13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
My HF Young looks good (type 2) and my texensis hybrids like Gravetye Beauty and Princess Diana. I have several of the little bells that are type 3 pruning, both species like pitcheri, crispa, and viorna and the hybrids like Fascination and they all look fine
My integrifolias all look good: Durandii, alba, Arabella, etc.
Like wieslaw59, my viticellas are in good shape and include Betty Corning, Emila Plater, Ville de Lyon, Venosa Violacea, and Viola to name a few favorites.
Mrs Robert Brydon (non vining) is in great shape with healthy foliage and buds just beginning to open, but you need a lot of room for her.
My alpina and macropetalas look good, particularly 'Stolwijk Gold' which has gold to chartreuse foliage and very pretty seedheads when the springtime blue flowers have faded.
You might want to post this on the clematis forum as well.
Hi a2zmom,
Beautiful pictures. Thank you very much. I'm in Warren county not to far from you. The echinacea is very enticing, I currently have two varieties and if I can find one that can tolerate partial sun and not under perform then I may go with it. How much sun does your spot get? Thinking for yesterday I was throwing the idea around of using annuals there. Maybe some coleus and something else. I have a few coleus around and they are pretty awesome, colorful, tall enough, so who knows.
One last question, do you know of any nursery's that have a selection of clematis? Or any other nursery's in your area that has a nice selection? I'm also interested new places, and I don't have many around me that have any new or interesting things, besides Well Sweep of course.
All of those plants you see get partial sun. There is a large birch tree behind everything and the branches overhang the garden at that point. In fact, I find the echinacea has better color if it doesn't get full sun.
As far as clematis, since it's a spring bloomer, it's not really in stock in most nurseries at the moment.
Nurseries! I know lots. Do you visit Donaldson's? That's in Hackettstown and they often have some unusual stock. Plus they have "perennial fest" every year. Have you ever gone to that? Lots of good speakers. At the moment though, they are pretty cleaned out.
Near me is Morris County Farms which is a huge wholesale/retail operation. Love going there. Further afield, near where I work (I work in Florham Park), there is the Farm at Green Village and also Great Swamp Nursery. Also Plant Detectives, which is probably a bit closer for you, often has some interesting plants, although I find them very over priced.
Of course Well Sweep is in a class by itself.
I also do a lot of mail order, especially if I'm looking for a particular cultivar.
I have been buying wholesale bulbs in the UK for a number of years - it is the only way to go. For the same price as 7-10 retail bulbs, I expect 25 wholesale - and buying bulbs in quantity is also much better than a few scattered little plantings.
Also the tulip debate will rumble on - I have excellent results at naturalising tulips, and not just Darwins or species either. If you can provide well drained soil with a summer baking and a winter chilling, many tulips will be reliably perennial. Some species, such as Batalini and clusiana are also showy and delightful.
The biggest enemies of bulbs tend to be animal digging and munching and winter wet. Make this year a trial year before committing great wads of cash - in gardening, there is always next year.
Check for voles anyway. Although almost any catalog will tell you that Alliums are deer and vole proof, they are not. I lost a bed of over 100 Globemasters a few years back to voles during the winter. The bed was completely tunneled through, and there was even a nest down in there. So, apparently, at least some voles do develop a taste for alliums.
There was a thread here earlier this spring re.the very poor showing of alliums in many areas - mine grew but didn't bloom, except for a few volunteers that have escaped the 'patch'. Several other posters had the same experience. Probably the really bizarre weather this spring. I imagine mine will be back next year.
Jan
I posted a wanted on CL for some pots, and also scrounged a bunch in the planting season when people were throwing them out.
For the plants I sold, which were mainly divisions of things that were taking over the place (like lily of the valley) I just potted them and put them in a wheelbarrow at the street with a pay on your honor can and a sign. Since these weren't super exciting high interest plants, I just charged $2 for bigger divisions and $1 for smaller ones. Mainly I found I'm too far into the country for "free" listings on freecycle (people replying wanted me to work around their schedule because I'm "so far"-uh, no, I'm GIVING you plants, you work around me) and I didn't want to just toss them, so it worked pretty well. I reinvested everything I made into more plants (over $100). I have maybe 20 or so left that I'm going to clear out at .50 a pot.
Eventually I'll probably build a little stand from reclaimed wood (to save $$ and not eat into my profit margins) and sell the lesser plants on your honor. Then have a plant sale a few times a year for "higher end" stuff.
I got a bunch of things from a neighbor who put out a huge trailer of plants. From the looks of the tags, they had them at a sale and these were the left overs. $1 each or 8 for $5. I got more echinachea, a wild clematis, sedum, sea holly...I love inexpensive roadside plant sales! I don't bother with ones that get close to what I'd pay at a garden center. I have two that sell quarts for $3 a piece and include things like the newer rudbeckia near by.
