13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I was thinking of heuchera too :) I can't make the bed any bigger than it is, but I can go with smaller heuchera like Obsidian or something. BTW, any heucheras, like obsidian, that are darker leafed can take more sun than the lighter colored ones like Citronelle.

This are dark leaf Heucheras excellent performers and grow on full sun for me: 'Midnight Rose', 'Black Out', 'Stormy Seas'. Everyone says that 'Palace Purple' is bulletproof, but it is too plain to my taste...

Orange 'Caramel' is also in full sun, but its leaves do get burned sometimes. Not a real problem though - it is easy just pulling those burned leaves off.

Just to clarify, the ribbon grass is in an old clay chimney tile set set slightly above grade so its foliage can mingle with other plants, but it doesn't escape.

Heliopsis: blooms last a long time.

Betty

Woo hoo, so glad to hear that it won't revolt and die the instant it comes into contact with clay. :)

Incidentally, how would one improve drainage in a bed of clay soil? It's not a raised bed, it's on the ground though I do work compost into it pretty well.

There is sort of a short answer and a long answer to the "how to improve drainage in clay soil" question. The short answer, ie, the quick fix, is to work in as much sand and organic matter (peat, compost) as possible. The more complex, long term would include doing the above, but also fixing the bigger issues such as making raised beds, installing drains or even making a swale or raingarden at the low end to channel and collect water away.

Great ideas...thank you!

Just wanted to share that I bought a package of pest netting...very thin and almost invisible when you are standing away and looking at it. We guided the vines (talk about intertwined and messy) along and around this netting. Hoping that it will stay up for the season!

They also love Yews, even more than Arborvitae. I have 3 Taxus cuspidata (Japanese Yew) that are growing in tree form - they look lovely and interesting, although it takes decades for a Yew to grow into a tree since they grow very slowly at about 2-3 inches per year. And it's probably not a coincidence that most of foliage starts at just above deer-browsing height.

My neighbors have many Yews that are sheared into meatballs or meat loaves or other weird shapes. There have been hit hard by deer browsing during a couple winters, but they filled in again during the growing season.

Deer have eaten juniper in my garden during the winter.
The juniper was under the snow,but, they pawed away until the upper branches were exposed and feasted away. Severe pruning in spring brought them back, but,these are 5 foot spreading plants,not tall uprights.

Congrats on your seedlings! You must have good conditions for the seeds to germinate. Are they blooming this year or did they just sprout?

I have transplanted Foxgloves many times. They are tolerant of transplanting, even in the Spring. If your are small then they should transplant just fine. I would try to get a large rootball and disturb it as little as possible, and move them to a spot that's on the shady side. Then water well all summer.

My biggest concern about growing Foxglove is that it seems the crown can easily rot over the winter.

This is assorted D. purpurea in my front garden - Camelot Cream, Apricot Beauty, and some Excelsior hybrids. It was all started from seed last year. The ones in the foreground of this pic were transplanted there in April as fairly large clumps, to fill in some empty spots where the voles wiped out my perennials.

This is Digitalis 'Camelot Cream' -

I've got about 6-8 blooming stalks and many non-blooming leaf rosettes around them. I took a close look today (it was raining before) and realized I have 2 colors: the typical pink spotted, and a pale yellow/ivory, much like the one in the center of your second photo, terrene. I don't know whether it crossed or (If I did get these in a swap), there was more than one plant in the pot.
I had a bloom stalk last year, but only pink, and I only recall there being one. I usually keep records of what I plant, but drop the ball on that concept frequently.
Though it is one of the sunnier parts of my yard, it does get some shade, and it tends to be moist there.

Jennypat, I too have tried many times! That's what make me think it was from a swap, as I don't see myself buying a foxglove when I have never gotten more than a year or two out of them. But I'm always willing to try someone's seedling: I seem to have much better luck with a garden grown seeding than a full grown nursery perennial. I'm guessing they are just more adaptable when small.

True Nina, I was in the nursery during April, and they were unloading some Foxglove that was sending up blooming stalks. That was about 6 weeks before they would normally bloom in this zone. I asked an employee about that and she said that customers won't buy plants unless they're blooming.

It may be instant gratification, but it's a brief gratification to spend big money buying a short-lived bloomer like the biennial Foxglove! Sometimes you can get another year out of it if you deadhead diligently. And it's SO easy and cheap to start from seed.

