13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Calamagrostis/feather reed grass 'Karl Foerster' grows to 5 ft. tall but is upright and has a very small footprint. Mine is 5 years old and is just about 12 inches in diameter at the base. It's a very elegant grass, low/no maintenance. My plant is growing in full sun and gets no supplemental water. I've linked a photo below.

Pennisetum alopecuroides/dwarf fountain grass 'Hameln' is gorgeous but it has an arching, mounded habit that doesn't match your stated requirements. I do leave the plumes/seed heads on my grasses through the winter as food for the birds. Each spring I cut down the prior year's growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google image Calamagrostis Karl Foerster

funny you should mention lilies. Thats what I have there now. And thats my fall back option if I don't settle on something else.

Great pic of Karl Foerster grass! I might just get one for another spot as 5 ft is too tall for that particular one.

Thanks all. Not as much story to the girl named Jim as you might think. My husband just thought it suited her. I was angling for Daisy, which I thought suited her even better. :)

i suppose your husband was 'a boy names sue' ??? ... lol

just trying to add a little levity ... good luck on your memorial ...

ken

I have several Walker's Low catmint and 30" is about the size mine get to each year. They are several years old. I live in New Mexico and they recieve intense sun and heat all day with no problem. I do give them supplemental water. I am in zone 7b and they bloom all summer long, right up until it freezes, at which point they die down to the ground. They are one of the first things to pop up in the spring and have been blooming for about 2 weeks.

Thank you for all the responses! It is definitely Walkers low catmint and the tags on all 8 plants I bought say it will only get 10" tall. I'm going to go ahead and plant it and hope it gets to 30". If it doesn't I can always move it. Thanks again!

Nothing new about 'Hino Crimson'.....one of the most popular older varieties of evergreen azalea. And I'd not consider it particularly adept at self-cleaning. The spent flowerheads are easily caught in the dense foliage but also easy to remove with just a gentle shake or raking.

This is an excellent choice for a foundation planting as it is quite a compact shrub that tends to grow wider than tall with time. Height will be variable with age but you should expect 2-3 feet and 3-5' in width.

Thanks Ggal - The guy may have said it was "newer" than the older variety that gets all brown and ugly...possibly my mistake.

But excellent news about it being a good foundation planting. That size is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. Think I'll go get them in the ground NOW !!! Lol. Have been waiting since I have to move a plant to make room.

Thanks again!!

I started my Spring clean-up too. I cut last years stems off of the mums. We had a very mild winter here in SC Kansas. My mums were already growing back in late January. They are now 6-7 inches tall, so I pinched them last night. I will be transplanting some of them this Saturday to fill in some gaps and to give a few away before I pinch them again.
I also tilled a garden spot for the lanatanas I will be moving to make room for some Weigela 'Wine & Roses' shrubs and a Ninebark 'Summer Wine' shrub.
I haven't seen my Blue Angel hostas emerge yet, but I did clear the mulch away from where the eyes will eventually be emerging.
I love this time of year. It's so nice to see everything in the gardens starting to "wake up."

I finished my whole clean-up yesterday after a couple of weeks of marathon days. Pulled every single weed by hand and tossed them into a big old garbage can I drag along with me. I must have emptied that thing into the compost 200 times over the course of the last three weeks- the weed heap is enormous. I don't think the first one even died during what passed for "winter" this year!

As I go I trim out dead bits, shape up things that need to be shaped, and hard prune things like hydrangeas. Of course some pruning needs to wait but by and large I try and cover every square inch of my ornamental beds on my hands and knees at least once a year so I can keep my eye on things.
Once I get the weeds out I feed what things the time is right to feed and toss a bit of Preen down in those areas I think it might help, then start tossing mulch.

We have used five truckloads of hardwood mulch so far and may need one more to top off some areas. When we are putting down mulch I always tell the husband to spread it thick but make it go far, LOL, and the last areas done on any given day can be thin because he wants to get the whole zone done and I am too tired to nag him about how he is doing it. Then we have to go back and top it off, haha.

I am SO thankful that I got this early start and am hoping for the chance to just sit outside and look at things without my eyes automatically going to whatever needs done.
This is only my fifth year in this house/climate (I was subtropical before) and I find Spring to be the most amazing and wonderful time! Every day brings a change and I love seeing everything come back to life.

My in-law has a 30+ year old silver maple. What appears to be growing underneath:

Vinca Minor
Lilies of the Valley
Siberian Squill

Further away from the tree but still within the canopy

Hyacinth bulbs (recently planted, so who knows if it will work).
Osterich Fern (from last year).
Columbine (from last year).

Paul

I've had a similar problem that I solved by having my husband make a large (3'x6') planter. You could make a nice retreat by mulching out the area, add planters, even for your hostas, some chairs, stepping stones. Rather than fighting with the area, make lemonade from lemons.

Any variety that are less fussy, I was thinking of planting them again. Thinking of some of the lemon yellow variety (if I can find them).

