13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
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 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.
I don't think snow will bother them as much as a hard freeze, not to mention the snow will melt and provide some much-needed moisture. Last year we had 8 ft. of snow followed by a very wet spring, summer & fall. This year it snowed a few inches, twice. There's been no rain to speak of either.
Ditto the 80 degree weather.
Plants which do not normally have frost where they come from, do not need chilling. No need to chill tropicals.Plants from high north most often need chilling. Most known for the need of chilling: Aconitum, Trollius and many others from Ranunculaceae family. Some plants germinate when very fresh without chilling: Pulsatilla vulgaris(if sown immediately after being ripe)
In recent years , especially in Germany, many new bergenias has been created. They bloom more readily and have bigger flower heads. I once had a cultivar Abendglut, with SHOCKIGLY PINK flowers.
You can check these links:
http://www.saxifraga.org/plants/saxbase/gallery.asp?Taxon=1036
Here is a link that might be useful: Some bergenias
I've not grown this plant, but there are threads around here where people complain they are hard to kill when they don't want them, so that's a good sign for your plant!
My first reaction was the same as Ken's. If there was a border around this plant this wouldn't have happened. Now that you have a strong helper...
Maybe y'all will do best with sharing the mowing. That's what we do here. I like to mow around the spiderwort in the grass, at least until about mid summer when they are finished blooming. My honey is willing to mow the whole thing, but not willing to do all of this turning and I respect that. So I do that part of the yard. I usually do the first few passes near the beds also to make sure the outflow is directed away from them.
He sounds awesome, though. Taking the initiative to mow like that. It sounds like you know he was just trying to be helpful. Sounds like a keeper!
While I know it's a special plant that has sentimental value to it related to your Father's demise..be thankful your boyfriend was mowing the lawn and like Ken suggested,take and show him the boundaries so he'll be more careful the next time he mows..plan a border or separation from the flowerbed and lawn. even if it means pressure treated landscape timbers or scallopped brick borders. Check on Free Cycle, maybe somebody is giving something like that away..or place that request on FREE Cycle for such in your area. Somebody was giving away about a dozen round brick stepping stones and I was the lucky winner last year. All I had to do was drive less than 10 miles to get them.
We don't do anything special to ours. We do let the leaves that pile up on it during winter stay until we're ready to rake in early spring. I suppose that might provide some protection from the cold. Also, our ground never seems to freeze. We have a bit of success with overwintering certain annuals because of that.
I believe the variety is "Miss Huff". It's mostly pink and yellow with a hint of orange. I'm not completely sure, but I think this is the same variety my mother grew for several years and it always came back. Another house near her has a lantana bush roughly 6ft tall, and it comes back every year. That's why I gave it a try, and sure enough it worked.
Our NOID creeping purple lantana have survived winter too. Both have green on them, but it looks more like growth from last year and not so much new growth. If they remained somewhat green all winter I would be excited!
We tried a yellow/orange type in a pot and it took too long to come back, so it was dug up and repotted to see what would happen... Needless to say, it did break dormancy just barely before it died from what I think was stress. The creeping red/orange variety ("Dallas Red"?) didn't survive in the ground last year. And it doesn't look like the creeping yellow variety survived this year.
I'd like to grow the "Miss Huff" as large as I can this year, but with all the plants from winter sowing that need a spot, I think I might have to keep it as small as possible!
Thank you for the help!
I love Lantana and so do the butterflies and I want to get this one.
Here is a link that might be useful: Info about
You're welcome !! Just FYI - I got it in a gallon container 3 years ago, in the fall at a big box store on a pallet of 'dead' plants. I like to call it the 'scratch & dent' section -- for pennys on the dollar cuz thats all I can afford most times...lol. I garden, but am not that knowledgable on specific plants but looked at the tag and liked what I saw.
Point being, it survived hanging out thru the winter in just a pot until I planted it early spring (2 yrs ago??) so for me, I like to think of it as very 'sturdy'. In fact, it's the most spectacular plant I have. And I don't do anything special (except feed it along with the others here and then).
So you'll have luck with yours, I'm sure. Just don't let it get too thirsty...lol.
Just saying, I don't think you can hurt it by a "hard prune" as long as you do it soon (after any risk of freeze or frost, I'm guessing).
I do know I learned alot about it on here last year (maybe yr before) when it got funky later in the season and splayed all out (got empty in the middle).
I was apprehensive to cut it WHILE it was blooming since it was so full and colorful so I only did it here and there. But looking back, I could have cut it back much more. But I hated to, since it was so full but don't think it would have hurt it one bit.
Also, just FYI - it stayed green and full long into (my) fall and still had leaves on it until I cut it back early this year. I left it (probably like you did) for the birds & wildlife.
:-) Ken
By the time you posted your pruning rant, I had already pruned it out! I wasn't avoiding doing so, but rather wanted to understand it first. From what I could tell online, root rot could show up on certain areas of the plant and then eventually spread to the whole plant. The same thing could also happen with other diseases/pests.
But, as it turns out, I think it may merely be drought. While our winter was exceptionally mild, we still had plenty of below freezing temps, without the usual snow cover, and I live in an area which sees high winds. I read the plant will become dessicated but since the ground is frozen, it won't be able to draw water. In such a situation it is common for the plant to sacrifice one branch to save the rest of the plant. Upon further inspection, this was all coming from one main branch. I inspected for any sign of bugs, and there were none on the outside, or under the bark when I scraped it back. I also didn't see any of the darkening of the wood tissue near the soil line which would suggest root rot.
My only fear now is that I pruned so close to the ground that it will not send out shoots in that area. But better a lopsided plant than a totally dead plant.
wieslaw - thanks for the advice about applying the nematodes. I will try that. I don't think that problem is too severe, but I would like to keep it from getting too severe.
My first worry now always seems to be "fungus" because we've had some big problems. A few years back we laid some new sod and there was SOMETHING in it... either a fungus or a grub (although we saw no grubs/bugs) and one roll started dying at a corner and it spread throughout the entire lawn (close to an acre) very rapidly. We lost everything. Then this past fall we were growing grass from seed in a relatively small area. I laid down bags of top soil and seeded... it came up quickly, lush and green. It then rapidly was overtaken by some sort of fungus and all died (but the death did not spread beyond the boundaries of the new soil, so it was something in the soil.)
Several of my rhododendrons look a lot like the photo. I'm just leaving the damage as is for now. It was such a weird winter, with no snow and wild temperature fluctuations, that unless proven otherwise I am assuming it is weather damage. Unless the whole branch is dead, they will send out new leaves, either from existing buds or from dormant buds that will emerge from the stems. I have this type of damage on three or four varieties of rhodies in two different areas about a half mile apart. Usually my rhodies are disease and insect free, so I'll only remove the branches if they still look bad in June.
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.