Although I grow my plants hard, it is worth the reminder that plants grown in containers are a completely different proposition to plants raised in a living garden. There are some definate issues involved with the artifical pushing of containerised, greenhouse grown plants (and yes, added gibberellins and such) which I think is fair for Mosswitch to comment on. However, I have found plants to be supremely adaptable and well able to make the transition from total pampering to the frugal (some would say brutal) treatment at my hands where the only fertiliser is coming from soil and sunlightand compost, and water is a rare treat. It may even take a season of floppy lush growth before they harden off to become smaller, tougher specimens with little need for staking. It may be that they are like husbands - treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen, but mine go through a sort of trial of hardship and those which survive (a remarkably high percentage) generally continue to thrive. It is also true that watering is as much of a contentious issue as nutrients since it is far worse to offer regular watering unless you are able to continue with the same regime all season - those poor little roots, loitering near the surface in the hopes of a reviving shower compared to the deeply foraging roots which have had to work hard for a living....
My home garden, as opposed to my allotment, is almost totally pot bound - and here, I absolutely have to offer additional food and no matter how deep roots might delve, they are never going to get much further than the hard terracotta pot bottom (although there are always those which make a break for freedom through the drainage holes). Horses for courses then, with generalisations being useful if only to stimulate a wider debate.
FWIW, I would never resort to Miracle-Gro as I detest the Scott corporation and really do believe that it is the plant food equivalent of fast food - a truly junky Big Mac feast of cheap carbs and sugars.

So, do you know what kind of milkweed it is? Has it flowered for you?

Nope I have no idea what kind of milkweed, I just planted it last fall, and it has not flowered yet. I DO know it is not swamp milkweed, I have that growing wild all over the place.

I have Homestead Verbena and Nepeta growing in area that I was considering using preen. Afraid it may damage the verbena since it trails. May try something organic. Thanks for the posts!

In areas where I don't encourage self-seeding of valuable plants, I use mulch to both control weeds and feed the soil.

Preen does nothing for soil quality, obviously, has to keep being applied (the cost is not insignificant) and last I checked there was some question about its possible deleterious effect on amphibians (i.e. toads, which I encourage in the garden to keep down pests). As to whether there might be an unknown long-term health effect on humans from using a broad-spectrum herbicide, that's one more thing I don't have to think about by not using Preen.

Another Gardenweb member emailed me with the ID of this plant. It's Melilotus officinalis. I compared pictures of the plant on-line with my friend's plant and that is what it is.

Thanks for responding to my message, mindy. I'm pleased that we now know what's growing in my neighbor's yard.

Linda

Just wanted to add that this is listed as an invasive weed in areas as diverse as WI and the southeast. So your neighbor might want to rethink whether she wants this in her yard.

I have propagated Asclepias internata Ice Ballet(white) from seed. I found the plants were lacking vigour in my garden and the blooming was sparse, but then, I do not have a swamp. I do not have it anymore.

I don't have the white form. My experience was with the pink natural form, which does seem to be a good grower and bloomer. This is its third season and I was able to divide it into a good number of smaller plants this spring, all of which are rapidly growing (and already being munched by monarch caterpillars).

The leaves of my G. macchorizum has lots of small holes
for the first time ever!
A close inspection under the leaves revealed tiny green looper caterpillars. I used BT with summer hort oil esp. under the leaves.
I believe after blooming, the whole plant can be cut back for regrowth of fresh leaves.

Thanks, it must be the caterpillars.

Seeing the situation I'd really suggest making the bed much wider. There's too little room to grow anything much other than tiny edging plants if you don't want them to spill out onto the grass. Even the things you have listed as being in there already need more room unless you are happy to keep hacking them back to an artificially small size and unnatural shape. As a rule of thumb it's really best to make beds as generous as you can or they risk looking parsimonious and prissy. Your plants will have space to develop their true natures and you will not have them going through the fence to the neighbour's side. A wider bed will also be easier to keep the grass out of, which I see is already creeping in. Plus you would get a far greater sense of privacy from the neighbours. However, if you are wedded to the foot width, clematis would be perfectly happy on that fence. BTW anything behind the barbecue is at risk from the heat.

How about bluestar amsonia.