13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

I've had my main plant for many years now; it's up and so are the seedlings.

Well, two of the four plants I have (had?) have finally decided to make an appearance! YAY! Maybe the other ones will poke up soon too...

Yes Kirstin! My forecast is cloudy/50s for the next week...on a planting marathon and waiting for the sun!

Nice combinations all!

Arlene, that's a great shot. I love purples, silvers and blues together.

Oh, my husband threw it out as soon as it stopped working! I was not at home. We then bought an all-metal cart (not auto-wind) that lasted only for that summer, before it broke.

The self wind hose reel we have is ReelSmart. It works very well.

Thanks, catkin. I'm looking forward to reading up on all your posts.

Tiffany, i noticed on your profile page you list beautiful and interesting foliage as one of your big passions. That is something that has always interested me, too. I love to make plant combinations that feature interesting contrast in leaf texture and color when grouped together. One area of my new garden that gets full sun has tango tangerine alstroemeria, south seas daylillies, russian sage, oh so easy paprika rose, julia child rose, and purple verbena in it. I've been looking for something with black foliage to add in there. Have you had any experience with sedum knight rider? I am tempted to try it because i think the color and texture of the leaves would make a pretty contrast. And it's just about the right height (around 24"). Best of all, they claim it stays upright and doesn't flop out in the middle like a lot of the taller sedums do. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the flower color. I can't decide if it would clash horribly with the yellows and oranges of some of its neighbors.

Garden phlox - Phlox paniculata - is an upright growing form that is anywhere from 2-4' tall. Leaves are not those of any hydrangea species. Barring any closer photos to confirm, I agree it is garden phlox.

I'm thinking garden phlox as well. A closer photo would help in identifying.

Phoenix Perennials in B.C. have just started up a mail order section. I'm lucky enough to shop in person there every spring. I've picked up some choice plants there.

Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Phoenix Perennials

UPDATE:

In the mail today was my small order of 4 perennials from "Canning Perennials" (3 Minnie Pearl Phlox and 1 Uvularia Grandiflora). The plants are large, well rooted and healthy from the box:

the trillium makes me think a VERY EXPERIENCED collector of native plants.. once haunted this garden ... [meaning they werent shopping at bigboxstore]

i suspect we might be hearing from you a lot ... and if so.. figure out how to add a big city name and zone to your GW handle ...

ken

I don't think Rodgersia is native, but it sure is gorgeous. I'd love to wander through your yard o see what else is there. How much property is there, and is it all shade?

Martha

Zone 7a, and it's been unusually warm, but we have a few cool days coming right now so I'll try to take advantage of them

I try to wait, but I have been known to move/plant things when it is 85-90 degrees and sunny (though I prefer cloudy days). It can be done....great advice above. :)

Lily of the valley is pretty but it only blooms for a short time in the spring and then you are left with leaves. In my mind it is invasive and very hard to get rid of. It took me 3 years of constant attention to get rid of all of mine. It took over the bed completely so it was impossible to plant anything for bloom later in the year. It spreads by rhizomes under the soil. If you've ever tried to get rid of quack grass you'll know what you are dealing with.

I liked it at first, so much so, that I pulled up extras and put them into two other flower beds. BIG MISTAKE! This stuff needs to be contained or else it spreads and makes a dense carpet. I keep pulling it away from other plants so it won't choke them out, but so far I'm losing the battle. Someone on GW put a barrier around hers and she says that works well. I wish I would have done that. Too late for me now, but I hope this helps someone else.

will do Linnea. . . my hostas aren't directly under the tree, their bed is several feet away but I gather the droppings and scoop them up to use them under the hostas. If your tree droppings are pokey maybe that's why you don't have the slug problem. . .even tho it's moist. . .

I'm not too concerned with the id of the tree, as we are seriously thinking about taking it, and another just like it, out soon. We live in my husbands grandparents house and we have a pic of the grandparents holding his mom when she was a baby, the trees were 2' tall. MIL is now 64. One is leaning (bad more like laying) on the neighbors house and the other one is doing the same on our house. I cant say I will miss them.

~Debi

Will go an try to get the cranky camera to work (lens error!) tomorrow (just got back from woods)- but in the meantime, I have pennies all round the edge of pot, overlapping each other, around 2-3 deep so they do not butt up too closely to the hosta stem(trunk?). I did check and astonishingly, they are still uneaten - this is miraculous because they invariably look like lace doilies by now and have to be stowed in the corner of shame...where they go downhill even faster. Admittedly, snails have been known to abseil onto the hostas from above (after shimmying up a sneaky chaenomeles) so I may have to move the pots to centre stage to avoid overhead parachuting.

Congratulations indeed Paula, that bed looks great!

You are going to have a terrific garden, between the plants you will keep from your new house and everything coming from your previous home.

There seems to be some confusion over your Stachys, I think because folks are looking at the set of pics from May 11th as opposed to the May 7th pic. Those square stems are a very telling feature of that plant. If they get full sun they should silver up.

So happy to see your progress!

OK - I've got the Stachys pictures sorted out now. I thought I'd scrolled right to the top but I hadn't.

Regarding the Oregano - it doesn't matter if you don't know what Oregano smells like. If it has a strong herbal scent that's a strong indicator since it isn't any other common herb that I know of. If you can't detect any scent then it is definitely not Oregano. It's just a way of eliminating that candidate. It's going to flower soon so that might also help id it.

rouge21.....yours are just lovely! so wonderful to see them so large! gotta plant some!

Ok, because of you guys, I bought the yellow leaved dicentra (I might post the official name later as it is dark out). The last one I had bloomed then never came back the next summer. Fingers crossed as this is such an elegant plant!

I have the same exact problem. I'm living in a gated 300 unit townhouse complex with no deer or wild animals other than an occasional possum, raccoon a squirrels.

I just took a walk and noticed 100s of cut-off Agapanthus (peter Pan) buds or crowns missing here and there but mostly where there are no windows or owners around. The crowns or buds seems to be cut off at the very top with a sharp object and are nowhere to be found! Who/what is this? Please let us know because it's driving me and my neighbors crazy spring after spring.

Apparently missing agapanthus buds is not all that uncommon :-) Although I have no personal experience with this critter, those in the know attribute the damage to "lubbers", Eastern lubber grasshoppers. It appears they are very attracted to the flower buds of a wide range of ornamentals in the Liliaceae and Amarylidaceae (where agapanthus was once located before being assigned its own family).
Romalea microptera - eastern lubber grasshopper