13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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.
lolainthecola, I am not real familiar with your growing conditions all I can suggest is what I remember seeing when I was in your area on business trips.
You could get a lot of color going with foliage
I saw a plant called....Stromanthe sanguinea 'Tricolor'
Gingers flower and they are fragrant
crotons
oyster plant
Flowers that I remember seeing was
Hibiscus
roses
A definitive favourite in my garden ontnative!
The flowers are long lasting like other PHLOX but unlike other variegated PHLOX I find the flower colour of "Shockwave" does not clash with the foliage...and I think this foliage is outstanding...especially prior to flowering.
Here is a picture of my stand of two plants taken a week ago.
(There is another thread I had started a few weeks back extolling the virtues of this plant. Do a search.)
Nice picture, rouge21.
Have quite a few garden phlox, but just saw and bought 'Shockwave' last week.
Already planted.
Going to be interesting to see how these do; whether they like the locations and treatment.
As a perennial gardener, have not been a big fan of perennials with variegated leaves, but have now been converted.
Have had 'Norah Leigh' in our garden for about ten years. Strong, but not aggressive, latter maybe a feature of variegated leaf perennials.
Also just got 'Becky Towe'. Had it for at least five years, but it died.
Very happy to have just got a replacement.
Thanks for the input. 4 p.m. is the hottest time of the day here in the summer, so it's a blast of sun and heat. It's otherwise a pretty dark garden. I have a couple of sedums where the sun hits just a bit earlier and they are in bloom, altho they are definitely reaching forward towards the light.
This garden has the street on the right--woods on the other side of the street. Straight back, you might be able to see a very steep hill. This is my southern (non) exposure. To the left is woods again. There are two large trees behind the photographer on an otherwise open lawn (my northern exposure). So, all in all, it's pretty dark. This is an older picture, so maybe my troubles this year have to do more with drought than light.
The hydrangeas get a decent amount of light. The hakone grass in the back is pretty much in the dark all day---what a great plant--I should just put it everywhere, I guess!
Maybe they're not. I haven't gotten any e-mails or postcards. And I just checked their site and they have a grand total of 19 items on "special". Too bad if they don't....
Dee
I just called and asked. Apparently no sale this year, aside from their weekly specials. They did put a 15% off next fall purchase code on my account, although I don't know how freely those are given.