13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
If I'm feeling ambitious and the weather is nice, and I'm out there anyhow because I have to plant late-season bargains I bought, I'll cut down things that look ratty or otherwise I'm sick of seeing, like bloomed-out monarda. I figure fall cleanup may be the only time some of my plants enjoy the good air circulation they crave. I do try to leave seedhead snacks for the birds, but some things are so ugly, I can't stand to leave them be (assuming adequate ambition, nice weather and must-plant bargains). Blackened echinacea, eupatoriums and the like tend to get whacked. But no way would I bother cleaning up things like melted hosta. And then there are things like hibiscus, which I know I'll forget about their placement if I don't leave the tops, and things I don't think want to be cut back. I, too, am okay with the spring slime.
I like to cut back now for most perennials. I have way too much to do in spring, and it does make it so much easier to winter mulch around them if trimmed back. That being said, there are some that I leave till spring. Ones that benefit from their own leaves as mulch such as my heucheras, coreopsis, and agastaches. Most are now cut back already. I also don't cut all the way to the ground. I cut back to about 6 inches from the ground.
Only one day off this week, and tried to make the most of it. I re-erected my pop up greenhouse after the windstorm of last weekend laid it low. It was dry and warmish today so I had to get while the gettin was good. It can be tricky in fall, the daytime temps can get pretty warm which is not the best scenario for a greenhouse. I moved quite a few things in there but left the fuchsias out. They will go in when the next frost is expected. Looks like we will stay in the 40's overnight for the next several days.
Such an appropriate tydall Norma ! I find my self hunkering down in Nov, especially after the time change.
Beautiful quilt 'bug. Wish I had the patience. And the snow !
All for me tonight, work tomorrow.
Kathy in Napa
mosswitch
Oh, that sounds sooo neat. Maybe you can find a small cauldron, skull or fake bloody hand at an after Halloween sale somewhere to spook things up a bit more.
I have a half buried plastic hand in my chicken theme garden for "a bird in the hand...". It's in my webshots album.
I have lots of things to put in the garden on Halloween-- skulls, skeletons, bats, all that sort of stuff. I've collected it for years, lol!
Maybe not a "theme" garden exactly, but next garden club tour at my garden I'm going to borrow all my grandson's big (12" tall) dinosaurs and scatter them among the hosta "jungle (Jurassic Park, T-Rex, etc)! Should be fun!
The northeast got hit with quite a nasty snowstorm on halloween weekend. Someone really ticked of Mother Nature I think. We got 19" and quite a bit of damage in the garden. Lost power for 4 days but we all did OK. There were so many people w/o power for a week. It was bad because all the leaves were still on the trees and it was a heavy wet snow. Blech! Good news is, the following week it warmed up nicely so all the snow melted which was great for the garden.
Hi Ken
The "barrel" is just an old planter about 30" wide and 24" deep that had some old soil in it and I just put the liatris corms (?) in there. it's not a covered barrel, but the corms are on top of one another...a couple of layers. Basically they are in a pile (as you suggested) with some dirt underneath.
I do have soil that I could put on top of them ,,, would that be good? I can also cover them with a lid that would fit loosely...that would keep the sun off them...
what do you suggest?
did i do any harm by watering them this morning? I sort of
panicked. they looked like the were so dried out. The sun is out today and they are exposed...should I cover them?
thanks again for your advise...
the drying harmed them.. not the watering..
they will need air.. any cover must let in a free flow of air movement.. hence the straw suggestion ...
ya know.. you sound like a worrier.. if they lived for years.. hanging in baskets all thru winter.. i dont know how much you should worry about them..
the only thing you have changed.. is exposing the bulb/corm ... so.. figure out how to cover the corms.. w/o causing damage ...
review prior answer.. rather than me repeating it all again..
good luck
ken
ps: ... instead of putting all of them in one system... you might want to throw half on mother earth .. in full shade.. on the north side of a structure ..... and cover with straw ... just in case one system fails.. the other may not ... spread your odds of failure ...
I think I can ID this one:
Shasta Daisy 'Fiona Coghill' Leucanthemum x superbum,
Sun to Part Shade
Height 65-75 cm, Space 45 cm
Just bought it this Fall, still have a name tag with photo of it and it is exactly like this one. I am just Googling more info about it and came upon your page.
Hey Magan....you can't know how much it means to me for someone to "hit me back" after all this time. Haven't checked out your plant ID yet, but I don't care.....lol
I've given up on my garden (sorta)-- due to water bill expenses plus physical limitations which limit my commitment to "tending" my babies.
But just happened to step (accidently) onto this EXACT same plant today....& thought "I gotta dig it up before it gets put to death."
Soooo....kinda strange that YOU brought it to my attention. RIGHT NOW!! Kinda like a kick in the ass...tellin me to take care of my babies...lol...otherwise, they're gonna become part of my landlord's 'grass cutting' routine (chopping everything down cuz I can't maintain it).
Your post made me realize that I need to, at least, dig up the "good stuff" and pass it on somewhere else....IF I can't take care of it where it is.....
But as I looked at it all today, WITHOUT WEEDS & NO WATER REQUIREMENTS, I gotta say...I really DID want to let it all grow back next season & not give up, as I'd planned to do.
Soooo, thanks AGAIN GIRLFRIEND !!!!!
A bright orange-red you might consider is 'Distant Planet'. It came out of the now closed Seneca Hills Perennials in upper state New York. I've planted it in several places in my garden and it has survived 5 Chicago winters. The oldest clump is now about 3 feet across. I believe Lazy Susan's mailorder nursery sells it.
Sounds pretty! Since the foliage is light, the darker flowers might be showier. I have Walker's Low and Six Hills Giant. I don't think I've gotten volunteers from either one.
