13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

thanks everyone, it is the Monarda citriodora, my friend gave me a bloom and I saved the seed anyone know if i will have any luck with they coming up?

According to my sources Monarda citriodora is an annual.

'Deer resistant' mine is not. I normally would cut my Montauk back by about half when the new spring growth is about 14/16 high. That would occur in early to mid June. However, the deer usually beat me to it. When that happens, I just neaten up their work. The deer never come back to the Montauk a second time in a season, but do come along in July to help me pinch back the phlox right next to it.

do you fertilize it???

often.. things that flop.. are growing too vigorously.. because of excess fert [which in some cases is any fert] .. or just too good of a soil ... though no one usually complains that ones soil is too good.. lol ...

if you fert .. DON'T ...

and of course.. learn how to prune it properly.. per the above link ..

ken

mnwsgal--did you have to chill your geum seed in order for it to germinate? I purchased fresh seed in June and had 0 germination. I just took the pot out of the refrig last week and am sstill hoping for germination for my Blazing Sunset. Any advice appreciated.

I did not chill the seeds. My records indicate that I sowed three seeds on 4-9-09 and had germination of all three seeds on 4-20-09. All three plants are growing well in the same bed. They were commercial seeds marked 2008. None of the seeds that I winter sowed on the same day germinated.
Good luck.

brody,
Verbascum chiaxii is called nettle-leaved, so its leaves should resemble those of the nettle. But I have not seen it myself.

To the others: it can become weedy if you let is self-seed. I've been there. Although the wild form(yellow) is often described as biennial, the white cultivars proved to be very long-lived here in Denmark, bulding giant clumps. The roots are very thick and long. The plant can choke small neighbours. It is most attractive as young. Big old clumps have many stalks, but the individual flowers get smaller.

In your second picture, the small bright green leaves on bottom right with the long white petiole MIGHt be foxglove seedling. Any signs of miccrofuzzums on it? My foxglve seedlings tend to have long stems like that.

You should really have a great time choosing all the dwarf shrubs - it is one of the funnest gardening things ever, in my opinion. :)

Not having to do with color - here are some other comments:

Be sure to keep height in mind when planting them out. Ken does a really masterful job (see his third picture) of keeping things low in the center so you can look out into garden from the patio and framing the whole with taller statuesque evergreens. Add in all his color and texture contrasts & you have an absolutely gorgeous view. In your case you have to deal with two direction points - looking out to the street from the house AND from the street towards the house.

Examples: Are the hydrangeas the tallest shrub? if so where do you want them? do you want to see past them looking out of the house? can you? or maybe coming into the house? or providing privacy? or hiding some of the rest of the garden so people find a surprise going around them? do you want their greenery fronting other earlier blooming things? Also where do you & your wife want to see the massed flowers of roses & hydrangeas? as you drive up to the house, or from your picture window in the house?

I like to use a lot of height contrast in my gardens, with surprises here & there (see Ken's picture of the tall skinny shrub with the tiny low shrubs), not all graduated rows of stuff - but you can get dizzy if you plant so your eyes go up, down, up down all over the place (my tendancy). So don't dot all your real dwarf plants in and out of more normal sized plantings.

Also keep in mind that a truly dwarf conifer that grows an inch a season can easily be outpaced and hidden by a small shrub rose which starts at 10 inches high, goes to 18 inches in one season, and 2 feet plus high and wide by the second year.

I have also found that even carefree roses need some fertilizer to keep blooming heavily year after year. Sometimes it is good to keep things with the same cultural requirements together, water, fert, pruning, dead-heading, etc.

Have fun! You're doing a great job (and of course it is much easier to tweak a design when most things are small in stature, so don't worry if something outgrows it's space, just move it next year).

thanks for the help leslie. I always struggle with the height but I've gotten better.

Here is a pic from my last house. Its an out of season pic so as you can tell I' starting to favor conifers and late blooming perennials and shrubs to extend the season as much as possible (especially that late Aug to Sept time frame).

now hubby and I sit out there every night with our coffee, staring FOREVER at this thing so as not to miss it, lol.

Pam, it sounds like you have a very exciting life, lol! Actually, it sounds very relaxing, especially if accompanied by an adult beverage. ;) Just googled O. triloba and WOW, really pretty flowers, but boy is that foliage weedy-looking.

I started O. macrocarpa from seed several years ago and have mature plants now. The flowers bloom in the spring and look similar, probably larger, and quite lovely. But again the foliage is a little weedy and looks ratty now.

And do I dare start O. speciosa from seed? Gorgeous flowers, but supposed to be a rampant spreader.

Yup, there's no question the foliage looks a bit weedy! But it keeps blooming and blooming, and more shoots come up all the time. And it doesnt seem to be that fussy about where it is, sun or part sun. And now that I know what they are, and what they do, I like how they look in the garden :)

Oh Terrene, yes, believe me, those relaxing moments are just what the doctor ordered. The rest of our life is completely topsy turvy, chaotic and insane. lol.

Yes we are thinking of putting in something from the thistle family, something prickly. We thinkmthey're quite beautiful. Thanks for the suggestions ao far.
I will go look those up.

Eryngium is a Thistle-like plant you might wish to consider.

