13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
I planted some purple ones many years ago. Of the ten bulbs only one has survived. It has never bulked up so there is this tiny plant with even tinier bloom surprising me each spring. Then it disappears. Have thought of trying some white ones, maybe this will be the year. My expectations are low but as you say they are inexpensive.
I'm not sure what happened to your hellebores, but I can give you my experience with them. I planted them where they would receive some morning sun, and afternoon shade,no mulch. I never removed any green leaves. As ocelaris said, they are nearly evergreen, and I'm sure those leaves are needed for the plants live and grow. `The only leaves I ever removed were old leaves that were dying or dead, usually around the bottom of the plant. Also, I think hellebores do better in a sheltered location where they don't bear the brunt of cold, winter winds. I think you should just leave your remaining ones alone, water them during dry spells, and see how they do. Hope this helps. Growing hellebores has been easy for me, and I certainly don't have a thumb that's totally green : )
Woodrose, thanks for your reply. Yes, I think you're right. I sometimes read the blog 'A way to garden', and she advises cutting off all the old foliage in the spring when new growth is emerging. But maybe this works better for (or at least doesn't harm) established plants than very small ones. Probably by removing the foliage (even though it was pretty beat up after the winter), I weakened the plants :(. Well, lesson learned. I will know better next time.
I have tried a bunch of the western/dry Agastaches and the only one that has successfully overwintered for me is A. rupestris. None of the hybrids have overwintered for me, even on a steep slope in a relatively sandy soil and not cutting back the previous year's stems until new growth is visible at the base. We tend to not have midwinter thaws, so my plants are usually buried under snow for a couple of months and only get the cold wet conditions they hate for a short amount of time in the spring.
I don't know if you have seen this page describing A. Rosie Posie but it emphasizes the need for winter dry and says hardiness of 5b in their garden, so your level of success may vary depending on whether you can supply superb drainage and have no winter thaws to create cold damp conditions.
Sandyslopes,
Thanks for the 'like' :) My soapwort really acts like a groundcover. I have it in an area where there are rocks bordering a sloped bed and it really stays pretty well contained there. My problem with it is whatever type of weed that winds up growing inside it that also LOOKS like soapwort but isn't. Once I wound up picking most of my soapwort along with the unwanted weeds! It sounds like your soil is probably a bit more fertile for soapwort than mine. I wish it WOULD spread a bit more...I'd be more than happy. Actually I've tried to move it around to get it going at different places around my beds and often it just didn't take. It seems to like the 3 different places where I have it, and that's about it.
I bought Lamium Purple Dragon and Phlox....neither of which is particularly susceptable to diseases or pests and neither had tags.. I noted the ones that were pesticided but I forgot; usually in a daze by the time I leave a big box.
But thanks for pointer. Iĺl continue to be attentive.
One of my favorites as well; have grown it for many years and it has not pushed anyone out yet ;-) I occasionally do like Ken and trim out anything encroaching too much and stick the cut ends in a pot of soil to make new plants. This last fall, I trimmed a bunch of it down and stuck the cuttings in a pot and left the pot outside in our zone 5 winter and all my cuttings came back this spring. Pretty amazing!
love, love, love this, and I don't think it will give you a problem. I wish mine would grow more, faster, and better! In my garden, it's a clumper and a slow grower. (I just found seed for some and hoping for lots and lots and lots of it to cover the large area I need.) Enjoy!
I go to the arboretum more often too, as a friend lives near there. Luckily the geraniums are well labelled. My "unknown" that I think may be Bevan's Variety is showing a few buds. If they are more or less on the same schedule (Mortons seems slightly ahead), I'll know when to go back to look.
I don’t know what kind of Baptisia it is. I was really surprised when it bloomed for the first time this year, and I saw it had butter yellow flowers. I was expecting blue. The yellow is a nice soft color, but it’s placed among daffodils, so it doesn’t stand out at all.
Would I be better off just adding the soil around the Baptisia? Not trying to raise its level up in the new soil? I did that yesterday (I am doing the bed in sections so everything moved can be replanted immediately) with a Alma Potschke aster that was too woody to fork out.
The Meadowsweet is Filipendula purpurea 'Elegans' (F. palmata) Pink Meadowsweet, H: 24-36" W: 18" , though I have never really “seen it in action” . I hope moving it will not set it back much. This is the third time I have bought one filipendula or other, so I was really happy to see it survived the winter.
I've learned so much from Growing With Plants:
http://www.growingwithplants.com/
I also enjoy Each Little World, because she knows so much and we're in a similar zone:
http://eachlittleworld.typepad.com/each_little_world/
She doesn't post very often, but her blog has the best photos and is a true design inspiration:
http://www.thegracefulgardener.com/
If you put the term 'blogs' into the search box up top and choose the option to search in Perennials, several threads will pop up. Here's one.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1610064/what-are-your-favorite-gardening-blogs?n=3
Wonderful, I've never seen this offered either but I have seen it mentioned/pictured in many books, mostly written in the UK. Camp, good to know about it being started easily from seed. Do you also save your seed from this plant--silly question, I know!
I got a good laugh on this one. It makes a lot more sense growing S. greggii in pots than a certain someone I know of who's been growing prickly pear cactus in pots for quite some time now, in Texas (!) of all places.
The G. salvia have a fairly compact root ball but think of those poor suffering cactus who like to send out 6 or 7 ft long, shallow, anchoring roots being confined and stunted in pot prisons. If anyone asks me, a pot amounts to cruelty to Opuntia cactus. Up north where its wet I could understand but in Texas?
Personally, I would imagine the salvia is probably an excellent candidate to be grown as a pot plant, thats probably why the ones I planted in what I call crap-hardpan out there are going great guns in full bloom. They don't seem to mind root confinement. Its one of those plants that will grow where nothing much else will I found. I overuse them shamelessly.
I guess when it comes to "why are you doing that" some people would wonder why this Okie just forked out $50 for 5 plants of a strain of Los Lunas Little Bluestem when the whole country side is covered in the stuff. Answer is "I have my reasons".
I had my reasons too. I was just beginning with cactus and those coreid bugs moved in in force and reduced the ones in the ground to weeping bleeding 200 lb monstrosities. They had me spooked. The pads in pots on my elevated bridge seemed to be escaping them. I had not improved the soil for the cactus beds to receive them. Time got away from me. Even Cactus does not like this limestone marl/caliche. I have been bringing in soil finally. Broke ground on another bed. This might actually be a good thread. "The crazy things we do in the garden for a good darn reason , or for that fact for no reason at all."
I don't know which *bang* series it is and no pix yet (I just got it in the mail today from Wayside gardens) its called Sienna sunset. . . kind of a peachy typical coreopsis, they say the color fades to a pale yellow with age. I love coreopsis. My thread leaf (2) didn't make it thru the winter :(