13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Third.

Forth though some rudbeckias have similar foliage as well.

It's a new bed with good soil and compost. It's raised but gets watered from sprinklers 3 times a week. I have another plant nearby that gets more sun and less water and is only half as big but blooming well

Very nice!

Yup. I bought it. I planted it. I watched it die. It seemed like very fundamental hardiness issues, though it did take a couple of years. Just after the first winter, it never seemed to make it back to where it started out.

Thanks very much Mindy. I love such a strong recommendation.

I saw it at my favorite garden center and it looks similar to black eye susans but is large flowers..I have the double sun-gold rudbeckia..that I rec'd the seeds in the Wintersowing swap one year and it has double layers of petals on top of each other and large brown eye..It has done so well and I would love to find some more like it. The Tiger's eye were smaller than the one I have. I definately will be saving the seeds from it. When it first started putting out buds, Bambi had a midnight snack and I thought I'd be doomed for flowers but it rebounded and it has lots of flowers and it has been a favorite perennial this year with the exception of my daylilies that I just planted Sept. 2011 that I rec'd at plant swap.

Rudbeckia's will last a long time, and can tolerate drought conditions..easy to grow.

Tiger Eye is definitely an annual in zone 6. It is also an F1 hybrids, so seed collected from them will not be true. It is a PHENOMENAL Rudbeckia hirta

miclino: They bloom for a long period without deadheading so it isn't essential, but deadheading can tidy them up, improve the rebloom somewhat, and produce larger lateral flowerheads. The seedheads are often food sources for birds during winter, so I leave some for them but not too many because Echinacea reseed prolifically.

Dead flowers are just ugly, why leave any? (Unless you are after seeds, of course.)

Planted some first year plants and flowering now. Too early to tell though

tiny and some blooms. Not the greatest picture but this was from a tiny 3 inch pot sent to me in spring.

By miclino at 2012-07-08

I am a sucker for the purple (or blue to some)/yellow-orange combo as well, so platycodon grandiflorus (balloon flower) makes a nice combo. I also like the combo of bee balm with heliopsis. Caryopteris, Sea Holly (eryngium), Joe Pye Weed(eupatorium maculatum), and Jupiter's Beard (centranthus ruber) would all look nice with 'Summer Sun.'

There are dwarf cultivars of most of the companion plants mentioned above so you can easily find something that will work in front of 'Summer Sun.' Good luck!

I have summer sun with blue salvia on one side and orange lilies and red orange daylilies on the other side. In front is silver lambs ears which I think looks nice together as well.

Its too funny, I thought the same thing last nite that it got down right chilly. Luckily we got about 1/2" rain last nite so it was pretty easy to pull weeds today. It actually felt like a perfect july day! and I was a happy gardener :-)

Jodi

The cool front is supposed to be on its way to me and it can't get here soon enough- I need rain like I have NEVER needed it before.
I just hope it doesn't bring the heavy winds with it.
I have four giant oaks down already that it has been too hot to deal with.

I actually have planted several plants in this heat. Some I've grown from seed and others I bought on sale. I still have quite a few to plant. The key is to keep them watered which I do every other day. The ones in the pot get watered everyday. Some will make it others won't, but for what I paid I'm okay with that. Next week its suppose to be in the low 90s so I'll probably start planting again.

Carl,
Its Kansas bedrock for me, nothing like seeing fossils embedded in rock among the garden plants.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'll look for a couple of those black cement âÂÂwateringâ pans. I do have foil pans from the food service store, the annuals that dry out too much are in those. But something stronger would be great. I use a litter box the cat rejected (who knows why :) ) for mixing soil. But the cement pans sound better.

Buying too much, and then running out of the right weather to get them in, is just âÂÂwhat I doâÂÂ. That, and the temptation of passing by an out of state nursery that has things I couldn't hope to get here. At least this year, I didn't go to a plant swap! Of course, every time I see something I have been wanting, and it's marked down, I cave in.

The form is actually attractive, it just grew so much this year it is covering other plants, and the raised walkway I use to walk inside my terraced bed.

i know nothing about it..

but if you dont start pruning it back.. you arent going to have any bloom in october..

and then the name would just be stupid

and stupidity.. is usually not a good thing in the garden.. lol..

as usual.. if you have more than one.. experiment

havent seen you since early spring.. been up to anything interesting.. jewelrywise???

ken

I've never tried planting more than one layer of tulips, Mindy. I also wonder how they would do if they were put shoulder to shoulder in two layers. I have a feeling that not all would make it to the surface. Maybe if you're set on two layers you could plant fewer bulbs in each layer?

I haven't had great luck with the tulips I've used coming back and blooming the following year, but I've wondered about storing them out of the ground for the summer - I know that some public gardens and estates dig their tulips after bloom, dry and store over the summer and then replant in fall. One day I'll research that more and try it. My daffodils and grape hyacinths reliably return, of course.

I will try to post a couple of pictures. Wish me luck- I haven't tried this in a few years. I'll also try to post a link to an article from fine gardening on layering bulbs. There were lots of results when I googled "layering bulbs in pots".

Tulip 'Apricot Impression' and muscari - just starting to really bloom.

Red tulips (Greigii?), grape hyacinths and lamium

Tulips and daffodils

Tulips, anemone, heuchera, creeping phlox and alyssum. I forgot about how lovely the anemone was in a pot! Have to do this again. It came back strong the next spring after being planted in the ground.

Adona

Sorry if the photo size is too large. I'll have to figure out how to resize for next time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Gardening article

Here is another bulb-layering article. It is written by Sarah Raven, a gardener I always find original and inspiring. While the description of how deep and far apart to plant the bulbs is sound, this is written for gardeners in England, so the watering advice and instructions on how to insulate the pots may not be something to follow.

But, oh, don't those bulb combinations sound fantastic?!?

Adona

Here is a link that might be useful: bulb lasagna

I think it's one of the plants I consider a must have.

These two were at least five years old before they started suckering. It was also after I started shearing them off halfway to encourage fuller more upright growth and flowers....

I have a dwarf 'Little Spire' and it IS smaller and has not suckered....yet....

No seedlings just suckers.

Yeah, like all those photos of Purple Prince orienpet lily, showing a deep saturated purple. Hah! Try a washed out wimpy lavender. Should be called, "Effete Heir," not Purple Prince. An reputable sellers are showing these photos, too.

Maybe it's time to bring back the old-fashioned printed catalog? To me at least, it's always very obvious if a photo has been enhanced in any way when you see it on paper. There are some really terrible catalogs out there, but also some marvelous ones where I trust the photos I'm seeing.

'The Lily Source' catalog comes to mind as one of the better ones. The lilies I ordered from them did actually look like the photos printed in the catalog.

Kevin