13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Yes! The annual ones are beautiful, I always try to start them from seed every year. But this perennial/subshrub version is great - I really love this Red Rum that I have. There's also Barnsley, which is white with a red eye. I never had any luck with Barnsley, I'm not sure how long-lived they are as perennial/subshrubs. But I have had my red rums for two years now, and they sure are gorgeous!
Several species of Lavatera and a couple of hybrids are referred to as "tree mallows" or shrubby perennials. Most commonly sold forms are selections of L. thuringiaca or the hybrid xclementii. In mild zones, these are very nearly evergreen and can bloom almost year round. However, unless summers are hot and long, the stems do not fully ripen and the plant is structurally weak, necessitating the annual heavy pruning. And yes, it will grow back to full size each season.
mimulus aurianticus and several perennial nemesias survived....for me, though, the story was what failed to come through this very strange and challenging winter - months and months of mildness followed by two weeks of absolutely vicious freezing weather - all sorts of UK records were broken and previously reliable plants (in my tiny walled courtyard) such as agapanthus, crinum and various salvias were toast.
I have the variegated porcelain vine, live in Ohio, and it is not invasive. That is, it does not seed down or spread along the ground. The only problem I encounter is that it likes to climb up the snowball bush it's planted near instead of the trellis. I just pull it out, but it grows back fast. Just have to be vigilant. Of course this means it is not planted in full sun, so perhaps that is why it doesn't go crazy. I've grown it there for the past seven or more years. Bugs always seem to eat the buds before any blooms (and subsequent berries)come on. I love the variegated leaves and the blue berries.
I've had a variegated porcelain vine on a trellis on the west wall of my house for at least 10 years. It is between two Ernest Markham Clematis vines (each on their own trellis). It gets no fertilizer and no supplemental water. The soil is heavy clay which I'm pretty sure was amended pretty heavily when the three vines were originally planted. The area is currently somewhat on the dry side, since it no longer gets constant over-sprinkling from my neighbor.
The variegated porcelain vine is much smaller than the two clems (which I periodically treat as type 3s and hard prune in the spring to a few inches when they overflow their space.) It is quite well behaved, needs little pruning, and has never produced a seedling plant. I have topped it a few times over the years to keep it from getting too tall. The foliage is attractive (a nice contrast to the solid green of the two clems) and the berries quite lovely, but not terribly profuse.
yes, I agree with gardengal - these tree mallows can become gigantic in one or 2 seasons. However, they flower on new wood so if you cut it back quite hard, it will put out some new growth and even a crop of late flowers. It gets very brittle and is inclined to prune itself by losing chunks of stem - which does get woody over time. The cultivar 'Barnsley' is a much more mannerly plant, acting much more like a true perennial. You might to take a look at L.maritima which is more tender than L.olbia but has delightful foliage and blooms.
I have only the wild Aquilegia Canadensis and they crop up everywhere - full sun, shade, cracks in the sidewalk. Columbine produce a high volume of seed, so don't cut off your spent blooms. You can let the plants scatter their seeds naturally or collect some and scatter them where you want them. Even these wild ones get a bit bronzy after blooming. You might even see leaf miner patterns on the leaves - rarely, if ever, a real problem.
I've never had a transplant survive - even here in the north - so I rely on self seeding. I think you might be experiencing the natural cycle of the columbine rather than anything else; unless the "modern" hybrids are considerably different.
Burgundy foliage usually indicates a lack of phosphorus. However, I don't grow columbine, and tsuga says they do that after blooming. You might try giving them some fert with a higher middle number. Phosphorus helps with root development, and if they're new, they'd probably benefit from that anyway.
Deanna
do you have that famous muck known to me as OH clay???
how did you plant it???
do you fert it??? high nitrogen is known to cause excessive vegetative growth at the cost of flowering
can we see a picture???
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: how to post pix
Hi nutmeg, see pics on link. Vitex/Chaste Tree was recently in bloom here and I snapped pics with my camera phone, sometimes a bit fuzzy, of vitex in bloom at different locations around town. It is used here in both residential and commercial landscaping, just as crêpe myrtle trees are used. In full bloom vitex is a favorite of mine to stop and admire.
It's a tree here, but a bush for you it seems as your cold winter will make it die back - die back at the very least!
Click "Next" to see all 5 pics
GW thread on vitex with happy ending, came back this yr for poster in z5 Ohio
Before I planted some from seed last year, I had heard about the problems they have with rust. Since last year's plants showed no sign of the disease, I thought I was home free. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it was the terribly rainy, humid weather, we've been having. I will keep on spraying, but am not adverse to cutting the monster down. I don't know what I'll do about the soil. I am not moving it, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see!! It's such an ugly disease!!
my first thought was that you did not start the season by pruning them to one or two buds very close to the ground ...
in spring.. once buds start swelling.. so you know which are alive ... i would have cut them back ...
then.. there seems to be a lot of bare stalks.. and i am wondering if you missed some bug a month or so back ...
and since they need to be cutback multiple times during the year.. you might want to go whack them down to about 2 inches.. especially since you have so many ...
if it were me.. i would take an end one.. today.. and just cut it back.. and give it a week to see what happens..
if it rebuds vigorously.. in the next week or two.. i would finish the job ...
if not.. then report back.. and i will dream up some other remedy.. lol ...
also.. was the lawn sprayed with herbicide???
and were there any weird frosts or freezes.. because the under-canopy of dead hanging leaves bothers me ... but if i prune it back.. they will be gone ...
ken
Ken...thanks for the info.
I've officially cut the scraggly mums down to about two inches. Hopefully they'll come back out. If I recall correctly, my weed man came and sprayed the lawn for weeds about 2 weeks ago (and maybe even put a pesticide on some of the shrubs?). That being said, these random mums have been looking sickly for over a month now. Other mums in this 'hedge of 30' look just fine. Not sure what is up with the sick ones. We'll see if my hack job will result in them coming back out. If not...I'll be asking for more advice.
We have the instant connectors on the hoses, nozzles, and all the sprinklers. No screwing. I love it!
Gee, IMO, uncoupling the hoses and then dragging them around would be even MORE work! I'd rather just put a little more oomph into pulling them all together.
But then again, I guess I cheat a bit. I pull the hoses out, drag them where I need them, and just leave them wherever I finish. Why put it back if I only have to drag it out again? Sometimes it does get pulled back and coiled by whoever is mowing the lawn, but then I just pull it out again and leave it. I do have to pull it from one area to the other, but all my gardening areas are far from the house, so I never drag the hose back to the house area; I just leave it near the last bed I was watering.
I just make sure to check that no connections are laying in the driveway. DH once drove over a connnection and ruined two hoses in one instant.
Dee