13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Mine come out at different times, the time depends on the type. I wouldn't dig them up this early. Just cut it back to the ground & clean out debris so you don't have to look at a mess of stuff around dead stems if thats the problem. You can always buy new ones but the bigger more established ones seem to me like they will survive next winter better. Some of mine sprouted from the stems, others from below ground and some are still not showing signs but probably will, one year the yellow ground cover kinds that are commonly sold here waited until mid May. Sorry I can't name mine, they are from several sources and Farmers Market just sells them labeled as 'hardy lantana'.

samnsarah: I love your sprout pics! How exciting! I knew the pic of the blooming ones was from last year, as I remember seeing it last year and admired them then too. :-)

Transplant shock is all that is. Once you plant it in the ground give it a nice haircut and I'm sure it will take off nicely! Also try to take all the new soil with it so as not to disturb the roots. Good luck :)

I must say that the one in the blue pot looks better than the one in the grey. Please let every one know if the gaura in the grey pot gets better. The grey one doesn't look like transplant shock to me. But still could be something else and grow well for this point on.

I've only had to viruses that I know of in my plants. Aster Yellows and Tobacco Mosaic Virus that wiped out my ligularias. I'd just always rather err on the side of caution.

Tex, You have your vision of the CA Bay Area right- it can be nice and warm and foggy up there in San Francisco in the winter and very cold and windy in the SUMMER. Bring a warm jacket! Really! It's the ocean influence causing that.

We are in the South Bay, 50 miles down the coast from S.F. in a wide valley and we roast in summer and we also worry about fires and where will we get enough water?

At the same time, half an hour away over the low western mountain range by the ocean, everyone is cooler and enjoying the beaches so we can escape the heat there. Problem is, we eventually have to come back.

This year we had ZERO rain in December and finally a few days of good downpours but its been sunny 70s and 80s since and I will soon have to begin watering again. Very strange weather. Min

I leave a lot of my perennials dead stems intact over the winter to create some interest. I do this with my sedums, mums, and lantanas. Speaking of lantanas, how are use doing? All of my Sonset Lantanas have returned.

if the area is wet, you need plants that like/tolerate wet soil--there are a fair number of them, both shrubs and perennials.

Here is a page from the Missouri Botanical Garden on problems with yews including a few that are root related.

Yea well, you live and learn,

in an average summer the temperatures rise to 100 F and slightly more, just not last August....

And I think it slowed down some plants.

So now we have durable, sturdy black stuff in place, areas around the apple tree or which are too stony get covered with cardbord/ newspaper, which I started collecting last winter.

Now I am pondering to buy some thermometer gimick thingy to really clock maximum soil temperatures (there is a sciences nerd slumbering inside me...).

We planed to keep it covered till September, could check occasionally and play with lay out ideas in the meantime. One surprisingly annoying weed or wildflower is pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria) which IME can smother freshly planted perennials and is a nightmare in a veggie plot. Hope we get that stuff removed, well or resort to plan B and plant really tall perennials. :-)

Well than thanks for your comments, bye Lin

I went out this weekend and began clearing last year's plant debris from garden that had been under the black plastic. I was pleasantly surprised that there were almost no weeds, even though it has been uncovered since winter, due to the plastic becoming brittle. All my other beds have a fair number of weeds popping up so I really think the black plastic helped.

The few perennials that I did not remove from the bed due to the bindweed infestation were peeking out - Daylillies, yarrow and a peony. I think this method would have been great if I could have kept the plastic on longer. In any case, I dug out what was left and plan to plant the grass seed tonight.

Good luck with the new method Lin!

Lupins will not grow well in alkaline soil - I can always get one decent year out of them but they just go chlorotic and fade away.

Slugs eat the emerging foliage to the ground if I don't bait them--reminds me to get some beer!
Beautiful Derek!

Thanks for coming back and updating, CMK.

Red Satin is coming back here as well. Now if she can stay healthy this well be great. Star Clusters are back for the fourth year now.

Yes catkin. The outer edges have shallow roots. The main root is much deeper but is easy to remove also, if necessary.

Thanks (although late) Peren!

