13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
well, the hardy geraniums are classic in front of roses. I have a rather lovely polemonium, Lambrooke Mauve which, being sterile, flowers throughout the season. Then there are smaller phlox such as P.carolina or even P.maculata and even asters may well do the trick.
Thank you so much those who replied! It is indeed Euphorbia/Spurge! i'm thrilled to know the name of my little spikey friend!
Here is a link that might be useful: My Website
thanks a lot, interesting, that it keeps growing without dormancy. I have watched a small border in my neighborhood, and those definitely go dormant.
Our summer is probably hot and dry enough.
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So I will give it a go and test some, rather between clumps then in the middle of them. And seedlings would be great, lets see whether some will pop up.
Have a nice Sunday, bye,
Lin
Hi daysquid. You are not far from me and we also have clay and poor drainage in lots of places. Elsewhere where drainage is good, it gets hard and dry. Terrible.
Anyway, I just put in some Nepeta which is a beautiful blue (Walker's Low) and so far so good. Anemones are not fussy either and you can get pretty pinks. I have Honorine Joubert which is white and they are just showing buds now. Very pretty in bloom.
Aquilegia and Iris are good choices. Also, ajuga has wonderful blue flowers in spring and is a good ground cover, too. Echinacea attracts goldfinches and it is fun to watch them perch on the seed heads. Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) is pretty, too. I love phlox but you may get powdery mildew, so if that bothers you or if it is a spot that everyone will see up close, that might not be the best. Perfect from a distance though.
If you want a large shrub or small tree, try Vitex Agnus (Chaste Tree). It has beautiful blue flowers. I have two and just started to limb them up to more of a tree form this year. Of course, crape myrtles come in just about any shade of pink or purple you could want.
I do use annuals for color and one of my favorite blues is Plumbago. So pretty in the ground or in containers. For a spot that is easy to water (I have the best luck near the bird baths where I dump and change water daily), Astilbe comes in many pink shades and is beautiful with hosta which can be your chartreuse color. Hosta will do fine with sun as long as you water, so putting the astilbe, hosta and plumbago together would be spectacular, IMHO. Limelight hydrangea also likes some sun and would give you the green which then fades to a pinkish shade.
Clematis has all those colors, so if you have a support for them to climb, those would be great. I don't have so much luck with them, but I know many here have spectacular examples. Camellias are evergreen and come in pinks and whites, too.
Not sure if you are looking for big plants or small, but maybe this will give you a start. Others will chime in with even better ideas, I am sure!
Just visit your local nursery and see what appeals to you. This time of year, I also buy some pansies which overwinter wonderfully and start me out with purples and blues in the spring (until they get leggy and have to come out). I have even had blooms poking through snow. Fun.
We're neighbors and I have same issues. If I can find a spot to dig in, I'm a happy girl. Clay soil is the worst.
Knock out roses are my best performers. I bought little scraggly bushes a year or so ago. Put them in the ground. Never fertilize and never water. They are spectacular. They start blooming late May and never quit until early November. Hydrangeas do ok. I planted six this year and they have done well. I have a Merrit that is still blooming. Just about anywhere you're lucky enough to dig will be a good spot. Amend the planting hole with shredded leaves and shredded or torn newspaper. Backfill with a mixture of backfill soil and potting mix.This has worked well for me. Hopefully something here will work for you as well.
Mine isn't very stylish but it works really well when I get into some serious potting up or perennial dividing, I need lots of room :). It was built to a height comfortable for me either standing or sitting on a stool. It's made from half a sheet of plywood (cut lengthwise) and it's hinged to 3 posts in my lathhouse, it hangs down out of the way when not in use and when I want to use it it's lifted up and held by chains at each end. I took a picture of one end in it's up position. This could be hinged to a wall inside or outside of a potting shed. Annette
If it's aster's yellow.. then yes you will have to destroy it.. roots and all. Just make sure it's not just mite damage with is very prevalent this year as well. Below is a site where you can compare the two issues.
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/flowers/hgic1182.html
it is the act of gardening I enjoy
This is so me. And that is why it is so hard to leave well enough alone (assuming one has no more 'gardenable' space remaining) as I just love all that is associated with gardening e.g. thinking where to put a new plant which leads to where to move that existing plant and then the actual steps of digging and planting...it is an obsession isnt it?
I had hoped to take more pictures this year, but that didn't work out as planned.
Spring was so dry here there was little done in the way of moving and dividing, so I'm hoping to get alot of that done this fall. I'm also going to try and do more clumps and fewer of the collector's groups of one.
Also I've been cheating on soil prep.... I need to start adding compost and digging things over a little better when planting.
The first bloom flush begins in early to mid June and lasts about 1 month. It rests maybe 3 o 4 weeks and then sends out a few blooms here and there till a hard freeze. Those big poppy sized lemon yellow flowers make a show even if there is only 2 o 3 of them at a time. This is a perennial that I would not be without in my flower beds.
I am having a hard time believing that I and some of the posters above are talking about the same plant. I can honestly say that the number of volunteers that I have come upon from the Missouri Primrose has probably been less than a dozen in 14 years. My mounds of it have stayed at around 2 1/2 to 3 feet so they aren't spreading by runners. It dies back to the ground in winter.
Be aware that those flowers only last a day, opening in early evening and dieing off by evening the next day, to be replaced by new ones.
I deadhead by taking the flowering stem off at bottom of the seed pod that forms at the base of the stem where it attaches to it's trailing branch. I don't get them all, as I garden from a handicapped scooter, and can't reach those at the back of the mounds.
dcrosby, my recommendation was that you should add compost to the planting hole for aeration and soil conditioning, but for the particular plants you mention, there really isn't a pressing need for fertilizer. Gaillardia really needs drainage more than anything. Rudbeckia is pretty much bulletproof in my experience.
That said, for plants that could benefit from it, I mix some slow-release granular fertilizer (Osmocote) mixed with the soil at planting time. This won't hurt anything, but some plants actually resent rich soil so you have to amend the soil based on what particular plant you are planting.
I would do this whether planting in Fall (so the plant can get established before frost) or Spring.