Google says Walker Low is a hybrid. The parents are Nepeta racemosa and Nepeta nepetella. Mosly sterile but may produce an occasional seedling.
I am in zone6a and I have had good luck with Mums coming back. I haven't a lot..three altogether up until last year, but those three have been coming back for at least 7 years.
One was up against the house facing west and I dug it out and potted it up in the spring and it is still in a pot. The other was in a part shade corner that seems partly exposed. I think the third is Sheffield Pink and it is in too much shade and entirely exposed to the windiest part of the yard and comes back every year, even a few years with cold temps and very little snow cover.
Last year, I purchased two mums and two asters at a local nursery to use in my containers. I enjoyed them all last fall and just left them in their 20" containers all winter. I was very surprised to see both asters come back and one of the mums. I moved the asters to perennial beds in late spring I guess and they seem to have formed buds, so I am waiting to see how they do when they bloom. The mum that survived was in a window box on the ground and I left it there all summer. It hasn't grown any larger than it was last year but there are buds on it. I really should plant that one in the ground this fall. Soon actually.
I also bought a 3 pack of mums from Bluestone in the spring and they are in the ground after hanging around too long. [g] They haven't grown much but at least they have been in the ground for awhile but I just realized they are in my windiest location. So now I am not sure whether to try moving them now or wait for spring.
I might try to buy more in the spring from Bluestone. I don't usually buy three of the same kind either. They have combos but they haven't appealed to me. They do have a nice selection of mums that are different than what you usually see locally. Really, I do understand the point Donna was making about 'impulse buying', but really I prefer to wait until something is in bloom to choose it any way. I don't think of that as impulse buying though. I just don't think it works out well every time, to choose a plant from a photo in a catalog, or a book. The colors in photos are just not dependable. Therefore, I have purchased every mum, except this past order from Bluestone, in the fall. What is worse, I usually have used them in containers all fall and then either left them in containers all winter or planted them in the ground. So it is surprising that they have come back.
I WOULDLIKE TO KNOW THE NAMES OF TRUE HARDY CHRISTANTHUMUMS AND WHERE TO BUY THEM.
I HAVE ONE VARITY CALLED THE "SHEFIELD" WHICH DOES A WONDERFULL JOB. i HAVE SEEN THREE OTHER DIFFERENT COLOURS HERE IN A PARK IN WASHINGTON DC. I WANT TO PURCHASE THESE KINDS [WHITE DARK ORANGE AND PINK]
This won't help you now, but Bluestone did something kind of interesting last spring. I don't know if this is their regular policy since that order was my first from them, but I took advantage of it.
Included with my plants was a note saying if I mailed back the shipping box and packing materials, I would receive a voucher for free shipping on my next order. It cost me around $7 to mail back the box, but the postage on that order was over $20, so if I order around the same from them next spring, I'll definitely be ahead of the game. Chances are I will order that much again.
Kevin
Your pot is pretty deep since those are seedlings, so that probably isn't your problem - Ken is on the right track, I think. Columbines aren't house plants. They like cold weather, though I don't know if they are hardy in your zone? I have wintersown lots of columbine seeds and they sprout pretty reliably after a few months out in the cold weather. It takes a few months for them to get big enough to plant out, but once they are in the ground, they take off. I have killed a few by not planting them out early enough - they couldn't grow the tap root in the pot, but my pots were a lot smaller than yours. Mine usually bloom the next year. Of course, I am in a completely different zone, with a longer growing season. I have never actually bought a columbine plant from a greenhouse, all of mine are from seed.
Becky
Here is one of my favorites from this spring:
Here is a link that might be useful: 
to clarify.. i think they are in shock from bringing them into the heated house ..
all the following variables changed at that moment:
light intensity
humidity
heat
possible frost you missed
water content of media ...
its simply shock ... and as to which caused it.. i say.. all the above ....
but that says nothing as to eventual success ... and how you will manipulate all those variables.. in your house.. for a plant that prefers not being in the house ...
lets put it this way.. its an experiment ... you may win.. you may not.. but one thing for sure.. you will learn something ... we just dont know what right now .. lol
ken
All Agastaches should be left uncut over the winter, except for Agastache foeniculum and its cultivars. Yours is not A. foeniculum, so don't cut it back. Your salvia is one of the commonly grown salvias that can be cut back. Western salvias, which include cultivars like 'Ultra Violet', 'Black Cherry' etc, should be treated like the western Agastaches. Gaura also should not be cut back.
As always...outstanding photos and thank you for providing ID for each plant.
I too have Aster frikartii 'M�nch'. I planted it just this past July and it was an outstanding performer even in its first year ie flower upon flower up until a couple of weeks ago. I do hope it survives the winter.
I am curious as to your fall routine for "Lemon Queen". Do you cut it back from a very high 6 feet to...?? Does it self seed?
Rouge, I have not experienced selfseeding from Lemon Queen because I cut it down. It is totally hardy for me, so I cut it totally down when the leaves turn brown. But you can let them stay until spring. The stems will collect some leaves and such, which will offer some protection from the worst frosts.
Aster X frikartii Monch has two dots above the letter o in original spelling. I was not aware that it will be trasformed into such a strange sign combination. LOL
Here is a photo of a trial of these seeds. It could just be their conditions; however, this is more like "real world" conditions than potted plants. I hope they are worth the wait!
Here is a link that might be useful: Trial Photos
All of the trials I saw were in the ground. I would say 30-40% are standard purpurea purple shades. The rest range from primrose to deep orange to nearly red. They are working to segregate the colors, will probably take a few years. Per Kieft, they did decide to delay NA introduction because they didn't have enough seed harvested to meet the demand of both the European and NA markets.