13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Your plant looks pretty healthy to me! I have never added lime before so I can not say, I grow mine in a mixture with peat so it does add to the acidity and I have found they like that just fine! I have added bone meal and liquid seaweed in the springtime although I added it to them all, so if it did anything I did not have a 'control' group to see any difference! They just need moisture but well-drained soil!

OK thanks. I need to be patient. They are building roots.

Mulch will help with the weeds that arrive by seed, but in a thickly planted garden those usually aren't bad. I have some older, more established gardens that rarely get mulched because they don't need it for weeds. The plants themselves do a decent job of covering the ground and suppressing weeds.

Personally, I have never dealt with evening primrose, or bishop's weed, so I don't know just how bad they are to get rid of. The nuclear option is to pull all the other perennials out of the bed, cover the shrubs, and douse the whole thing with Round Up. Then you wait a couple of weeks for more weeds to appear and do it again, and repeat this all summer. This is what most people in this thread think you should do. It isn't easy, and is more disruptive than you want, but it does tend to work. (I have dealt with a bulbed weed that took two summers to get rid of, but you don't need to know that) A less disruptive option is to carefully apply RU to the leaves of the offending plants with a foam paintbrush, Ken's mustard bottle or some other kind of controlled applicator. This should kill the root structures, and all the offsets from those roots with fairly little collateral damage. This should be done while the weeds are actively growing, and isn't going to be a one-shot deal. It is going to be part of your normal weeding process for at least a year.

I don't think you've told us how big this garden is, or if the problem weeds are concentrated in one part, or spread throughout it. If they are in one area, then of course just pulling everything from that area is an option.

There really isn't a quick fix for a problem like this, and it isn't an off-season job. The weeds have to be tackled while they are growing, and that is when everything else is growing also.

Here are 2 photos to give you an idea of how dense this gets. I am looking forward to taking this on at the end of the gardening season so I don't lose my fancy annuals (datura, lisianthus), and yet address this while the weeds are still active. Thanks for that great idea about the foam brush/squirt bottle

I'm still still too lazy to do that seed-o-promise. I'm zone 7, maybe I will just start writing it in. I used to do that early on, I had put it up there with my name each time when I remembered to do it back in the old days.

Peren.all - you've convinced me - I will look for that campanula! :-)

I was able to take a close look at the flowers on my helenium this afternoon. The petals are definitely not tubular - although they do curl up in a U - so it's not the 'Loysder Wieck'. My guess then would be it's a seedling either from the Loysder I had, or from a neighbour across the street's plants - I'll have to take a look at what she's got growing there now....

Where are you located? I would love to take a road trip for a shade tolerant sunflower. Within reason, of course.

Martha

mmm, I fancy trying it with asters.

i am sorry.. it reads like i offended you .. i hope not ... i was just joking around..

forgive me ...

worry away .. everyone needs somewhere to vent ... we will help you work thru anything .. except the wedding.. lol .. good luck with that ...

sorry

ken

No, no. I was just going to edit my post cause of that. you did not offend me, Been here too long for that. "know you" too well for that. I actually appreciated your observation, I've deleted my worry paragraph. Feel free to delete your unnecessary but gracious apology.

Marie

Sun for morning and afternoon, shade in evening (so, sun).

Started with 3 plants, they filled out nicely, although they were good-sized plants to begin with

Thanks, mxk!

If you can stand an annual coreopsis, I've been growing Coreopsis tinctoria for years. I have two types of seed. One is a yellow with maroon center and the other is the reverse. The red is really a deep rich color, so if you are looking for a bright, hot splash, this won't do it for you. I mix the two in my garden. I'll see if I have a picture.These all self seeded this year, but that is the first time that ever happened. We had an unusually wet spring. The picture is pretty accurate as far as color goes, though it doesn't seem as vibrant as in real life.

Martha

Martha, that looks good. I like the colors together. Don't you wish they self-seeded every year?

In my pic above I managed to plant those zinnias into the garden, but usually I don't get enough annuals planted except for pots on the decks and maybe a row in front of the vegetable garden.

