13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
hey al .. that reminds me..
i bought from a CHEAP seller ..
and waited 5 years .. to find out.. it was NOT THE PLANT I ORDERED ...
now that will piss a guy off .. lol ..
and of course you MIGHT get ONE flower next year ... i was setting newbie up to be thrilled.. she beat the odds ... rather than disappointed.. if you dudes are wrong .. lol ..
ken
Thank you all for the info!
Well...I only planted once and I didn't get to see the blooms even once because we moved. Then the new owner took absolutely everything out and put rocks because she had a dog. :( I don't want that to happen again. :) But I get what you mean.
I'll try to be optimistic but still realistic. ;)
And I did go to Hallsons. They were really nice there and had a lot of nice hostas. Thank you again for that.
Sunnyborders wrote: it's currently providing more colour here than the traditional and recent Coreopsis cultivars that we have
I agree Sunny that AA is extra noticeable this time of year as many other plants have finished flowering but don't sell some of the coreopsis short in this regard. Here is a picture I took just today of my 2 year old "Cosmic Eye" coreopsis. It has been flowering as long as has AA.
I have 1 Arizona Sun for the last 5 years and it came back every year, on mended clay soil. I do not do anything special prior to fall and winter time. However, I do notice that the new plant emerges pretty later in spring. Actually every spring I thought I had lost it but it came back, first as very tiny little plant, most likely from seeds. So if you do not see them emerge next year, be a little patient give them a little more time to be sure. This spring I almost planted something over it as I was not sure if it is still alive or not. Tt was as tiny as my finger nail but grew to be a regular plant in no time.
Since you have several Arizonan Apricot, you can experiment different things and see how they work. But please do post back with your results next year so we can all learn.
Best of luck,
Vivian
Re 'Sundown' (above) and what was said previously about the Big Sky Series:
The 'Sundown' I planted in flower, in 2009, now "blooms" with no petals at all on roundish cones. It's time for it to go, but I'm going to try to keep it in a pot as a curio.
I gather the problem is inherent to this (interspecific) hybrid series. Big Sky cultivars are destined to lose their looks over time. Another mean trick played on we gardeners!
I am in north of Chicago so it is colder here. I do most of my new planting, dividing, moving of perennials in early to mid September. For several years, I also put new divisions of the plants in my IL house to our 2nd house in Michigan (also zone 5a). Except 1 shasta daisy, I have not had any plants die on me. For me, September is the best time to plant. Only need to water a few times, then plant settles in for the winter. I do not do any extra mulching or winterizing.
Hostas are amazingly easy and robust plants. I planted a couple hostas my neighbor gave me as divisions mid of October last year, watered it once, then rabbits ate the leaves a few days later. But they came out this year as nice and big hostas.
So plant them now in your zone. put regular amount of mulch. You will be fine.
This is a shrubby Potentilla, rather than herbaceous. By trimming, it just means going over the bush with the garden shears removing the dead flowers. It is true that it's sometimes tricky as it keep on flowering. But you can sacrifice a few flowers for the sake of a better show later.
Lespedeza.
It looks like a member of the pea family (from the blooms and the leaf pattersn). Here are some differnt types. I recall it blooming it early spring.
Here is a link that might be useful: google images of lespedeza
Bumblebeez, I'm not that lucky to have neighbours who are interested in gardening. I'm surrounded by 8 neighbours, of which 5 have nothing other than lawns and hedges(of those 4 have giant lawns , it takes a lot of time to mow them, usually when I'm trying to sleep). The neighbors across the street have moved and the house was bought by their grandson who works in Norway, so he's never home. The ones from the south-west are behind a very tall hedge, so they cannot see anything. The last one can see my garden, and the woman has bought some plants from me. But there are some passers-by who stop and watch from the street.
feh, my spelling is dodgy enough without worrying about obscure diacriticals and so on. I am not often a called upon to actually write down the botanical latin nomenclature (and when I speak, I often use a vague mumble to cover up my uncertain memory of the EXACT terminology. Course, there are plenty of pedants (have been there myself, but not spellingwise) on GW.
Little Carlow - had it, composted it - boring (and I also got fed up with the same trio of TV gardeners waffling on and on as though this was the ONLY cultivar of asters in the universe (Carole Klein,Monty Don et al, hang your head in unoriginal shame).
Campanula, I get the point about pedantry, though there is certainly a problem with the horticulture industry promoting selling names at the expense of cultivar names.
I'm not familiar with the "authorities?!" you mentioned, but I am suspicious of "TV (or newspaper/magazine) gardeners". They're often journalists who haven't done/tried the gardening themselves.
Give me the advice of a gardener, over a (garden) journalist, any time!
The second picture looks to me like Cyclamen hederifolium, a hardy outdoor Cyclamen - it even appears to have a seed pod. It should be planted outside in a shady position. It flowers at this time of year without leaves. They will follow next year. Not the same type as your first picture. The picture is of some in my garden.
Indoor Cyclamen need lots of light, but not hot sun,and as cool a temperature as you can obtain inside, cooler even than African Violets. As ken says, you might as well just cut your losses unless you enjoy a challenge. I have indoor Cyclamen which come back each year. At the moment they are out in the garden and just starting to leaf out. I'll bring them into a glazed porch before we get a frost. I never put them in the actual house.
ah yes, conifers. In the UK, they have been on the end of awful press since their heydays in the 1970s. We have been fighting a rearguard action to get them back into garden landscapes. What goes around comes around so any day now, we will be back in the vanguard of fashion.
Ken, I just looked back at your pictures from inspiration. They are really impressive. Such beauty!
buyorsell888, "evergreens in the back and deciduous in front to provide color in spring and fall" -- what a simple comment but so incredibly helpful to this newbie. I want an oakleaf hydrangea somewhere on the property but I need to focus on your comment. Perhaps mountain laurel as the evergreen...hmm. Need to go back to large nursery outside D.C.
Kevin, I agree that it won't hurt anything. But peat moss that constitutes the bulk of many potting soils err...media (sorry Ken)...is not compatible with clay because it holds water when wet, which is the last thing you need clay soil to do. It also adds no nutritive value to the soil. But yeah, I've dumped it out in my garden with no qualms because it isn't enough to matter.
Just don't dump it in the same place year after year or you will get a soil borne disease like someone I know did and it won't grow anything,