13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I will never forget one consultation I went to where the entire front yard was overrun with donkeytail spurge. So I say be very afraid :-) And it is on our state's noxious weed list if you need further justification. If you want a similar look, opt for Euphorbia rigida. A well behaved choice.
I love hardy euphorbias but I seriously dislike those that seed themselves around willy-nilly. And E. myrsinites fits that bill.
greenhearted in our zone at least for me F. r. does not attain thug status. It does not form a tight clump but roams within reasonable parameters in a large garden. Does your clay tend to hold plants in check? Mine are in good loam.
linnea56 Filipendula purpurea 'Elegans' is not a thug at all. The flowers are white, however the stamens are reddish giving the flowers a pink look. Maybe not nearly as pink as some images though lol! It is a terrific plant that I hope you really enjoy, I know I do.
peren.all, thanks for the additional info. I live in farmland territory (surrounded by cornfields) and the ground here is pretty fertile, though it is on the alkaline side which binds up some nutrients (hello, iron chlorosis). My experience is that if a plant can survive the heavy, somewhat slow to drain soil then it tends to take off after its established. But I generally don't try and plant things that require different conditions than what I have.
Pest trees? Can you eat my variety? I have many fruiting mulberries...soooo messy. Stepping on the ripe mulberries and tracking the purple juice all over. And they keep coming up everywhere. Then there's the poplars (cottonwoods) which have roots taking over my lawn and impossible to grow anything in the ground within 30 feet. And there's the 6 cherry plum trees planting long ago along the driveway dropping plums as we speak and the birds continuing to plant new ones. Also the amazing liquidamber. Huge tree dumping spiky balls so I had to finally give up the lawn underneath as mowing was a real hassle. Aaaand, the "wonderful" ailanthis trees along my east border...I've devoted this year to killing them, spray the suckers weekly, after having had the trees cut last fall. They are relentless.
I have two very nice fruitless mulberry trees, good shade, no falling fruit.
Note: I did not plant any of these. A prior homeowner is guilty.
Thinking of Wieslaw and his great mixed herbaceous perennial gardening.
Personally. I still hate the neighbour's and the township's silver maples.
Another really bad one here is introduced (invasive) common buckthorn which is spread around via birds. No I don't want to get rid of the birds!
There was a large buckthorn thicket in our neighbour's ill-kept garden. However, (luckily?) he was quite happy to have us pay to remove it. He's also been quite happy to have us pay to remove branches from his silver maple which overhang our property.
Not sure whether our diffidence should extent first to our neighbour or to his trees. Still the neighbour's not all bad, certainly not as bad as his gang of trees.
Camp, I do love it although I just about took it out after we had a high windstorm one day and snapped the top off, since then I've let several branches grow outward and keep the new sucker growth cut out, a sort of pseudo palm tree shape now to go in my pseudo courtyard, or maybe more like the tilt a whirl ride at the amusement park :). This is just outside our dining room window, in the fall when the leaves turn color and the pink berries, lushous. Again not a great pic but here's what the top looks like now, pic taken from our dining room window, each year the shape is getting to look a little bit better.
Annette
Glad they are replacing your plants......you obviously didn't get what you were wanting the first time :-)
Yes, lithodora will spill over the rocks very nicely. And flowers really are that electric blue color. Rather striking. Unlike Malorena's experience, lithodora in my climate is a spring bloomer. A long bloom season to be sure - late March to early June - but once that main flush is over, just a very sporadic rebloom with a few flowers here and there through the rest of the season. And not a sign of a flower thriough the winter months :-)
Thanks so much for all your help Gardengal. I knew we'd get this all sorted out. I just love Garden Web Forum and all the people like you who have helped me to become a gardener over the years. I still have a lot to learn but I sure know a lot more than I did a few years ago. Thanks again!!
They don't seem to be fussy about soil, and will grow in acid sand (what I have), but are native to areas with neutral to basic soils (OK and AR) that are much more clay-y in texture. Patience . . . you bought little bare root plants, which IME unless they were handled quite well at the nursery will grow slower the first year than ones that weren't bare-rooted. They will bloom when they are ready.
My Baptisia gets infested with the genista broom moth every year. It is beautiful until then and then it turns webby and black. Awful! I decided this year to dig it up and toss it. Ha! It came back! I do love it. Just didn't want to contend with the infestation. I had been wondering about whacking it back and am glad to read all the advice here.
JRTs are feisty little cuties! :-) It sounds like both you and your little Pom x were lucky together! It would indeed be a deeply sad day when you had to say good-bye to a loyal friend who shared so much of your life.
And putting up with some traffic noise would probably be worth it for that view! It's relatively easy to 'filter out' noise that is always part of the background I think. I lived near train tracks for a few years in university many years ago. Train whistles and the rumble of the train cars passing by drove me crazy - particularly at night - for the first week or two. After that my brain figured out that I didn't need to be aware of the noise, unless it was different than usual, so I just didn't hear it anymore other than being remotely aware of it in a background 'white noise' kind of way. Has the traffic noise faded like that for you?
Woody, after 50 years I don't even notice it until I look over and see DH has been trying to say something to me, or is it after being married to this wonderful guy for 59 years I just tune him out, I'm almost positive he tunes me out, he'll say you never told me..... LOL.
Annette
Thanks for the San Marcos reference.
"Semi-hardy" still looks like an understatement, seeing that we did not have consistent snow cover over the winter and all plants which were fairly small to begin with survived (as clumps, not newly reseeded sprouts).
It makes me wonder if others in the "Lake" series might be worth trying as perennials, started from seed no later than early summer to allow time for development ("Lake Michigan Violent" was a slow grower).
@ Camp, I hope the ipomopsis is IN the ground because they get a tap root going fast. I Never plant them in pots. They really perform best PIG. They will do fine in the sandy abutment that you talk about. These big ones might have germinated in Spring last year and not flowered in fall. These guys can be variable about their behavior. In the wild they germinate in spring and fall and they bloom in all sorts of sizes. I even had one that bloomed in the fall and I cut it back and it darn if it isn't blooming again with multiple stalks.
And if you post a picture of the little guys that you do not have names for, maybe we can guess what they are.
Afraid they are not in the ground but are in deep pots. I did transplant some very tiny ones in the allotment and will put the others in the soil...but hey, it is a (steep) learning curve...and I fall off the track with regularity...and, of course, I still have that huge packet of seeds in the fridge.
I rarely sow direct unless it concerns annuals or wildflowers or | have mountains of seed...and even then, I like to keep my seedlings close (not in a testing woodland habitat, filled with unknown creatures and trying growing conditions). Still, the rate of germination (100%) and speed of growth (rapid) means I will be throwing seeds around willy-nilly on the sunny south-facing boundary.
I will definitely take up your offer of identification (although current camera is iffy) as I suspect I would still be in the dark with their true leaves...and it could be years before I see a flower.
I cut mine back to 3-4" or so
Thanks, greenhearted!