I want to get better about adding annuals, but I'm ashamed to say that this year I still have marigolds in their winter sowing containers. Poor things. :-/

one problem.. might be.. that dividing now ... for sale now.. might result in ugly severely stressed plants... that a gardener might see the potential of.. but others might not ...

many peeps in the trade ... divide now.. into a nursery bed... and pot next early spring ... so they have vibrant, healthy plants.. that call to peeps ....

in other words... you might attract more of the lesser gardeners ...

but you will end up with leftovers.. so plan ahead... and have that nursery ready ... and un pot and replant the divisions.. for next springs sale ... presuming you find the effort worthwhile...

ken

I go to an annual plant swap. Preparation is similar. You don't make any money, but sometimes it's good to make room in the garden and know the plants went to a good home. Because I'm not selling them, I don't feel too badly if the plant does not meet expectations. I label everything with a name and brief description (I type up labels, print out, and staple to a popsicle stick) : but some who bring things don't even do that.

..I can relate to that rouge.... in my last garden I took on a strip of land adjoining mine, which belonged to a neighbour but they didn't want to do anything with it.... had old trees and shrubs removed and planted it all up the way I wanted.... non gardeners think we're mad.... they're probably right... you did a great job anyway...

rouge - you planted it, you take credit for it! your land or theirs :)

My sedum was a beautiful crimson color when I bought it last fall and planted it. Now it's grown into a healthy mound with many blooms, but unfortunately they're pink. Any ideas. I'd love that reddish color again

Nearly all tall stonecrops - Hylotelephium species and hybrids - go through a series of color changes as they bloom. The pink color yours is now should intensify to a darker brick or rust color as the flowers mature. As these plants are just now coming into bloom, it's still a bit early to see them having developed their best color.

Be had this plant for 3 years,the first year it bloomed great. Then 2 years now good foliage but no blooms? Can anyone help?

...over here, - long way from you I expect, I find they need lifting and dividing quite often, almost every year and they like moisture during the summer... lots of it.... I have the variety 'Blazing Sunset' which is very similar and clumps dotted around all over the place, but those on drier ground don't repeat without moisture....

...these are still blooming but need deadheading...

Flowers and veggies, what's not to like? Great closeup of the dragonfly.

thx for the effort.. to post the pix

ken

Same here, I have it on a 'wild-ish' hill behind my house and the deer haven't bothered it at all, and I don't spray it. I should have sprayed the Annabelle hydrangea near it, but didn't until after the fact) High deer pressure here too.

I've never had any problems either.

I actually think most of the plants still look good now, except for the germanders but only because there are so many of them. The rest of the plants, though full, don't look overgrown to me but I like things spilling or bursting out a bit in a less formal look. Even the one germander on the right in your first "now" picture looks like it could stay as is, but it's just combined with the others that they look too dominant. I'd leave that one, take out the others, and fill in the holes with plants of your choice. Catmint is another choice for the color schemes you say you like (pick a smaller cultivar).

There are actually only 3 germanders total - one on the left when facing our front door and 2 on the right, they have just sprawled so enormously! I have hacked them back from the path but they spread about 6-7' wide along the length of the path the the 2 on the right have blended into a single hedge more or less. I am not even sure if I can physically hack them back to 6", I will have to buy an electric hedge cutter or something, I think. I use hand shears to keep things under some degree of control now and that means weekly hedging. But it's even difficult to walk up the path with groceries or items because it's pretty narrow.

Unfortunately, I think I will have to dig them up. I think I will list them free on craigslist for someone with a larger space to enjoy, because I hate to kill perfectly good, vigorous plants. Anyone on this list in the SF bar area who would like them? I dread digging them up I bet the roots are tree-like!

Thanks for the artemisia suggestion, it looks like a plant I would enjoy. I'm also considering trying again with russian sage, but using "little spire" the shorter kind, i absolutely love the color. Maybe paired with something yellow, like I had in my original garden but all those smaller plants got crowded out.