13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Marie, if you want to change the name displayed you can do that in a few clicks.
Go to
1) "Your Houzz" in the upper right corner of your screen
2) On the next page "edit your profile" in the upper right
3a) under "Profile Information" and "First name (publicly displayed)" put in whatever you want to show when you post and while you are there you can add your zone under "About me". Mine (which they filled in after I emailed them about the lack of zone information) reads: "My zone is: z4b-5a NH".
Elsewhere one of the Houzz staff wrote that the zone will appear when you post in the GW section of the forums, but not if you post on Houzz. Since I never go to the Houzz part of the site, I haven't tested that out.
I particularly welcome early bulbs in areas that melt sooner, both the early shoots and the blooms. I have an uninsulated foundation on part of the house, and along the sunny parts of the uninsulated foundation I can see sprouts of reticulated iris and foliage of Colchicum, both of which seem quite frost-proof since it hasn't cleared 25 degrees for several days and is still getting into single digits many nights, not our usual for late March (or even late February.)
Colchicum put out spring foliage, but bloom in early autumn.
Most of the garden is still under at least a foot of snow. I do know that the shrubs under the dump line of the eaves will need to pruned to ground level, but that was planned for and the spireas and Annabelle hydrangeas are fine with severe pruning. I am not sure what the arborvitaes in the large shrub bed will look like, and elsewhere there are a few deciduous azaleas that look somewhat flattened. Our first snow of the year was heavy and wet which then turned to ice, so most things have been entombed since late November even though I did my best to clear off the worst of the snow before it froze on.
I hope that PM2's 'SKy Pencil' and Marie's Japanese Maple recover from this winter!
Finally a border without snow in it and surprise, surprise, daffodil foliage just coming up in spots!
Barb, is that a current photo of Colchicum? It's really up high already.
Marie, glad you are keeping your Maple, I hope that goes well.
Wow, what a lot of clean up to do out there. Boxwoods look horrible. I am going to have to cut them back drastically. Oh well, they'll be small for awhile, but they grow fast and won't need much pruning for a couple of years, if I have to cut them back that far. I'll be surprised if I find one that doesn't need a severe cut back. I can't see them all yet. My two in the front are extremely slow growing, so I hope I don't have to do much pruning on those.
Vegetable beds still frozen.
Marie, and Barb, the Sky Pencil won't be straight as a stick for sure. It looks like they'll have a little curve in them, but that's okay. The potted Sky Pencils I saw at Stonegate had the same kind of shape. They were mature and had a sort of tear drop shape. As long as they remain vertical, so far, I'm okay with them. And they still have some snow at the base, so they may straighten up a little more when all the snow is gone. The dump line of our garage roof, is over the Sky Pencils, that was the problem.
Barb, I gave up on trying to keep the snow off anything. The snow was too deep to get to anything in the back and all the shoveling around the front just piled it all up on everything.
We had to have roofers on the roof this winter and they trampled a Hydrangea in the front, I'll have to cut that one back severely too, but at least it blooms on new wood. I used to have an Annabelle there but I changed it to Madame Emille Mouillere. I see I had Deutzia and Syringa pallibin that is crushed along the back dump line. Not surprised. The couple of Arborvitaes we have look okay.
I had assumed the Delft Blue came from your garden....? I didn't do anything special to it when planting (my usual procedure is to dig a not-too-big hole, loosen up the roots if the plant looks pot-bound, plunk the plant in the hole, put the excavated soil back around it and firm it up....!) I planted the penstemon where it gets decent sun and on the front half of the main front bed where it is on a slight slope. So it made it through the winter on its own! The sedum you gave me, on the other hand, appears to have vanished (or else I forgot where I put it!)
I'm still wondering about the color on the Delft Blue - it sure doesn't match the images for that variety. Does anyone else on here grow that one? If so, what does yours look like? Whatever this one is is very pretty. I like it better than your Red Riding Hood :-) so thank you for this one!
Floral, if I remember correctly the ones I had did, not one for the show bench with it's split caylxs but still a very pretty cottage flower.
Thanks Patty, only trouble is this darn border thing, so plants are out, seeds are OK :)
Annette
I have it but I bought it as a plant. I've done a quick Google and I don't see any sources for seed over here either. I'm wondering if it would come true even if it did set seed? My plants have not produced any seeds that I've noticed but then the dying flowers are a mess. They tend to get sodden rather than dry so I often dead head them. The plants are easy to obtain and cheap here. It's a pity you can't find them. The smell is lovely.
