13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
since you seem to be jumping in .. head first.. you ought to start learning some of the latin names ... or at a minimum.. be more specific with the common names..
what kind of hyacinths are you referring to??? the tiny grape h. . or the large ice cream cone ones ...
regardless ... spring flowering bulbs ... IMHO.. bloom when you should not be walking in your winter sodden garden ... compaction .. so to enjoy them.. in my garden.. they are planted in the front of the bed ... ESPECIALLY the fragrant ones.. so i can stoop and get a whiff to get the stench of a closed up winter house out of my head ... w/o walking thru the garden
after they are spent.. i remove the flower.. to avoid seed.. because i want the bulbs to multiply ... and annuals are inter-planted for later in summer ...
this way.. i keep the bulb area ... basically free for the spring show.. but have an annual show later..
when i mixed perennials with bulbs.. the bulbs tend to start fading .. over the years.. as aggressive perennials ... kinda take over ..
that plus.. repeatedly digging them up.. because they do not have their own space ... [my bad.. but who can remember in fall transplanting time.. where all those darn bulbs are]
so you might want to think out your mix and match idea ...
but i am glad you are thinking about the progression of flowering thru the summer ...
ken
ps: the dying leaves of bulbs.. makes me happy.. because i know they are storing energy.. to grow roots in fall. and bloom the following year ... and with that thought primary.. i dont 'hide' them as you suggest .. it is .. part of the show.. one might say ...
try to get out of the box.. where if it is not 'blooming'.. the show is over ... anyone who questions the flagging yellow leaves.. needs your pity.. and a lesson.. or a shovel upside the head.. if they suggest that your garden isnt neat enough ... and at that point.. get better garden friends.. lol
Hi & welcome to Gardenweb.
I've never seen a flower like that! Wow that's cool!
They're pretty reliable here, but the coldest part of winter is usually pretty dry. Too much moisture could be a problem some winters, from what little I know about WA, maybe just a wrong stereotype.
If you'd like to do so, you can find your zone here by typing your ZIP code in the box, hit enter. If you include it in your profile info, it will show up next to your name when you post on these forums. You can add it to WA, like mine says 8b AL. Plants are given a zone rating based on temperatures they can withstand and knowing what zone you are in allows people to give you more specific and accurate advice.
in my garden.. wherein the goal is ANYTHING BUT GREEN ...
i consider the miner work.. to be variegation .. lol ...
if you keep denuding it of its leaves.. the plant will go into decline.. as you are removing its food making machines.. its leaves ...
ignore it.. and convince yourself.. its an added show of mother nature ...
they are short lived perennials.. i think of them as biennial at best ... do let it go to seed so that you will generate babes for the coming years
ken
I read somewhere that it spreads 1 foot a year in all directions if it's in a place it likes. Mine were a bit slow to establish, but should have a good show this year. I think they look like cotton candy and stay in bloom for awhile during our dry summer weather.
Corrine
I have Queen of the prairie for several years and mine has never spread. I thought last year heatwave might have done it in but it looks healthy and is blooming. Its not even close to what terrene looks like. I don't think it gets that tall in my area.
I encountered this problem in 2009. My 'Purple Haze' didn't take too well to being cut back like my other agastache varieties. I switched to 'Black Adder'.
Cameron
Here is a link that might be useful: 'Purple Haze' grew too tall in cottage garden
It is hard to disagree that potted plants are much better than bare root.
Ironically, some of my best plants were pitiful bare root babies when I bought them. Some examples:
1. Clematis Marmori. I bought it at Walmart in about 2003 when I had no clue about growing Clematis. It was a 2" bunch of roots with a single white potato-like eye. I potted it. It was barely growing for 3 years and became a NOID for me. Two years ago, when I already had more than 60 Clematis in my garden, I started looking for Marmori online. I did not have any luck. Last year, a NOID Clematis planted next to the fence at the most non-prominent spot started blooming. I realized it is a Marmori bought almost 8 years ago! This year, it blooms its head off with lovely and very distinctive flowers. A winner! Will move it the well deserved front row this fall :)
2. Tree Peonies bought from Van Bourgondien. 1 year old grafted sticks, 50% were dead upon arrival (returned to the seller after some fight). The price was about $8 per stick. Here are those that survived:
3. Clematis 'Viennetta'. Bought from Park's online sale at 50% off. They are not hardy in my zone. I killed 2 Viennettas and 1 Florida sieboldii at the time I bought this bare root one, so I did not hope for anything. I did not pot it up, I planted it directly in the garden - close to the house wall. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when it showed up the next spring after planting???
