13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I think it's lovely, whether it was planted purposefully or not. I'd leave it and see how it looks through the season. If it gets weedy looking, then pull it. I'm trying to leave anything to grow that provides blooms, pollen and nectar for our suffering insect pollinators. If we don't reverse the dramatic loss of bees and other pollinators, we may not have much food left on our tables soon.
Martha
It's nearly one year later and I just found this thread. This Veronica 'Tidal Pool' looks exactly like Veronica Whitleyi, which I have been growing for several years, but for which I can find no documentation online. Perhaps it has been re-named. I bought it as a plant from a mail order company, maybe Dominion Seed House, and it stays quite small for a couple of years and then it takes off. It winds it way around things, is evergreen, and the flowers are true blue. It forms a nice mat in my rock garden. Forget about it, and will perfom just fine. This is not a very good pic. - early in the season. It will bloom all summer.
perhaps the jury is still out another year later on this plant. Mine has not done well, nor has it ever bloomed. It has become smaller and I do believe will give up the ghost entirely, probably this summer. I am VERY disappointed. Don't know if I shall bother buying again next year....
We had record breaking rains this year. Much of Texas and Oklahoma had flooding, but we simply had constant rain. I do not use chemicals, and did not expect powdery mildew on my phlox plants. Actually it is only on one.
What do you do manually to prevent powdery mildew or other funguses? fungi?
For roses I throw away those that get much powdery mildew, but do you mean that you remove the leaves or cut them back?
I will cut back the ones with powdery mildew, but am going to return to the nursery and try to interrogate them more on the care of the phlox plants that they sell. I need to learn.
Sammy
Re manual treatment:
Add organic matter yearly, observe and water (as needed) and don't use problem plants (viz. need continuously healthy plants that can fight off diseases). Stake to separate as needed. Keep an eye on the plants as the garden grows (includes gets taller). Thin out, as required. Deadhead. Cut back promptly after flowering. Get the sun to the soil surface in fall (and to the spring perennials: no mulch present). Clear the whole surface of any plant debris before the ground freezes.
Works for us in our relatively small sunny northern garden which contains very large numbers of perennials, including lots and lots of garden phlox.
Gee, I thought the wind was blowing over my phlox plants. We have all kinds of animals since a creek runs through the back of our yard. Recently we have had more squirrels than rabbits, but that could change. We have always had large hawks, too. When our puppies were young, we would never let them into our fenced in yard until we thought they were big enough to handle them selves with a hawk. We have golden retrievers. My neighbor saw a hawk grab a rabbit once.
Sammy
In my experience, definitely "yes".
Have grown over a dozen different Veronica spicata, V. longifolia and hybrid cultivars; most recently Veronica 'Purpleicious' paired with Stachys monieri 'Hummelo. In the latter case, the Veronica's has now petered away (lasted three or four years); the Stachys still looks very healthy
The Chicago Botanic Garden study cites "wet soil conditions in winter was a fairly significant problem for the speedwell trials".
On the other hand, the study also includes a Veronicastrum (Culver's root) part. Love Culver's root which does very well in our own and other gardens around here and is very long-lived. The study cites well-drained soils for Culver's root not mentioning winter.
Actually I wanted bed size, not Caryopteris size . . .
Here are some shrubs that should grow for you. I'll let you figure out whether they will fit in the bed and your goals. Many of these are native plants and probably won't be found at big box stores or perhaps even regular nurseries, but can be found at nurseries specializing in native plants, often mail order.
Chilopsis linearis (desert willow)
Mahonia repens (Oregon grape)
Mahonia nevinii (Nevin's barberry)
Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape)
Berberis fendleri
Philadelphus lewisii
Ceanothus species and hybrids (California Lilacs)
one of the gold leafed Caryopteris - there's a thread with several mentioned here.
Don't know about a few perennials around rose bushes, but have had experience of rose bushes within mixed perennial beds.
I planted roses (Canadian Explorer) within large mixed perennial beds only once. They added a lot to the beds, but I found I was always ripping my arms when working around them. Worse, I got to think they were a danger for eyes.
Below a photo of a photo (end of June 2001). It's a bed in that garden which I put in and, more to the point, maintained for over ten years. That was the first and last garden in which I ever planted rose bushes inside perennial beds.
Your phlox are beautiful. It sounds like a play on words when I say that I am not planting roses in a perennial bed, but planting perennials in a rose bed. That does make a difference. My gloves are designed for rose care, The focus of my yard is "roses", so I know exactly how to move around them ---I have been practicing for about 40 years.
Without the eye being able to see other flowers, roses can begin to look like a rose nursery instead of a garden. I can really understand why you would not want to insert a rose into your perennials when they are so beautiful on their own.
Sammy
Wow kirstin! Your garden is popping! My Peonies are still in tight bud. Very pretty!
Nice photos! Your peonies look particularly great and I love the way the Veronica weaves around the rose.
There are two ways I know of getting your photos right side up in GW. One is to figure out what way you have to position the camera or phone in order that the photo is upright. For instance, with my phone, the button I push to take the photo has to be on the right with the phone held in landscape mode. Mostly though, I just pop photos into image processing software and rotate it and then save it. My image processing software is iPhoto, but I did a search and there are free online programs as well that will do rotation for you.