Brenda, here is a blog from McAllen, TX.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: blog

Kathy Thanks so much for sharing the blog with me ....such a great site!
Looking forward to the winter and gardening in your area!
Brenda

The Wrecking Crew actually know when they're coming here. I think the smell of the ocean tips them off, but they will be asleep in the car and as soon as their mother turns down our road they get up and are on alert. :)

When you have pets one of the things you appreciate most are like-minded friends who will take care of your animals when you need/want to get away.

Michelle - we only had 10mm. of rain in July compared to our usual 70+mm. August has been a big improvement so far - ~40mm (1.5"). August rainfall varies extremely from year to year but has averaged about 80mm. over the past 10 years, so we're on target for an average August. Randy kept the newly planted things watered in July but most of the backyard has survived without water. The shade from the ash and oak is very important - we never watered the lawn at all and it stayed green through this terrible drought! I've noticed this summer that lawns in the neighbourhood that were not watered stayed green under the canopy of shade trees while any bits in full sun have long since turned brown and crispy.

Chelone - Copper's owner says Copper's like that - as soon as she turns the corner onto our street, Copper gets excited. Liam's owners say just mentioning 'Susan and Misty' gets Liam excited :-) Actually Liam arrives early Wed. morning for a week or so. Phoebe will be happy with that - she was getting a bit bored and restless yesterday afternoon. She was trying to get Misty to play with her but Misty is too old now to want to play vigorously with her big buddies. Liam, however, will gladly chase and be chased...

Yesterday Phoebe met Zoe (Rottweiler). They've met before, but it's been a long time since Phoebe stayed here. Zoe was not full grown when they met before and Phoebe was bigger than her then. Zoe is now a slab-of-muscle fullgrown Rottweiler and is definitely bigger than Phoebe! Zoe is very friendly and sociable with both people and dogs, but is a bit intimidating to look at :-) Phoebe hid behind Randy when Zoe approached! As soon as Zoe stopped moving towards her and sat down, Phoebe came out from behind Randy and started to approach Zoe. When Zoe got up to meet her, Phoebe zipped behind Randy again! I dispensed cookies all round and we walked on - they will undoubtedly meet again and Zoe will look more familiar to Phoebe next time. This morning she met Crosby (half-grown chocolate Labradoodle). They got along well, although Crosby was more interested in getting cookies than meeting Phobe :-)

That toad is wicked cool... I really, really like him. I also really like the conifers; they're so sophisticated and I bet they look fabulous with a dusting of snow on them.

It looks like a wonderfully interesting garden. I do think guy gardeners can have a different take on things than women gardeners. I think the slate table is quite cool. Thanks for putting these up Kathy.

Perilla frutescens. Annual, self-seeds abundantly

Thanks so much for the ID! I had never heard of that plant before. I typed it in Google after seeing your replies and sure enough, that's what it looks like! I wonder if it flowers late in the year. This plant is big and hasn't gotten any flowers. I really like the looks of this plant and am glad that I kept it in my butterfly weed section instead of pulling it out. If it does flower yet, I think I'll save some seeds and plant it elsewhere next year. We have a small bank along the road where we're thinking of planting something because it's hard to mow there, but I'm not sure if this plant would be tolerant of the salt that will get on there in the winter from the road.

I'm into butterfly gardening and I don't know if the butterflies would be attracted to the flowers, but as far as I know it's not a host plant for any kind of butterfly. I just think it's worth keeping because of the beautiful foliage.
Cathy

My Sang came about a month ago as a bare root plant, so it's just growing leaves now. I did notice something about it's foliage that's similar to my roses; spider mites find it attractive. I'll need to remember to include it in my spray schedule.

I do not agree with one of the statements above that sanguisorbas don't need staking. This is not true,unless you want them to lay down on the ground or leaning very much , then they do not need staking. I have had a number of them and only following plants are selfsupporting: Pink Brushes and Red Thunder. The majority of the taller ones will be knocked down by rain+wind. Stand up Comedian will stand when young. In bigger clumps the branches growing outermost will start prostrate and then going up, taking much space. The worst of all: Chocolate Tip. It DIED from mildew!!!

Bravo Woody!!!!! Wow, this is looking great and will be spectacular in the coming years. I wish I had your luck with clematis. They always seem to wilt or get eaten by the voles so it's a celebration when I have a good showing by clematis vines. Love you collection and placement of these beauties. Looking forward to future updates
Deanne

Deanne - the swag may be my consolation prize to compensate for the decline of Vyvyan Pennell! You might have noticed that I didn't post any pictures of Vyv this year... I obviously made a big mistake when I cleaned out a lot of dead older wood in spring 2010 in an attempt to encourage it to regrow and climb higher than the 3-4' it used to achieve. It put out some nice new growth last summer that was climbing nicely and looking good. This spring the new growth it put on in 2010 also looked good - until a couple of giant snails munched through the stems! It went into a severe decline after that and only managed a couple of flowers. The killer heat this summer probably hasn't helped much. At the moment it's a few pathetic stems and leaves, no higher than about 8"! I can only hope it might regrow from the roots next year like The President did this year. The Pres. had died from top to bottom last summer - just sort of dried up and turned beige, not the black of wilt. I thought I'd lost it but it came back very vigorously this spring. I'm hoping Vyv will do the same next spring.