13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
best advice given so far was to store at a friend's garden. In the ground is much easier on the plants, then you can dig & take to your new place when you're ready. Unless of course the distance is prohibitive. The extra assurance of divisions at a friend's home makes sense. Then there are plants in 2 places. Of course, don't divide those perennials that don't divide easily.
Alternatively you could take cuttings or layer some depending on the type. Layerings might be the easiest way unless you need the new plants right away. Then next spring dig & move.
Julie,
Welcome to our province, whenever you make your move. A bit of advice regarding your perennials....make sure they will survive this zone before digging them up and preparing them for their journey West. I have lost more perennials than I can count, but gardeners are an optimistic bunch...good luck!
the beauty of fall in z5 .. is that warm days.. keep the soil warm for some fall root growth ... and usually the days are not hot enough to suck all the moisture out of the ground .... and the cool nights allow a recovery period period before the next warmish day ...
and its not really that the plants 'grab hold' .. its that the soil will settle enough to hold the plant in the ground.. of course it depends on how big the pieces are. and whether there is soil attached to weigh them in ...
you ask nice simple questions.. that everyone who reads them.. can learn from ... and that is why i take the time to answer them as best i can ...
ken
Thanks so much Ken. I certainly appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions and everyone else on the various forums that take their time to answer the questions. Amazing how helpful everyone is. What I have learned from you folks is unbelievable! No amount of book reading could help as much as you folks do. What we get here is true experience!
I just moved a bunch myself this week that were still looking beautiful and flowering. I'm in zone 6 CT. Usually I cut back perennials when I move them if they are in flower but I didn't this time bc I got lazy. The coreopsis did not skip a beat. They still look wonderful. Some of the easiest plants I have ever seen. I have 6 different kinds. I'd have to look up the tags to remember exactly which though.
I have old-fashioned plain blue Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans) which grows in quite a bit of shade and gets buried in red maple and Halesia tetraptera leaves each fall. Actaea racemosa AKA Cimicifuga racemosa (black cohosh or black bugbane) won't be bothered by leaves IME.
To some degree, the type of leaves matter. I find that oak leaves (pin, northern red, and white) tend to not rot, but pack down in thick masses that are difficult for most plants to grow through. I don't have that issue with other leaf types. Also, IME most maple seeds sprouting are pretty difficult to discourage. I can't think of a plant that would do much to discourage them.
Hello there, thanks for your answers. (Funny, somehow the notification-thingy didn't work, the mails weren't forwarded directly).
So, it shouldn't be Hostas, as there are enough in other areas. Hellebores are not dense enough in my opinion. But I will definitely go for Brunneras.
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The trees are a Tilia (Linden tree) and a Acer pseudoplatanus (Norwegan Maple?), and I think the stuff will break down and rott completely. And I hope that a thick layer of old foliage and perennial leaves will reduce the number of seedling, we will see.
The ferns and Aruncus should help as well .
Well, have a great autumn and a good planting season,
bye, Lin
Many perennials.
The red valerian mentioned is an example, though I also tend to keep up with cutting off it's spent blooms to avoid too much reseeding.
Currently we have a lot of colour in the garden from the garden phlox which were deadheaded.
I've never understood leaving dead flowers on plants at all unless you're trying to get seeds. The last thing I want to look at is dead flowers. They come off several times per week at least. This keeps things blooming more constantly than in spurts, and avoids shearing, which can make plants look like chia heads. For plants with the ability to do so, if you cut individual flowers off when they start forming a forming seed pod, a new (individual or stalk of) flower will start to emerge long before it would have if one waited until the whole stalk or 'flush' was finished.
Kevin, moving clematis is easier than many other plants. I cut back to under 12 inches and provide shade until new growth starts. I've just moved 10 summer blooming clems about five weeks ago so they have plenty of time to reestablish before winter. It was still really hot so they stayed under shade until cooler weather came. Their all growing just fine again. Think they are enjoying the nice fresh soil. I have also rinsed the soil off the roots several times so that I could get a good look at them. Then just plant as if it were new.
Good luck, Pat
Thanks. I'm going to do it this weekend. Today should be our last 90 degree day for the season (HA!), so I want to wait until some cooler air moves in. In general, I've been holding back on dividing or moving anything because this stupid summer just won't quit. Some rain would be nice too, but it looks like that isn't happening anytime soon. For the moment, I'll take cooler temps if that's all I can get.
Kevin
The "corpse shovel-toss"!! TOO funny!
We have groundhogs that expire due to "lead poisoning" & my husband gives them a "shovel ride" up the hill to a patch of loose sand that should have rows of headstones!
The occasional former aquarium resident goes under the rose bushes, and we have lovely roses!
For several years I house-sat in the country for the 1st 2 weeks of July each year. One year the resident dog (Blackie-I swear he lived to come up with mischief!) brought home a groundhog friend, only Mr. G had met with mayhem some time ago & resembled a furry basketball in appearance, and something VERY nasty in scent! Of course this was shortly before I was expecting guests for a picnic, so I grabbed the shovel & heaved Mr. G into the treerow. Blackie responded by bounding into the treerow & returning the foul carcass to me, all the while smiling (I swear!) and exclaiming What Fun!
