13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I've been overwintering a wax begonia someone gave me for a few years now. I save one to keep on a bookcase next to a lamp(with a compact flo bulb). It tries to put out small flowers occasionally through the winter, but I pinch them off. The leaves get lush and it makes a nice houseplant. In the spring I split it into 3 or 4 plants and use them in different areas.
Maybe you could keep a pot of it and try a wicking watering system while you travel. I haven't tried it myself, but here's a link to wicking info on the African Violet forum via a search on the Houseplant forum...HTH
Here is a link that might be useful: wicking info
Al - the French roundabout plantings would not be left out over the winter. They are summer bedding plants. Usually Begonia semperflorens are grown from seed every year for this purpose.
mytime - you say "I travel a lot in the winter.." I don't blame you ;) Zone 3/4 brrrr.
The fleshy roots of the Alstroemeria contain a lot of energy stored that should cause it to regrow. Do your best to keep moisture in the root zone, as they are not considered drought tolerant. We have several flushes of growth and bloom per year. After bloom I will pull the stems, not letting them make seed, and in a few weeks new flowering stems will emerge from the ground. Al
It does look like Autumn Joy, although there are a couple similar ones. Autumn Joy is probably the most common one. VERY easy to propagate. I like to cut mine back by half or so sometime in May. If I want to propagate it, I push it in the ground where I want it to grow. If no rain expected for a while I water it for a few days, but probably not necessary. I cut some in May this year & never put them in the ground. Left them on a rock pathway, they aren't dead yet. I really should find a place to put them, they want so badly to grow.
I'm a bit puzzled by your question. If you're planting rudbeckia now (which variety by the way), you should be dealing with growing plants, not dormant plants. Are you saying your plants die after you transplant them or do you always get them before they've sprouted (very early spring)or very late fall after they've gone dormant (I guess) although my rudbeckia keep their leaves through winter. Maybe other varieties don't. No clue.
Some are annuals, some biennials, some perennials, so it's kind of important to know which ones you've been dealing with. I'm not sure of this, but in my experience and in my zone rudbeckia seem to do better transplanted in spring. The ones I've tried to move in the fall (mainly Goldstrum) never make it through the winter.
Kevin
I was a little surprised to see that Swallowtail Garden Seeds classifies all Rudbeckia seed types as annuals. I know from experience they self-seed but evidently that's how they give the impression they're perennials. I've been yanking seedlings from the neighbor's lawn and they didn't plant Rudbeckia...I did!
The site is sunny, average-good moisture, soil is alkaline but good.
The soil here is acid and where I have Rudbeckia growing, it's nothing more than sand & rocks. They get full sun but they're on their own as far as nutrients & supplemental water. It's just a guess but maybe your soil is too good for them. I find they do best here if they are growing in the worst soil & get no care whatsoever, including water above & beyond what Mother Nature provides. That being said, I noticed they were just as happy this year with plenty of frequent rain as they were last year when we had 4 months of drought from June to October.
I should qualify these comments and state my plants were winter sown from seeds, not grown from nursery stock. Health & endurance-wise, winter sown plants are giant steps ahead of nursery-grown plants.
Thanks for responding, gardenweed. I posted here because I was getting sizes that were not consistant from the googling I did. One site would say that White Bouquet grows to 6 feet tall, and another said that is a more compact variety - whatever that means?????
Anyone else have White Bouquet in their garden?
Linda
At same age, if annualy cut to the ground White Bouquet is as large as Royal Red that is larger than Pink Delight.
One consistant source for size is Longstock Nursery listing:
http://www.longstocknursery.co.uk/buddleja-c31.html
Another "iffy" method is to dig a hole or trench, set the pots in to the top, then fill the trench with fallen leaves. I used this method successfully to over-winter a dozen roses in containers one year. I think it was a fairly mild winter, that helps too. I'm zone 6. Good luck. When I was a kid, my Mom had Mums that came back every year. I agree what they sell these days is less hardy.
This can be different in different varieties. The leaves on some of mine are already nearly 'gone', but none is 100% brown yet. The most important thing is whether you can see the new rosettes for the next year growth at the base of the old stems.
I get rid of things that don't bloom/grow reliably and plants that turn out to be more invasive than I can deal with.
Campanula is one plant I will never put in my gardens again and am not sure it I will ever get rid of it. Fall blooming anenome, the lavender one, will be pulled out except for a small amount which I will really need to keep a handle on.
I have a garden I just started under an oak tree. I was going to add Aster Divaricatum (just above), and also Biokovo Geranium.
My Ajuga is doing well in dry shade in a couple of places in the yard. Chocolate Chip has really taken off!
I don't remember if it's mentioned above, but Ceratostigma Plumbago has been a dry shade winner for me too.
Here is a garden under an ash tree in OH in it's 
even though the garden was just over a year old at the time, from previously being sparse grass. There are hostas, columbine, creeping phlox, Pulmonaria, Bergenia, Trillium, violets, Polemonium (jacob's ladder,) a few bulbs, Lamium, a little lilac, ready to be a tree if the ash got emerald beetle borers (I moved, remains a mystery,) and a few others I don't remember and can't see from this angle. 4" of mulch can retain moisture for weeks.
Of your list, I would avoid the Vinca. Just too sprawling/spready to play nice with the other plants. In general, you don't want vines in a flower bed. Entities like Vinca or Ajuga that rapidly spread really do best in their own, well-enclosed space. Spreading through other more self-contained plants, these spreaders can make the whole thing look like a confused mess. But, like most things-gardening, this is subject to your personal opinion on the matter.
I buy compost in bulk from Burnco , a place that sells landscaping rock, soil, brick and so forth. I put it on my flower garden in May but don't work it in much - leave it on top as a mulch - it seems to supress the weeds. If I get a chance, I will put some on again in the fall.
If it is a new bed, I work it into the existing soil as it has a lot of clay.
Definitely prune in the spring. You stand a chance of losing your BB over winter if you prune it back now.
Sometimes they break dormancy so late, many gardeners think they are dead. So be patient and wait quite a while before you give them a death certificate!
My daughter planted a Pink Delight this summer and my advice to her was to mulch it in heavily as soon as the really cold weather starts here. My experience has been that if you can get your BB through its first winter, you should have it for years. A little extra mulch over winter never hurts.
Linda
Wieslaw...you did such an amazing job with your garden. I love the way the plants flow together as well as the way you meandered the lawn throughout the garden. Looks amazing!
Would you mind sharing what those colorful plants are in your garden...I am still fairly new to gardening so my identification skills aren't completely there yet. Some look like Rhododendron but I can't quite tell.
Than you!
ATekk, they are basically all rhododendrons, most of them deciduous(azaleas)
The first three on the first picture : Golden Eagle(orange), Feuerwerk(red), Golden Sunset(yellow)
Picture 2: Klondyke(yellow-orange), Blue Peter(light violet), Homebush(pink)
Picture 3: Persil(white), Klondyke(yellow-orange)
Picture 4: Klondyke and Hachmann's Feuerschein(dark red)
Picture 5:Silver Slipper(cream), Hamlet(salmon orange), Narcissiflora(light yellow) Jolie Madamme(tall pink)
Picture 6: left for the tree R. Kokardia
Picture 7: R.catawbiense Grandiflorum, in the background R. catawbiense Album(white), Borsault, and azalea Gibraltar
Picture 8:dark purple is Tamarindos, the light pink on the left in the background is Soir de Paris
Picture 9: Ballerina (white), Sylphides(light pink), Gibraltar (red), the yellow is either Gold Flame or Gold Flare(possibly mistaken identity)
Thanks for the comments.