13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
It is a cultivar of Dianthus barbatus, Sweet William, which is naturally a biennial but sometimes will persist. This variety is supposed to be more reliably persistent, but it is still a biennial at heart and therefore may not bloom the first year. I'd hang on and see if it performs next year before condemning it. It looks extremely healthy which bodes well.
Thanks for the post flora.
Given its apparent health I wasn't going to 'ditch it' but things were looking good early in the summer when one of the 4 grew a couple of taller stalks and then put forth those incomparably coloured flowers. But nothing from the other three plants and even the one that flowered retreated a few weeks after. But those flowers are worth waiting for.
Yes, I think dem pa was right. I'm pretty sure it's a Mexican Sunflower. One of the blossoms finally bloomed today. And, I have an empty seed packet in my seed packet storage. But, WHY die it take so long to bloom, and WHY is it 10 feet tall. The package says 4-6 feet.
I started the seeds indoors in early April and planted them out just past the frost date. I don't get it.
Any suggestions?
During most of the season, the foliage is a lovely low clump of deep-green, maple-like leaves under ~1 foot tall; it only becomes taller as flowering approaches in the late summer/early fall.
This clump of "Honorine Jobert" is in full sun; it'll give you a good idea of the natural growth habit of the plant during flowering:
Well I just checked on things and they look fine.
Under the snow the soil was still warm. In fact it was still warm enough that the bottom 3 inches of a tomato plant still has green leaves where it was buried in snow (that includes stems that were laying across the ground even though most of the plant is dead).
If tomato leaves/branches from underneath the snow cover are still green then it certainly didn't kill off any frost-hardy bulbs or roots that are 6 inches beneath the ground.
No signs of frost heaving anywhere - just some very wet soil, and lots of soggy tree leaves covering everything.
this is the "reddest" creeping phlox that I know of, that being said, it's still just a deep pink.
This site describes it as "Rose red flowers with darker red eye in spring."
Here is a link that might be useful: Phlox subulata Red Wing
When I last moved, in the middle of winter, I took the plants I'd dug up and piled them in the most sheltered spots I could find and heaped whatever snow I could find on them, and there may have been a blanket or two as well. For the plants that were dearest to me, I put them in the detached, unheated garage. Again, a couple may have even gotten a blanket. The garage-kept ones did best.
These days, I commonly end up putting a few things I haven't gotten around to planting in the garage. I make sure to throw a few handfuls of snow on top of the pots, especially in late winter/early spring, to make sure they don't totally dry out. Seems to work well.
We overwinter our pots also. We put them in a protected area in the back yard and cover them lightly with shredded leaves with more around the outside of the pots. Remember the most susceptible part of the plant (in pots) is the roots during the winter.
Paws
Aren't these plants great? So cool. So dramatic. So different. LOVE them! I got my original plants from BluestonePerennials.com years ago and I really do enjoy them. I find they're very easy to divide, but I recently found a trick in dividing them that makes a huge difference in the health of the divisions as well as the original plant.
I use a Reciprocating Saw. It's really easy to use and it really makes a huge difference in dividing plants that tend to grow into a large, thick clump like ornamental grasses and hostas and Kniphofia because it cuts through the clump like buttah. ;)
And, it allows you to cut the plant into nice, neat, un-butchered sections without having to dig the whole plant out of the ground. I usually cut the plant into pie sections and then dig out each division separately. The whole process is SOOOOO much easier than using a shovel and/or knife. It's actually kind of fun.
If you're borrowing a saw, be sure to have the owner give you an old blade to use that they won't mind cutting through dirt and possibly hitting a few stones along the way.
I've divided Red Hot Pokers in both Spring and Fall and I've found that the less damage you do to the division and/or original planting, the more likely you are to have flowers in the Spring/Early Summer. Therefore, this technique really makes a HUGE difference. But, either season has worked great for me.
Since the plants are so tough and quick to recover in general, I'm going to go ahead and divide one of my monster clumps this weekend, since it just finished it's bloom. We'll see how it goes.
I'm especially interested in trying some of the smaller statured Kniphofias that I've been reading about lately. Digging Dog Nursery and Lazy SS Farm both have a good variety of Knophofias.
Best of luck!
I found the Flamenco RH Poker recently. 2 plants to start and I've gotta say they're bold and beautiful. I never was an orange fan of anything perennial. Now a few yards away are the May Night Salvia -- I say bingo: -nice companions. With the purple in front of the Red Hots. I'll move them beside each other.
One author writes that the RH Poker is very sensitive to cold winter temps so we all need to cover them up with leaves.
The unique texture and colour of these plants make it a very worthwhile addition to anyone's sun garden. Here are a couple of my "Big Blue" Sea Holly from last summer. (This particular variety are self-supporting. They do grow tall but are 'airy' and don't spread much so you can usually find space for them in your garden),
Nevermore44, Echinops tienschanicum is described as only hardy to zone 6
Here is a link that might be useful: Echinops tienschanicum
I'm not a big fan of daylilies either, but I'm in the process of moving mine to the back of our property. I am using their growth habit as a substitute for mulch. Their leaves keep the weeds down, and DH and I don't kill ourselves trying to cart the mulch all the way to the back of the yard.
I'm using red hot pokers the same way.
Michelle - yes, that big pot thing would definitely only suit a limited range of situations! The modernish black one though I think would fit in more places. Because it's black, it would not stand out too much - in the right conditions - until you are close to it. The unexpectedness of the 'modern' lines would add to its impact. For instance, if there was a convenient way to get water to it, I could see putting that beside the path going under the pines to the north of my shed. There is a spot where the shade/shadows are pierced by a bright shaft of sun on sunny days. I could see placing that fountain where most of it is in shade but where the shaft of sunlight would hit that silver ball. The sound of water running would draw people along the path, looking for the source and, on sunny days, finding the source would be a quite dramatic event I think. As soon as I saw that fountain, that's the picture I saw in my head :-)
This looks like the variety 'Dickson's Gold'.
It is relatively slow-growing. I would expect that it will get no larger than 30cm (12") across. It is not invasive. Campanula sp. (Bellflowers) are generally not the easiest to divide, but it is possible.
After Campanula, Serbian bellflower has been in the ground at least a year here in my milder climate it has spread & crept along so much that I can easily dig around the outsides to find rooted plants to transplant. This spring I potted up about a dozen of them around 2" x 1" and they bloomed in August as well as reblooming now since I cut the faded blooms off.