What now? I grabbed a large garbage bag & attempted to roll Mr G into it with the shovel while Blackie enjoyed trying to keep the carcass OUT of the bag! Finally I won the battle & the dog won a "time out" in his fenced area.
Now I start to toss the bag in the back of my car until the smell hits me again & I say "In my CAR!? NO way!" Now what?
In the end, I hold the bag out the open drivers window & drive slowly down the dirt road beyond the property where I pitched it down a ravine about a mile away!
The dog had some fun, & Mr. G did not return!
Flora, how terrible you had to deal with that monster. it has completely taken over roadsides in NH. Honestly, that's the one invasive that petrifies me and I hope to never see it in my yard/woods.
I was at an invasive talk last year and he mentioned that each "knuckle" along the stem can create a new plant if anyone tries to cut it back, dig it out, etc. The smallest pieces can root. It is very beautiful but a dastardly little bugger.
Lisa, I have found Callicarpa grows pretty quickly in the shade. If you have heavy shade, I'm not sure you'll get as many flowers/berries, but if it likes where it is you'll get seedlings too. I've also found my Kerria japonica spreads pretty readily in fairly deep shade and it does bloom nicely. It sure looks like you'll have a lot of mature tree roots to deal with, so that could be problematic.
The 3 foot is a problem for a classic perennial bed. The latter, whether it's surrounded by grass or along a side of a garden, needs to be deep enough to get in enough plants for colour throughout the growing season.
Related, is having taller plants towards the centre, or back.
If a bed is too small, or too narrow, to accomodate enough plants, I use a combination of perennials and annuals.
I'm like Wieslaw59, I fill a bed (certainly over-plant a bed for three years down the road) and move or dispose of plants subsequently.
I too like the 'overstuffed' look and ususally ignore spacing rules EXCEPT for perennials that approach shrub size when established and need proper spacing to achieve full effect. With those I am careful to consider adult size. Perennials for me that fall in that category are: Baptisia, polymorpha persicaria, euporbia palustris, lespedeza and big grasses.
Looking Glass is a mutation from Jack Frost alright, but the difference is not minute. Just google Jack Frost pictures and then Looking Glass pictures. It is impossible to confuse the one with the other(except where the pictures are downright wrong- happens a lot, people really do not know what they have)
All mine do beautifully and self-seed shamelessly throughout the gardens.
Why are they so expensive? Because growing plants is an expensive proposition.
The first variegated Brunnera I ever bought (12 years ago at $32.00) is still alive. That works out to less than $3.00 per year. I have bought many more since then, and the average price for a new, variegated brunnera is now about $15.00.
I will submit than anytime you go out to lunch at a restaurant, or treat yourself to a movie and popcorn, you have spent more than you would have for a new, fancy, well-grown brunnera.
Like Brunnera an use it extensively.
We have clay soil, upgraded with organic matter, and water as needed.
I stopped using the species Brunnera macrophylla because it seeds around way too much. Found ' 'Langtrees' does seed a bit, but not much.
Have used (and divided) Jack Frost a lot. Great plant.
Have had 'King's Ransom' and 'Dawson's White' for several years. No problems.
I read that you can't divide 'Dawson's White' (nice plant) and have it grow true.
Find Brunnera does well shaded by the tall perennials in summer.
Clear out spent plant material in fall, so light gets down to the low spring plants.
I own a nursery in Canada which specializes in perennials. I often compare our prices to that of Canadian mail order companies and our prices are always much less expensive on the same items. The difference? No shipping costs, no soiless mix as a growing medium and much, much larger plants, with extensive, healthy root systems ready to take off in the garden.
Even our small, starter first-year plants are much larger and much less expensive than anything I have ever bought online.
I continue to wonder how I can grow a plant and sell it for a profit at a much, much lower price than anything on offer from mail order companies. The difference, I believe, is the glossy catalogue. Instead of a pretty catalogue with pictures of what to expect when the plant matures, we offer instead mature gardens- about 20 of them- for customers to walk and browse.
We also offer a much more extensive variety.
And in general, when I buy plants, I still like to use my eye. We make several purchases each year from various wholesale nurseries and the quality is always higher when I can afford the time to shop myself for the nursery.
I am a strong advocate for supporting local nurseries. And I wonder why, if you want particular hard-to-find plants that you don't work with a local nursery? They can't stock what you want if you are not a customer and do not tell them what you are interested in.
I don't intend any of this as an advertisement for our nursery. We do not do mail order.
Ninamarie, so glad to see you encourage people to work with their locally owned (not big box) nurseries. I have rarely been turned away by the owner or manager of a good nursery regarding special orders of a particular plants, gadget, or the only brand of potting mix that I will use.
I think you're right - thanks so much. Calling it "the blue flower that grew by Mom's air conditioner" just didn't have the right ring. If anyone is in central FL and would like cuttings, it's available. Mine is on the SE side of the house in mostly sand, but grows extremely well.
This has been a really good year for Salvia guaranitica (it helped that the winter was mild enough to give overwintered plants a head start). My newly established varieties of Caryopteris (including a chartreuse-leafed one - "Jason", I think) have also performed well.