Ah, marcincon, that makes a *tad* more sense, though still, IMO, stretching it a bit. I guess your problem was you said WHY you wanted the pots and what you were going to do with them, lol.
But still, it's not like you are turning around and selling the empty pots for huge profits. And I still would bet that most people would prefer to give you the pots, knowing full well what you would be doing with them, rather than throw them away. After all, most people who participate in freecycle just want things to be put to use, not thrown away.
Oh well, there's always craigslist, lol! Good luck!
Dee
Sunrise & Harvest Moon have done well for me here, I've had them both 4 or 5 years. In fact, Sunrise has reseeded quite a bit & over 90% have been like their parent. I've not been impressed with Pink Double Delight. Nice the first couple of years, but the flowers are not impressive the last couple of years & I may pull it out. I bought Hot Papaya on clearance 2 years ago, it almost didn't make it the first year, didn't bloom last year, but this year it is WOW. Hope it keeps it up. I bought Hot Papaya recently & it promptly died. If they have more, I'm going to try it again, it looked so amazing.
Looks similar to 'Axminster Streaked.'
Here is a link that might be useful: Axminster Streaked
I have some similar that came up from my tall balloon flowers, but I also have Axminster Streaked. The nice thing about Axminster is it is shorter, only gets about 15" tall. The bad part is I have a harder time getting the seeds to grow to maturity than regular balloon flowers.
Like most other perennials, the bloom period is seasonal, not all summer long. Deadhead, keep well watered and fertilize in late winter or early spring. Contrary to what you may have read, fertilizing IS recommended but avoid any high phosphorus blends (middle number). A well-draining, quite organic soil in full sun is ideal.
I don't have an Acanthus, though I have been wanting one since I saw it planted in a bed at the Science Center in Seattle a few years ago, lol. Fantastic looking plant.
If it were me, I would probably pay most attention to the foliage of the companion plants. Personally, I would pair the Acanthus with a plant that has strappy/grassy foliage as an opposite texture and/or a plant that has delicate or ferny foliage to act as a softening contrast to the bold, jagged foliage of the Acanthus.
A small Miscanthus ('Little Zebra' would add some nice looking gold variegation too!) for beside it and then perhaps a perennial geranium (like G. sanguineum 'Vision Violet', which has nice looking delicate foliage) in front.
But that is just what I might do ;-)
CMK
I say to each his own, we put up a 6' wooden fence and bought a Doberman after surprising an intruder at 3 a.m. one summer morning. The fence was for the Dobie but I must say I really liked the enclosed feeling almost like a walled garden if you let your imagination wander.
I also like the backdrop it gives for vines and such and, I can still talk to the neighbors over the fence after finding something to stand on :)
Our neighbors also use our fence for a backdrop for their plants as well. On one side I have the benefit of one of our neighbor's beautifully scented Honeysuckle cascading over on to our side of the fence, on the other side our other neighbor has the benefit of several clematis and other vines spilling over to her side. So it's a win, win, for the three of us.
Annette
Well the fence saga continues. I was up early on Saturday morning and decided to get a head start on watering the plants. This way I don't get their way and I avoid the hot sun. As I hooked up my soaker hoses I noticed several rocks from my neighbor's yard in my yard. I kindly put them back(no I did not throw them. As fate would have it, they were gone for the weekend. Monday evening, I had to do some handwatering. As I'm start to water, I noticed several glad bulbs in the middle of the yard. The wife was outside so I made sure she saw me go back up to the fence line and place the bulbs in the dirt. I'm sure there will be more over the next few days and I'll bury them then.
Later on when I was taking to my other neighbor I thought I saw something thrown in the yard. She had thrown over a small clump of dry dirt with a weed attached. Then I found purple clover that had been dug up and left in my garden. No I don't have any purple clover in my yard. I usually have white but none since the drought. I put them in the lawn bags and I start to get angry. I decided to stay outside since it was cool (90 degrees) and work off my anger What I heard next made me smile.
This whole time I thought the husband was building the fence with the help of a friend. As it turned out, they hired some guy who is charging them by the hour and taking his sweet time in getting work done. The wife was frustrated that not much had been done. So now she's trying to find someone else. I know I shouldn't take any pleasure in this knowledge but it did dissipate my anger.
Ken is correct, of course, about the timing. If you can wait until cooler autumn weather, it will aid the plant. But, this stuff is tough, hard to kill, so if you must do now, it will survive. I often pull mine out of planters in the fall, cut the tops, and let them sit dry and dark in the basement until about February, then start watering and give light. They have many white, fleshy water storage roots, and are designed for survival.
Denninmi, you've really made a statement.