13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Wow Ken....didn't realize y'all had a 'skeeter' problem in MI! Hope you're right. Here, on the Chesapeake Bay coast with wetland all around, it was hellish last year. I've formed some sort of 'allergy' where the bites swell up and morph into funny looking whelts (sp?) that I call 'amoeba shaped' and as big as quarters.
Even 'lost' my garden last year because I couldn't go outside. Just to my mailbox on my front porch was a risk...lol.
Yes, bug spray works but I have to bathe in it and then can't come in and sit on my furniture, can't rub my eye cuz probably touched my arm first, etc. Plus, as much as I used...I was going bankrupt. Just couldn't deal with it.
Let's hope your positive thinking works !!!
Dear all,
I'm in Indiana (Warm half of zone 5)and have acanthus spinosus which I got from my sister over 10 years ago. More like 15. It has NEVER bloomed! My sister's is in
a warmer spot than mine but also zone 5. She dances with
it moving it around but still having it--about 5 places now. Hers blooms most years and sometimes blooms extrava-gantly. What should I do to get bloom--threaten it! Move
it. It's a pretty green plant which contrasts well with
daylillies, helianthus, adenophora, lamb's ears etc. which
are all around.
Unfortunately I've been to Salem, Oregon where a daughter
lives and seen what it can look like and my sister saw it
going wild in the Greek Isles. Please, I'd like about half
a dozen stalks in my own yard.
grandma Chris
These plants are often listed as only hardy to zone 6, but I found one locally (don't recall name offhand) that was reputedly hardier. It is about 6 years old now, and is starting to send off multiple babies around it, in my 5b garden. I like it a lot, but it is proving to be invasive. Nice plant though, very impressive.
Sounds like you did it right. I have bought varieties of daylilies like that. When they've grown too long in the bag, the newer sprouting part is often white...I'm guessing due to lack of sunlight. So I do the same -- leave it up out of the ground because in ideal conditions it would have been green...lol.
Again...good luck!
Bonnie
This link explains some of the confusion about why there can seemingly be frost at air temps above 32 degrees.
If you are only scheduled to have surface temps of 37, I would say it is unlikely that you see frost, especially if there is any sort of wind going on.
Here is a link that might be useful: Frost
ahhhh
if garden could so simply be reduced to scientific certainties ....
IMHO .. there are too many variables to come to any answer with specificity ...
temp is not the only variable ... you must add .. cloud cover .. wind.. micro climate .. and elevation ... and suburbia ...
e.g. .. across my 500 foot wide lot.. which is 8 feet lower in the center 100 feet.. cold air pools as it move from high to low.. since warm air rises.. and many springs.. the forsythia/yoshino cherry ... down there do not bloom in bad years ... due to frost or freezes
so if the forecast is bad.. you have to either go zen.. ala doris day .... what will be will be ...
or you take action.. if you wish ....
but your decision can NOT be made on some precise forecasted temp ... NEVER FORGET ... mother nature is a cruel mistress ... and it brings her supreme delight to mess with our heads ...
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: link
My Brunnera is not completely up as large as it should be but it's blooming already. Tonight, though, we are to go down to 26. My plant is next to the house, in a protected area so it should be all right. We did cover the Maiden's Blush lilac that is already starting to bloom. I hope it will make it without cold damage.
Linda
If planted early enough, columbines will bloom their first year from seed. Typically, established plants will self-seed freely and produce flowering plants the next season. Since they tend not to be a very long-lived perennial, that's a good thing as they continually produce replacements if you do not deadhead. The plants are quite promiscuous however and will cross pollinate with each other wildly so be prepared to to enjoy offspring that do not necessarily resemble their parents.
Not sure if anyone is at all intersted in the outcome but...it lived!!! I am thrilled. I looked out last week and there was nothing, looked again yesterday and pink buds are welling up!
I actually DID end up moving the plant to the wine barrel planter behind the shed, where it is shady and cool. The last leaf died off soon after, but I decided to let it be and see if it would retun in fall or spring. So pleased it did! I wish I had a spot in the garden it would like, but at least it is living where it is- hopefully it won't mind life in a pot.
