13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Looking forward to next Spring!

Don't go away from GW until spring! It wont be long until those interesting year end threads start up e.g. Plants on my "to buy" list for 2013 etc.

I and my back are looking forward to garden withdrawal.

I spent a few hours today doing cleanup and storing canna tubers in large pots filled with peat in the garage. The last (it's gotta be the last) potted plant was brought in. Only 10-20 hours of additional trimming/mulching/cleanup left and I can relax a few minutes until seed-starting begins.

True - others might be reading and interested in the info. Bear with me, I'm cranky lately and prone to taking things the wrong way (dealing with death does that to people...)

Well, if DH doesn't notice the tree before I haul it in the garage for the winter, I can use the old "I've had that a while" line LOL!

While I am an old pro at wintering plants in my garage and try to get them back out before they break dormancy I agree that there may be readers that need that information.

Also my garage is well insulated and stays cool even on hot summer days and does not have extreme temps in the spring. I already winter a small maple (one that may or may not be a J.Maple started from a mix of seeds given to me several years ago) which is growing well but smaller than expected as was pruned by critters last spring. Also several potted clematis, roses, and not quite hardy in MN perennials.

I appreciate others experiences as it might add another aspect to my thinking and may result in a tweaking or change in my practices.

Kato, have you tried changing the zone when making a post instead of trying to do it in your profile?

It reseeds heavily but I wouldn't call it a nuisance.
It tends to reseed only under the previous year's plants, not all over my yard. It doesn't spread by runners. It blooms a very long time. It attracts butterflies. Faults forgiven. : )
Sconticut - my great aunt was a gardener and worked in her garden until she was 100. I think it kept her young. Planting perennials gives a person something to look forward to the next summer. Gotta have something to get us through the blah winter.

I am just not sure how Rozanne would perform in "shade to part shade" aspect.

^Diminished flowering for sure, but I think it would do okay. Not sure if it would drape 1-2 feet though.

Something like Vinca minor 'illumination' would though.

Doesn't fit most of your criteria, but one of my favourite plants, for our area, is culver's root.

The picture is the cultivar Veronicastrum virginicum 'Fascination', that shows fasciation (flower spikes growing along a line rather than to a point).

One of the several things I like about this plant is the fact that the flower spikes (shape) apparently appeals to bees. Trimming off the central spike, after flowering, puts me right in the middle of the bees. They just do their thing and I do mine.

My favorites to grow from seed are digitalis, shasta,
primula,alcea (hollyhock),budlia and aquilegia...all are easy and hardy.
If any of you don't like hostas, check out Liberty, montana aureomarginata or Guardian Angel, you'll change your mind
Heather

-twrosz, impressive that it bounced back after that kind of stress!

I must admit, I do still prefer the colors of Inca Ice when it first opens and is darker. I'm thinking planting something blue or purple in background so this guy will 'pop' more for me...
CMK

rouge21, yes, the plant came from GardenImport. They informed they might be carrying more varieties from the Inca Series ... I'm especially interested in 'Inca Tropic' and hope it's one they'll be offering.

christinmk, sounds like a good idea, I'll also have to consider something blue :)

I will definitely continue to add compost each year. Does anyone bring in earthworms to help break up soil? I read about "jumpers" recommended for clay soils.

"Build it and they will come." Build a healthy soil with plenty of organic matter and earthworms will populate it. Earthworms aren't going to aerate dry compacted clay no matter how many you bury. They will high-tail it somewhere else. They want to be in soils with plenty of organic matter.

I have no experience with Jumpers but my intuition tells me that if you build healthy soil, everything else will fall into place.

Winter annuals such as chickweed etc. are germinating now.

As Ken says, it is probably too late for winter annual pre-emergents to be effective as they germinated long ago. They germinated here in mid to late August and probably even earlier in cooler zones.

Though a pre-emergent should prevent any further spread of the weeds this winter -- they usually don't do much seeding until early Spring when temps start to warm. I prefer to pull them in early Spring when I do my perennial bed cleanup.

Thanks, Wieslaw, again great pictures and great colour.

Lots of info, both what you say and in the pictures themselves (e.g. how you handle irises - not good mixed perennial bed team players).

One for the sparrows!

Thanks for all the pics, I appreciate your sharing them and your experiences with them.

Agree with above.

As above, would make sure new growth-blooming shrubs such as Hydrangea paniculata are winter dormant before doing any major pruning. This can be as early as December/January/February. If it blooms on old wood (e.g. Hydrangea macrophylla), only remove the canes that are broken because buds have already formed for next Spring. See the below link for some detailed information on Hydrangea pruning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydrangea pruning

That is a great photo and a good testament to the importance of foliage texture and color contrast.

For sure thanks mxk3.

"...the smaller picea are not easily available and almost too small ie get lost unless they are in the border, the larger ones....well just get too large..."

Bingo! Too small or too large, lol. That's the dilemma! Well, at least for me!

Beautiful pics, nhbabs, of a beautiful yard. If I had that kind of room I wouldn't be so worried!

:)
Dee

I started incorporating conifers in my garden to give me color and structure during those months when there isn't much going on. Those months when everything looks brown and dead, like now and early spring. After I started adding them I realized that I prefer foliage to flowers and now prefer to buy things that will give me more than a month's worth of beauty.

My 1.25 acre parcel is upland savannah and the soil is well-drained sandy loam. Many trees have been removed over the past 10 years, or thinned, but there are still numerous large canopy trees and they're spaced out in such a way that there is hardly any full sun, but lots of partial sun.

There are a lot of perennials that do pretty well with partial shade with medium moisture - including wetland plants with some supplemental water during dry spells. If there's really a drought though, I can't keep up on watering everything, and the wetland plants tend to suffer and sometimes go dormant or experience a bit of dieback.

I add organic matter like compost, leaf mold, etc. to all the gardens about once a year, to improve moisture retention and it helps with both sandy or clay soil. I've hand dug many garden beds, and pulled out tons of roots, rocks etc., but in more recent years also use the lasagne or sheet composting technique which is much less labor although it's slower to build a bed.

The biggest challenge under these conditions is growing veggies and the heat/sun-loving annuals like Sunflowers, because they really perform best under full sun. I would love to have great big veggie and butterfly garden, and daylily and cutting gardens too, LOL, and I suffer from a terrible case of sun envy.

You're right...I'm right down the street from Clemson, in northern Anderson! I was planning on volunteering at the botanical gardens to learn more about plant propagation - maybe I'll learn more there!

Color isn't too important...because I've got 2 side areas with nice amounts of sun and I'll get my color there. But for those patches under the trees...I'll definitely consult the Master Gardener. I would like to take the course myself! :)