13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
in another post.. you indicated severe soil cracking ... and that tells me.. you have a good deal of clay ...
if you dig a hole in clay ... and add stuff to make it anti-clay .. as the clay dries ... it will actually wick water from your prime media ... and in the long run.. you end up losing ...
in the alternative.. the clay will create a cauldron that holds water ... and then all the water retaining media holds too much water ...
so it gets real tricky.. amending ONLY a planting hole ...
and the easiest solution is to do a whole bed..
and the other solution is to raise that bed above grade somewhat ... work above the problem ...
its all about the dichotomy between drainage.. and water holding capacity ...
actually .. its all theory.. and what you do .. is plant one .. and find out if you can make it live..
if it fails.. move on.. there are too many other plants that you can plant..
and never forget.. it is said.. you are not a real gardener.. or greenthumb .. UNTIL you have killed every plant in your yard 3 times ... its the experimenting that teaches you .... though i used to give up after two tries. i mean really.. whats the point after two.. lol .. i can bang my head on the garage for free.. lol ..
ken
A rather simple alternative to all of the above is to get an inexpensive battery-operated programmable water timer and hook it up to a drip irrigation system. By choosing the appropriate drip emitters and watering cycles, you can keep the soil as wet or dry as you want (Mother Nature not withstanding).
Have you tried calamint (Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta)? It is a great plant, with a cloud of white foliage all summer (I think it's actually called White Cloud, like the toilet paper, hehe). The one I have is Blue Cloud but the blue is so pale it may as well be white. I love how easy it is too, and how tidy it looks at the front of a bed.
For the past decade, I've been making observations (just mentally) regarding frost and sun exposure. One is that a lot of leaves are not damaged by frost when other leaves are because they thawed before the the sun hit them. The same type plant that is in shade until 10 am might be unscathed while its' twin in a spot that sees the sunrise (and has no discernible difference regarding micro-climate features) is damaged. I'm certainly no scientist but I suspect the more gradual thaw can make a difference, and UNscientific observation has offered support of this. Anyone else notice this happening or NOT happening?
You should see foliage rather quickly. 'Rozanne' is a prolific bloomer for me with part sun/full sun half/half during the day with moist soil. Cutting back produces a nice, neat mound of beautiful foliage. It may take a few weeks for blooms to appear again. I'm basing my experience on my own 'Rozanne' that gets part sun all day and is in moist, well-draining soil.
Something that I do in the cottage garden is use container plants (small to medium pots) in the bed where I need a little distraction while perennials emerge. Then, when the perennials are looking good, I move the container to another spot. This prevents disturbing the soil in a tightly packed cottage garden. Right now, I have a container hosta in the bed with the 'Rozanne' to provide interest while waiting for the phlox 'David' to bloom.
In my deer resistant meadow garden, I grow spring annals that I pull up by the roots to remove when the summer perennials are going strong. Different setting with lots of space.
Cameron
My wild bergamot is growing very densely. Ideally, how far apart should the plants be?
==>>> two or three miles .... have you considered alabama??? .. fl.. or tenn???
BTW .. i used to love the stuff ... i was just in a weird mood that first post ...
grab a gob ... roots and all ... tie a string about 3 inches above the roots ... tightly.. then cut off the roots ... hang upside down in the garage or shed.. when dry.. make tea ... PRESUMING YOU ARE 100% on the ID ... and have researched toxicity ...
ken
They have quite a few left at good prices.
Here is a link that might be useful: Bluestone Perennials
it indicates that you have a non-sand soil ...
and it indicates drought at depth ..
and it indicates you lack proper mulch ....
increase watering .... increase mulch ...
and insure that it is deep thorough watering.. not some pistol grip spraying of the surface ...
ken
The soil here is more clay than sand and alkaline. It hasn't rain in a while. The area is in full sun and there is no mulch.
I have since install a soaker hose and ran it for half an hour to wet the area. I had plan to cover it with compost and then mulch, but ran out of time. It's suppose to rain today, so I suppose I can wait until after the rain to do that.
Paul
Sandy, happy to help. I too have almost an acre of perennials of which many need moist soil. They do fine in a normal summer season when thunderstorms bring soaking rain every few days. Last summer there were no thunderstorms--not a cloud in the sky anywhere in sight. It got pretty weird after three months but then got scary when September was just as parched as June, July & August. I dragged the hose from one end of the garden to the other filling jugs for 2 1/2 hours every evening after work. I have a well so I had to stop and let the pump rest every now and then. Last winter brought eight feet of snow and we've had so much rain I'm finding I have time on my hands this year with no watering to do!!!
Thanks so much for the tips. I have the same problem. Bought some beautiful astilbe, went out of town and forgot to tell someone to water them. They are now crispy. I will hope they will come back sometime, but my big question is - should I trim any of the plant? The large center stem that held the flowering part? Any of the leaves? I ask this because I had 2 totally dried out stephanandra that I put back in the earth "for fun" last year after they looked totally dead, and they are now flourishing - go figure!
Interesting. I have what I acquired as Walkers Low, which I see is listed everywhere as sterile. But though it looks and acts like every Walkers Low I have seen (obviously it is a common plant), mine seeds every year. So obviously either this is not Walkers Low or else mine has reverted (which still means it is not Walkers Low). In any case, I am delighted, because I have tons for my own garden, where it is a terrific groundcover, lots to give away (it transplants easily) and it is very easy to identify in the Spring and weeds very easily.
Another two plants that seed for me that I did not expect are Jack Frost Brunnera and Hamln Pennisetum grass.
Anyway, on the question, with mine I wait until the plant starts looking a bit ratty...spent flowers, sprawling habit, and so on. Actually, the plant itself generally tells me it is ready because as it sprawls one can seen the fresh new growth in the centre. Then I grab handfuls of the loose old growth and cut it all back. This leaves a small clump that quickly fills in. One can do the same thing with lots of different perennials (e.g., Pulmonaria (lungwort), Alchemilla (Lady's Mantle), Penstemon, some hardy geraniums, etc.).
I admit I am not an coneflower aficionado as I have only 5 different ones in my gardens but as mentioned just above I do like "Wild Berry". So many more stems and thus flowers on these compact plants; much more than the tall gangly coneflowers found so often in nurseries the last few years.
I know they are not being hateful, but boy they are annoying. I have actually attempted to deter them. The pot is layer with pepper flakes, the plants are sprayed with ropel. There are bird seeds in other area of the yard in the form of a bird feeder. The feeder has a baffle, but squirrels do hang around underneath to get spill overs. There's water nearby so they don't really need to eat the lily for water.
Next year, I'll put up some chicken wire.
Paul
Ropel did not work for me. The day after I sprayed the lilies, they were chewed to the ground. What DOES work for keeping squirrels from digging in pots is lava rock. Since I started using this, they walk on top of the pots, but have not dug or chewed a single plant. (I don't grow lilies in pots however) Because squirrels always have their noses to the ground, a layer of lava rock seems to be too scratchy for them.
My neighbor was having the same problem with them digging up her window boxes and since she started using the lava rock - problem solved.
Kevin
move one or two ... and if in a week they make it.. move the others ...
water well the day before... or even better .. do it in rain ...
and take a big gob of soil with them.. digging new hole first.. and water well.. and at that size ... they may never know they were moved ...
and by gob.. at this size.. i mean a teacup full ... this is a hand trowel job.. not a shovel job ...
ken
Thanks, I thought that would be the answer, but it didn't hurt to ask first. It's been raining for 4 days, and tonight there is a freeze warning! I might wait til tomorrow.