13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Biennials are underrated in my opinion. How can you resent a plant which blooms itself to death?
I don't mind the editing at all. There are always a couple showing up in better spots than I could think of, and it's so much less work pulling extras than it is prepping beds and planting new stuff!
I would say that common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, acts most like a "true" biennial, at least in my climate. Not always :-) Sometimes it will bloom its first year and sometimes it will come back after its second year. But the vast majority of the wilding plants in my area behave as a true biennial, producing only a rosette of foliage their first year and flowering, going to seed and dying in their second.
I think climate must play a significant role in how biennial or perennial some of these plants may actually be. In mild climates - like mine - many biennials are more perennial than not.
I forgot parsley!! I have never had parsley act as anything other than a biennial. It always flowers and goes to seed its second season. I just replaced my plants this spring :-)
I'd consider one of the hardy gingers, Asarum spp. Either the native, Asarum caudatum, or the showier Chinese ginger, Asarum splendens. Excellent for dappled to heavy shade and drought tolerant (although will spread faster and look a bit lusher with some watering).
What about some autumn and spring flowering, species cyclamen? Because there are a number of evergreens amongst your trees, it makes it more difficult. The cyclamen are happy under evergreen olive trees, all over Greece, so they are worth trying.
Or any of the Sarcococcas, they are all scented, have neat, shiny, evergreen leaves and are neat little shrubs. Mine is happy in dense, year round shade.
Gosh! I have just thought what it would be like to walk out of your house in midwinter and be blown away by the scent of flowers from massed Sarcococcas. Gorgeous.
Daisy
Thanks, Steppskie.
If I understand: Wouldn't talk about landscape in a small property such as we have. We just have as much of an area dedicated to mixed perennial beds as still retaining some lawn seems possible.
As stated, June is a slow month for perennial blooms here. Am quite happy to post pictures of sections of beds in order to illustrate the variety of perennials I depend on, though the large majority will not be in bloom.
Have lots of perennials to bloom in July/August and September, the perennials of those months tending to be larger and showier than current bloomers (except perhaps peonies, of which we currently have about twenty, spaced around).
Will certainly post larger sections of beds, or whole beds, as more colourful pictures become possible. My own favourite time is the time of our garden phlox.
I have also had problems with phlox not flowering. Plants growing well and looked healthy. After several years, I too shovel pruned both of them.
I finally tried them again the last couple of years..and these ones are growing and flowering well. They put on a wonderful show.
I thought I had a phlox curse or something, everyone else could grow this but me. I now have several colours blooming away. :)
Sierra
I am glad to see this discussion. My lupines get these aphids every year, and it makes me crazy. I spray with soapy water every day, they go "away" (or someplace else) and then they're right back. The lupine foliage, which can look very nice even after the blooms are spent, end up looking awful. I'm curious if cutting the foliage back severely to really get at the aphids and to deprive them of their under-leaf hiding places would damage the plant so that it wouldn't come back next year. Lots of plants don't mind being cut back after blooming, but I don't know about lupines.
I'll try to take a photo of the entire backyard later. The trees are all different heights. My backyard isn't that big and they make it look like a jungle. I would love to dig them out, but at a certain price it wouldn't be worth it for us, as we're hoping to move eventually. The estimate for trimming ( and removing a large pile of branches) was $8-900. I'm not sure how much it would add to it to grind the stumps. Then we would have to figure out what we would replace them with....
I agree with comments above that you should not stress the trees by planting beneath them or by trimming them. Topping is so detrimental to tree health that good arborists will not do it.
Hemlocks in the northeastern U.S. are already under stress by the introduced aphid-like hemlock woolly adelgid. Sadly, many groves are declining and dying due to this infestation.
The addition of mulch beneath the trees might add some definition to the space and reduce the "jungle like" feel of the space. As nice as it might be to look at, as heavily-used by children as your yard is, a lawn is probably not practical at this point ... been there, done that ;-) ... but you might be able to improve the lawn slightly with the right type of turfgrass for high-use areas.
You might want to add some perennials for dry shade or spring bulbs along the edge of the mulched area in the less-used areas. Installing small plants will disturb the hemlock roots less, and they will catch up surprisingly quickly. Epimedium is one of my favorites for dry shade; it blooms in the spring and the leaves are nearly winter-hardy in my zone 7 garden. Be careful, though, as there are clumping and running (spreading) varieties; the clumping varieties will stay pretty much where you put them, increasing gradually in size.
All of my boxes are 3 feet or less in width, and I can fit a lot. One is about or at 12 x 3 feet. For perennials that are easy to find, I use Veronica Sightseeing blue....daylilies....Asiatic lilies....balloon flowers....coreopsis.....Scabiosa butterfly blue....beardtongue/phlox...columbine...phlox. Each of these are on their third or longer year. Just be sure to leave some room for them to spread over the years and be prepared to divide some in years 3-5. You can fill in empty spots with annuals, such as cosmos and marigolds.
I do have trouble figuring my way around Houzz now. But I had not sent you a message yet, still waiting to see when I'd be near GR. I'm going to send you a test message now. If you receive it, you can send one back, and we'll know we've succeeded.
But wait til you feel better! There is no rush. I get migraines myself, and I know how disabling they can be.
Docmom, I have sent you some messages via Houzz messaging system. I assume you have not received them? I am going to try again. If you don’t get anything, please see if you have emails enabled. Thanks!
To see your messages while on Houzz (rather than / or in addition to email) go to the upper right corner. Click on "your Houzz". In the drop down menu, click "your Ideabooks". On a header on that page, you will see "Messages". Click on that and you will see any messages in your Inbox. There's a menu at left for Sent messages and Received messages. It took me a while to find this! ;)
I am often amazed at what tags don't say! "This plant needs coddling; it is susceptible to mildew; lax stems; flower color fades in summer sun; spreads faster than you can run; invasive in 48 of 50 states" .....This might make a funny thread....
There's a chance it could have reseeded. I have not seen anything in that bed that looked like it, though it's so jam-packed I might not see it right away.
I have something else popping up in there that looks like a monarda. I planted monarda there 2 years ago, but it never bloomed. I suspect that these seedlings are a weed. They don't look anything like the Lysimachia leaves, though. From what I can recall.