Paul

You will love Golden Zebra. I have a two year old, and I think it will get some siblings this year if I can find them. My other favorites among my heucheras are Caramel (fast growing, distinctive summer color), Can Can (super frilly edges with a contrasting underside) and Georgia Peach (awesome summer color and better heat tolerance). I have great hopes for my Midnight Bayou. It wasn't tend to very well after I planted it last June, so hopefully it will forgive me this year. Beautiful dark, even, merlot-red with almost black veining.

I'm not overly fond of a few varieties in my collection-- Beaujolais (color is nothing like the photos in catalogues), Midnight Rose (s-l-o-w, yet very thirsty) and Hercules (committed suicide twice). Dale's Strain may also need to find new home.

I grow both. The basic Ligularia dentata and Cimicifuga (now Actaea) 'Hillside Black Beauty' and 'Brunette'. Not much trouble with either, although I'd agree with the Ligularia needing moisture.

tj

I have a mostly shaded yard with huge oak and pine trees on all sides. I tend to choose plants for their foliage rather than their flowers. I especially like contrasting foliage colors, so many dark-leaved cimicifuga and ligularia varieties have followed me home from the nursery over the years. The problem I've found with both is their high moisture requirement. It's so easy to tell yourself when you're buying plants that you can just water these a bit more, but for me, keeping ahead of moisture loss requires more effort than is realistic. I have an irrigation system, strategically placed rain barrels and lots of free time, and I can't compete with the big oaks and pines. That said, of my ligularias, my favorite is Cafe au Lait. Of my cimicifugas, Hillside Black Beauty seems to be the most vigorous. If insect nibbling is an issue on the ligularias, try some systemic fertilizer/insecticide. If you go this route, you may want to remove the flowers to avoid poisoning your bees and hummingbirds. I think some ligularia flowers are kinda ugly, so for me, it's no loss.

On another note, I did use my bare hand to sprinkle the fertilizer and accidentally breath it a bit of the fertilizer, hope that doesn't mean I'll died in a couple of days.

==>>> not in my world.. its an OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD ... read that.. repeated exposure in large amounts ... i mean really.. corn will kill you .. but most of us are not working in a 50 foot silo.. to worry about it ...

any garden glove is fine ...

anyway.. though i am not adverse to ferts ... i really dont think it is necessary 99% of the time ...

they are plants.. not children.. they really dont need to be fed on some schedule ...

if you have any kind of decent soil.. the plants will get what they need.. and grow very well ... and unlike crops.. will not deplete the soil ...

even in my mineral sand [which is a fancy word for course beach sand] ... as benign as it is.. i dont fertilize ... and everything grows to specs ... its simply a waste of money to make you feel good about feeding the kids ...

unless i see some chlorosis [yellowing] .. or a plant shrinking in size over the years.. i simply dont bother with fert ...

but most of my knowledge comes from when i had over 100 T roses .. now those foo foo kids.. need fert every 30 to 45 days ... plus a complete regiment of sprays .. and when the kids rolled around.. i just quit them ... moved.. and left them there ...

gardening is supposed to be relaxing.. and on some level.. you worry too much .. try to let go of that..

plant things.. roots down.. and water .. and 99% of the stuff will thrive.. and you know when to water.. when you insert your finger to the second knuckle.. and it is dry or hot [as hot means it will be dry in a day or two] ..EVERYTHING ELSE is just icing on the cake ...

it is much better.. to add a few inches of compost to your soil, once in spring and once in fall .. rather than fert ... build your soil.. and the plants will follow ...

ken

ps: and your failure with the weed grass.. was somehow getting it into your head.. that a weed NEEDED to be fed ..WHY??? ... why did you think it needed food ... was it not growing vigorously enough ... try to get out of that mindset ...

As an experiment, I tried sprinkling a few granular directly on the leaves of weeds (thistle) growing in the yard. I came back a few days later and the leaves were shriveled up. Nothing like experimenting to verify :-).

As for the weed grass, it was growing in water for several years and I thought. Hey, it's got no nutrients in the water, lets add some fertilizer. This was before I even knew what compost was. Back then, I thought that was something you put on pancakes.

Paul

I know it's not your situation. You both liked your fences, and your neighbors didn't. I still like this article giving choices like a vertical veggie garden! Anyway I hope you get past the neighbors and see the gardening possibilities. :)

We had horrible neighbors in Edmonton. We moved. Nuff said.

I wish I had more time to chat. Ahhh well work and sleep are all I do these days. I've lost 30 lbs though, for the first time in 20 years, so that's something.

Time to sleep again. Night, night.

Yeona

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY: How to Camouflage and Hide a Chain Link Fence

Hello everyone,

I recognize some of you from here and other forums. I have been away from here for a while on military duties. I'll also posted this summer, so will be selling my house and buying another, then starting the gardening all over again

I wish mine had, it didn't bother to come back this spring.

I was very UNCLEAR above == I don't have two different kinds of seedlings. What I meant to say is that the true leaves which are emerging from the parsnip-looking cotyledons are definitely the foliage of old fashioned bleeding heart.

These are all growing right under the parent plant. Definitely seedlings from it.