These are my little miracles. If you see a rare plant for a really low price, give it a try. Even if it is a bare root.
I bought a bag of bare root peonies from Walmart several years ago - could see through the plastic they had the "hey, I'm alive" pink buds. Though characteristicly and expectedly mislabeled, they're actually quite nice - all bloomed the first season, and every season since.
We each have our own way of acquiring plants. Not every good plant is an expensive mail order plant. And yes, I know that is the only way to get certain things when the unusual, the rare, or the exotic, etc. aren't readily found even at the best nurseries available to you.
Yeah, what Ken says. I have a border full of English Ivy and Myrtle and perennials like peony, hardy geranium, columbine and even blood root continue to come up every year and do their thing. BUT - I do clip (most of the time rip) a neat little circle around them in early Spring when I see new growth down in the jungle. If you don't or can't be vigilant then you may not want to bother trying to plant them.
B. macrophylla has self-seeded around my front beds to the point that I now have about a dozen plants in addition to the one I started with ten years ago. Not exactly thuggish behavior, considering also that it's my longest-flowering perennial in a great shade of blue and requires little care or attention.
I'd better go check on my hellebores - those thugs might have self-seeded again. ;)
Finally, r.glauca has matured into a lovely specimen. Unfortunately, the winter moth larvae mature just as it leafs and they chew up the leaves badly.
Apparently, I did not hit the clem/rose balance. The clem's been climbing but has never bloomed. Careless gardener that I am, I don't remember which one I planted. If I could get just one bloom, I'd know!
Experimenting with a bit more fertilization of the plants, hoping to encourage the clem to bloom.
In the mean while, has anyone else experimented with success?
Marie
Tried the turning, watering, monitoring temp routine. No time for that and no energy! I just throw it in the bins and when I think it's done, it's done. Plain and simple. I don't screen, water, turn, or monitor. It's all good. It's all organic.
I have a lot of astilbes because I have a lot of shade. I have tried many times to grow them in a site with afternoon sun with no luck at all. The soil is deep and rich and moist. But they hate that afternoon sun no matter how moist the soil. And forget full sun, again with moist soil.
cheleinri wrote:
I think some things just need to be tried as every zone, climate, & even microclimate is different. I'm always amazed at how well some "sun" plants do in my dappled shade too.
I so agree.
I have very successful plants designated as requiring "full sun" that probably only see 4 hours of the stuff.
It can be such fun to experiment with a plant i.e. putting it in a location that might be less than what the tag states i.e. light aspect and or hardinesss zone.
Orienpet Lilies are wonderful. Personally, I hate this 'tree lily' term invented by Breck's and affiliated companies that do not use scientific names on their sites.
I remember a great story Chris Hallson (the owner of Hallson Garden) told me:
About the lily tree... I had a customer stop by asking for them. She said that one of the picture tags looked like one of them, but all we had were lilies and she wanted a tree. Said it was the latest breakthrough from Spring Hill. To me that is plain false and misleading advertising. Oh well...
He made my day then. the latest breakthrough from Spring Hill...
you mean a flowering conifer.. lol ...
lol do you think I could get big bucs on ebay. There is a fool born every second.
alina that is funny "the latest breakthrough from Spring Hill.."
This one does not have any fragrance the others I are almost ready to bloom are very fragrant. They do have very large stems and have the appearance of a tree after growing for about 4 years. That was one of the reasons I decided to bring them with me. I did not want to start over. The bulbs were huge.