In case anyone is interested the program i use is called Realtime Landscape Architect by Ideaspectrum I gave a link to their page where you can download the fully functional (yes you can save) trial version. Only difference between it and the full version is the amount of plants and materials available to you and its says trial all across it other than that its a pretty great program and you can import your own materials into the program and also googlesketchup files

Here is a link that might be useful: Realtime Landscape Architect Free Trial

I'm a bit stuck with Realtime Landscape and I can't find a dedicated forum. How do you create those raised flower beds? If I use Terrain / Area Grader I can't go any narrower than 1.52m. If I use Add / Landscape / Region then I get a hump with rounded sides attached to the base even with Height Taper at 100.
Thanks

I have always thought cardinalis preferred wet soil mine plenty wet but sunny dont do well is it just to hot near greenville nc

Lobelia cardinalis grows on banks and sandbars of rivers here. It certainly prefers wet. And yes, you should have an evergreen basal rosette all winter..and growth from that should be initiating upward now.

And another funny thread on Home Disasters:

Anyone remember the thread about DH's disasters?

I really love these old threads full of wisdom, common and not-so-common sense, and funny stories. I've been reading this forum (the GW forums) for years and I always get something new from the old threads. So thank you!

"with an open crawl space under the porch" . . . I would start by using wire mesh or latticework to cover this to keep critters out. Around here, it's common for skunks to want to move into dark areas like this, and I can't imagine that you'd like them as close neighbors.

You might want to do two or three photos of your home from across the road. Take one that looks at the whole front yard straight on, and one standing in the same place but rotated to the left of center a third from the same spot, but rotated right of center. That way anyone giving you advice has a feel for the entire yard you want to landscape.

we are imaginative but not that good! Get out there with yhour cell phone at take some shots.

Each situation is different and where I live it is very different than the two posters above. Here I grow xeric plants because I got tired of wasting water, besides its getting to the point that supplemental watering is not an option if a person has a conscience at all down here in the hotter and dryer Midwest and SW. Many xeric plants do not benefit from the addition of compost, it makes the soil too rich -- so what to do? It is advised to add Soil Mender (trademark) Expanded Shale, very coarse sand or chicken gravel. What I was after was raised beds with lean soil that drains fast. Thats what I got.

I brought in drainage material by the truckloads. Amount matters and people who have done this successfully will agree with that. Those who merely theorize, I don't listen to (obviously) especially if they live in a place so entirely different than mine.

I second Ken's statement in the original post ANYTHING BUT CLAY. Roots cannot breathe in it, its a sea of sticky mud after rain, it dries hard as a rock & forms large cracks in summer which harms foundations, its hard to water once it dries out which happens quickly here and it is unpleasant in every imaginable way.

Personally I hate gardening in clay, I refuse to garden in clay and I have definitely fixed that by getting drastic and not letting tales of doom influence me. My soil is now sandy. Most plants that are appealing to me require excellent drainage and are not conventional bedding plants & they do quite well in it and have for several years now but I also found the more conventional plants do very well too. I've read all the comments against doing this and how it makes concrete (false) but my experience in my particular case in this particular part of the country for my purposes has proved it to be very successful. I always wonder if all those people saying to never add sand have ever actually done it or are they all just quoting from the same source? I don't know but I do wonder.

"I second Ken's statement in the original post ANYTHING BUT CLAY. Roots cannot breathe in it, its a sea of sticky mud after rain, it dries hard as a rock & forms large cracks in summer which harms foundations, its hard to water once it dries out which happens quickly here and it is unpleasant in every imaginable way."
This is true of the "bad clays". There are better soils classified by USGS as "loamy clays" that are some cases considered excellent agricultural and agronomic assets.

"I always wonder if all those people saying to never add sand have ever actually done it"

Yes I've been gardening since I was a child and at some point in my teen years naively added a bag of play sand to an 5'X5' area because I'd read somewhere it would help me grow dwarf conifers. In fact it, yes, formed something that became, in places, even hardier than the native red clay of Virginia. There IS a way to do it: if it worked well for you, you found that way. But it's not always the best solution...just as adding organics is not always the best solution, either! I think we are all more or less agreeing there is not always a one-size-fits-all fix.

cf: http://puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/horticultural%20myths_files/Myths/Amendments%202.pdf