I will be interested to see if it goes thru the same die-back process come summer. Maybe that is the norm with this plant...
CMK
I was horrified at how much they had spread and pulled out most but left a few. But those few were so welcome at the end of August I was glad I had left them. They made the whole garden, they were so cool and sparkly. I am now looking forward to planting the soft pink alium Summer Beauty to make a similar effect as soon as it gets affordable.. Saw it at the Lurie Garden in Chicago -- it was splendid and hopefully it will be more manageable. Meantime I'll pull up as many Chinese chives as I can this spring but leave a few for August.
Terrene,
I'm glad you mentioned recent transplanting. We had big rain all day Friday and thunderstorm during the night. The
first lawnmowing is due Monday and I have about 10 clumps of gh which have meandered out into the grass. Usually I
bring them all back in the beds when they grow foliage in the early fall, but I'm going to emulate you and try it now. We're zone 5 also and have been having very warm weather until today when it's back in the low 60s.
Grandma Chris
Grandma, I started transplanting around the first day of Spring, bulbs and mostly perennials that are in beds around the foundation of the house, where it warms up fastest.
This year I actually planted 2 Amaryllis bulbs on the south side of the house even before Spring started! I was annoyed with them because they sent up only foliage this winter, and so they were banished outside, about 6 inches away from the foundation. With a little organic bulb fertilizer. I am not worried about frost because the foundation is warm and prevents frost from reaching that close to the house. They are actually doing quite well, but it's been dry, so I water them pretty regularly. Maybe I can bring them in and they will bloom next winter.
I got my tabernaemontana from a deserted neglected planting
whose owner had planted them out by the road on an easement
and when she died no one but me knew they belonged with the
"back house". After identifying and watching them for about 3 years I asked permission and came digging. The roots were very huge, warty and tuberous. I nearly destroyed them and myself digging them out! However they
survived and when they came up the second year I divided
the clump but I haven't looked underground since. If I
do, I'll send you an e-mail. I love that plant and I always get attention with it because no one seems to know
it around here.
grandma Chris
put this in your newbie head
the bigger the flower.. the more sun it needs ..
so comparing the little plain old red to the big foo foo. hybrid.. well
want to take a wild guess.. which one will need a little more oomph .. or sun???
if the genetic starting point .. the species ... which i thought the red one was ... grows in shade.. they will all tolerate shade ... its just when you start crossing genes in the seed pool ... and select for bigger flowers ... the logic would dictate.. they need more sun.. more energy production ...
and this is not specific to columbine.. and that is why i am taking the time to splain it lucy ...
the bigger the flower .... the more sun it will enjoy ...
ken
Here is a link that might be useful: link
Ken the state flower of Colorado is Aquilegia caerulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. My absolute favorite in the genus!
I am growing A. caerulea in mixed colors, the Origami mix, as well as McKana's Giants and A. canadensis, the eastern native. Most are doing well in mostly shade, but it's not heavy shade all day long. A few are in sunnier spots.
Weislaw, most Columbine does seem to be a short-lived perennial, but I've got 2 A. canadensis plants started from seed in 2008 and they are up and doing well this Spring, so they are in their 5th season.
Ken - Due to all the ridiculous early warmth we've been having, my
Sweet Autumn Clematis were already swarming with new growth. . .
so I cut them all back two weeks ago! And I know, from past experience,
that I could whack them all down again in four to six weeks if the
spirit moved me, and there would STILL be abundant bloom. There
was one season I ripped a huge clump out of the ground in early March,
moved and pruned it, and then had to move and prune it again in late
May that year - but it STILL bloomed prodigiously! You can, of course,
leave it alone, and it will still bloom, but as someone else has pointed out,
primarily at the outer ends. SAC rates as one of the tougher plants to kill,
so have at it!
Carl
Definitely not Hagley Hybrid. ALL Clematis benefit from hard pruning the first few years to encourage more vines up from the crown. Otherwise they can grow long and scraggly.
SAC is in a different league as far as Clematis go. It is a monster. You can cut it back now or leave it, up to you.