13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
1- it looks like that one has coneflower mites. They cause the distorted cones and cruddy petals. You can search around for remedies. I typically cut off the distorted ones and throw them out. You can also remove and destroy all the leaf litter in the fall to get the overwintering eggs. Your's does look like a well grown multi-branched plant, so keep ontop of the mites and hope for the better next year.
Besides that, all maui sunshines are lot less "yellow" then the pretty marketing shot. I had one, but it quickly died after flowering once.
Saw a well grown 1 gallon at the store and they were pale too.
The natural 'paradoxa' is the best of course. The hybrids have all seem to not do to well for extended years.
The ones that have more orange to them seem to be good... 'flame thrower'
Oops, I see I've been spelling baptisia incorrectly.
They are a prairie plant, so it seems like they should be able to take the summer sun. I can see that they might need some shading as a seedling, since they would naturally emerge among other prairie plants that might give them some shade.
The garden where these will go to live is actually an orchard, so, yes, there is some space. Cages--good idea. I already have lots of little wire cages (with tops!) that i can use, because rabbits love to eat my newly set out sweet potatoes, but I don't grow those every year. I'll dedicate them to the baptisia when I plant them in ground. Guess I might need to do it as soon as the soil is diggable early next year. I didn't think about how deep the roots would get! Very important. I wonder how old the potted plants I originally purchased might have been. I think they were probably in gallon pots.....Don't entirely recall.
I took to peonies, big time, about four years ago and now have several dozen in our small but sunny garden. Great June colour.
Our peonies are beginning to flower now.
Personally I like flashy colourful peonies and do a lot of staking of perennials anyway. At this stage, Paul Crousse and Bouchela are my favourites.
Don't usually buy white flowering perennials, but the bomb-type peony (picture last June 12) below was mislabelled when purchased. Love it. Seems it is likely to be Charlie's White.
Oh good, you DO have a balcony! That should work for winter. Hopefully there is some protection there (solid walls on the balcony, hopefully not 20 storeys up, lol) and they should be okay. Even if you can get a garbage bag of leaves, put the pots in a corner, and smush the bag of leaves against/around/on top of them, after they are dormant, that will help a bit. Good luck!
Toronto would be about zone 6 ; depending on proximity to lake maybe 7. Canadian plant zones differ from the U.S. I believe zone 6 here would be considered US zone 5. Btw, winter temps would be minus 20-30 C. Only wish they were on the plus side lol.
Too funny?! I don't understand . . . Sure there are nurseries around you! In a quick web search of Ocean County NJ where you say you are, there are at least 20. I live in a state considerably smaller than yours as far as population, and within an hour's drive there are probably 30 nurseries or garden centers. Not all of those will sell oriental poppies, but a few minutes on the phone will find the ones that do.
Enjoy the winter sowing, but be aware that poppies usually aren't too happy about transplantation, so do your replanting very carefully or sow directly in place where you want them.
i gave up on dianthus here in MI long ago ..
just too foo foo ... short lived ... PIA .. etc ...
you might find phlox to have a similar scent ... and easier to grow ...
no matter how much you like a plant.. you can only bang your head against the wall for so long.. before you move on ... eh????
ken
I love reading all of these stories. Socks, that jug is awesome, and greenhearted, it must be a great feeling to wear that apron. Aw, Ken, don't rain on my parade...just kidding, I was actually thinking about the same thing. I have so much hard, or heavy, crummy soil (yes, I compost, etc.), that I'm not sure how useful this will be. I can use it to plant in pots, or maybe I'll just enjoy looking at it.
I have Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' and have been quite pleased with it. It has survived temperatures that range from -22 to upper 90's without problems, though occasionally there is some tip die-back that I prune off, but far fewer issues with winter hardiness than other Caryopteris I have tried. It starts the year a pure gold and changes to this slightly chartreuse-gold that still reads as gold in the landscape. The late summer blue flowers are the icing on the cake.
They are obligingly easy from cuttings...and right now is a good time to do it although you may have to search for a non-flowering shoot (we don't want any energy going into making flowers). I take the whole shoot, strip back the lower leaves and put about 5 or 6 around the edges of a clay pot (cooler than plastic). They generally don't care for being enclosed in polythene bags or plastic bottles but will appreciate a cool place with a little shade under a ventilated cloche. Root to transplant in about 6 weeks.
Yes, let the seed mature and then you can scatter it in the area or let it do it on its own. They look great massed since a single plant is relatively small.
This was the only filipendula I could grow on my dry and chalky soil - none of that Queen of the Meadow stuff for me and f.rubra was a distant dream. Now I can actually provide a little more moisture, I am in the midst of raising a filipendula forest (along with as many umbellidfers as I can get my hands on)