California is the land of micro climates. When living in Watsonville with the marine weather influence it grew like a weed. Although we had lots of foggy summers it thrived in what little heat we had. Here in Calistoga away from the marine influence, we get just enough frost to keep us from growing it. I will bet that in Atherton with the right exposure it will grow fine. Al
FWIW there's a hardier hybrid in Europe called B. X spectroglabra that is probably fully hardy in reasonably sunny, warm parts of zn 9* but it's unclear whether it has ever been imported into the US or recreated here. These are the ones seen around the Italian Lakes region and in gardens along the Atlantic coast of France. (I already spend too much time trying to find the whereabouts of rare plants that could possibly grow for me, and shouldn't stuff my brain cells with information on ones that one that couldn't...but oh well...it is what it is)
* - I think it they could cover shop windows in London, they'd already be doing so
Thanks NHBabs! I am just wondering in your case if it could be a PH issue as well as the wet. My soil is slightly acidic which is fine but I see many references that they prefer an alkaline soil. In spring mine look like the pic you showed here.
I totally agree kfless and floral I have never seen a Lavender that blue!
Years ago I planted seedlings of a hybrid form of Lythrum salicaria in the garden. They self-seeded very scantily. Unfortunately the Japanese beetles loved them. There may be a remaining solitary plant remaining in an out-of-the way spot.
Liatris is often mentioned as a good substitute for Lythrum, but it really can't match its ornamental performance in my opinion. Long-flowering Salvia hybrids are a better bet.
"Self-seeded very scantily" that's precisely what I've seen, Rusty.
I wonder whether supposedly infertile garden purple loosetrife cultivars need to be within pollinator range of free-seeding wild plants to occasionally lose their self-incompatibility.
I haven't planted any purple loosestrife for years. However, it always annoys me when people imply that there are equally attractive garden substitutes here for horticultural purple loosestrife. I agree with you, for instance, about Liatris.
At the same time, Liatris is a great garden perennial. I've used a lot of 'Kobold', which I find a particularly attractive Liatris cultivar. I also do agree that one may well get more and longer (with dead-heading) colour from a number of long-lived perennial Salvia cultivars (species or hybrids).
Shaytala, the seeds are larger than petunia seeds, at least a 1/16" across.
Here is a shot that shows one pod that is opened up on the end. Notice that there are buds that haven't flowered yet, on the same cluster as the ripe seedpod.
The second shot, I have dumped the pod out, and the seeds are lying next to it.
If you are not finding any seeds when you hold the ripe seedpods upside and shake, it's possible that the seeds have already fallen out.
Hope this helps!
Bonnie
v1rtu0s1ty(5a) I am new to gardening and have just deadheaded my sweet william plants. I think I managed to get some teeny tiny powedry brown seed like things similar to the ones shown in your wet paper towel next to big black seeds. They are not seeds..right? Should I have waited more before cutting brown dry flowers?
I don't know what the latest name is but maybe it's some type of Dwarf Knotweed? (I think that's a clickable link)
Yes, that's it. Thank you!! It's a shame...I didn't realize it was such an invasive. It is a little aggressive, but my 10-year-old patch at my old house was only about 4 feet by 4 feet, and it was a lovely filler with lots of bright colors. Sounds like I should probably dig it up at the new house?
.... moved the rest of my Brugmansias out of the greenhouse, not out in the open yet but into my garden room, (fiberglas roof, latticed walls). I've had a sacrificial lamb out there for over a week, it's doing fine so the job of emptying the greenhouse and trucking the more tender things up to the garden room has begun.
I need the space for seeding a few perennials and potting on the tomatoes until safe to plant outside (May) plus I'm experimenting with some Oca and Crosne tubers and hopefully a couple of Yacon tubers if I'm lucky. These will be growing in tubs so if needed they can go back in the greenhouse in the fall to finish off. Tomorrow even if it's still raining it's time to get all my water barrels cleaned up and filled it looks like we might be heading for a very dry summer and very strict watering restrictions, hardly any snow pack in the mountains this year. On one hand mild winters are a treat but then the consequences :(.
Annette
I just cleaned up my snowdrop bed, figured I should get it done now since there's snow on the way tomorrow and I want to be able to enjoy things as the snow melts back again lol. Snowdrops and hellebore sprouts make spring seem closer even if it did drop to 18F again last night!
I disagree with ken. I would cut the plant all of the way back and see if the new growth comes in healthy. Be sure to get it planted properly in a suitable location. The terrible condition of the plant is due to chronically poor cultural conditions.
These plants respond just fine to drastic renovation pruning and now is the time to do it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
$3 isn't so bad, in my opinion. Especially for Klehm's. Their plants are huge!
I've noticed some sellers on ebay will ship unlimited numbers of plants for $7.99 (or similar). More and more I'm checking ebay before I buy from an online nursery site. Usually I end up going with the nursery, but I've found some great deals on great plants and trees on ebay.
I dont know if this is helpful or not....if its applicable to this situation....but whenever i order online, i alway google "company name discount coupon code"or "free shipping coupon code". Several sites will come up. Check out the first 3 to 5 links. I'd say 20 to 30% of the time i find codes for 5 to 20% off or a free S&H code. Not always, but it never hurts to try ;-)