ton earlier this year because it was crowding out the tarragon. I think it's a type of Blue Scotch. Tasty, but grows like mad.
Interesting on the kale, I was curious and googled and saw most varieties are bi-annual. This one is definitely perennial. It was labeled blue scotch, but I have my doubts on that now. It has self-seeded other plants, but the original two were there for five years if not more (I dug up all but this last one to make room last year).
Boy, I havenâÂÂt put much thought into Lily of the Valley for years, but now that the topic is open for discussion, hereâÂÂs my limited experience.
In regards to flowers for your wedding, you could always consider buying pips for forcing. I know White Flower used to sell them for that purpose. If you do it correctly, you might be able to more accurately time the blooms for your wedding.
I didnâÂÂt realize there was another new and improved variety on the market. Looks interesting. Years and years ago I did buy a variety named FortinâÂÂs Giant. From a quick Goggle search it looks like it may no longer be widely available. The flowers of that one are HUGE in comparison to the regular garden variety and was probably worth the money. I think at the time a single pip went for something like $10.
Doing a bit of searching, I came across this vendor who has a few interesting varieties.
http://www.cherrycreekdaffodils.com/page9/styled-4/rapidcart-8/index.html
Kevin
If you can get pips for forcing that may be the better option. I'm not 100% certain but somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember a conversation with a gardener in the Atlanta GA area. He was missing the scent of L O V in spring and bemoaning the fact that he could not keep them alive in his current location due to the heat. You may want to do a little more research. You might be ok, I believe he was zone 8.
and so many hours after the pollen dries [sometimes at teh same time] .. that being the male part ... the female part will get sticky and that is when you will add the male to the female ...
how about you make the video ... what next.. you want us to come visit ... and do it for you???
and in case you dont know how to use a search engine.. the link gives 20 thousand links on topic ... ;) .. but alas.. no youtube ... whats that all about????
man for a hippie.. you sure know how to kill a happy buzz ... lol
good luck
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: link
"...iron solubility (and uptake) generally decreases with increasing pH because iron precipitates out of the soil solution at higher pH levels. Phosphorus also precipitates out of solution at higher pH levels. Phosphorus uptake will be further reduced above pH 7.2 because any phosphorus left in solution is converted into a less available form. Nitrogen uptake can be indirectly affected by media pH because low pH decreases nitrification (conversion of ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen) or the conversion of urea to ammoniacal nitrogen."
http://www.greenhousegrower.com/article/21543/understanding-plant-nutrition-an-introduction
So Jacob could be running into nutrient problems depending on whether pH is too high or too low. A device to measure pH sounds like a good idea especially if his goal is to harvest a sizable blueberry crop (one container plant is going to fall short in any case).
Hey eric_oh,
I have tested and its given a reading of around pH 6 - 6.2. I gave it a liquid iron dose and am waiting to see if this makes any difference. I do have a small Rabbit eye plant growing in another container with similar soil and it seems to be growing okay so far but it is a young plant so time will tell.