13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
It is very hard to do but try to remember that depending on when you start you will probably have to pot them up at least once and need room under your lights for this. I like to plant large plants outside so I plan on having them in 18 cells/flat at plant out date.
There is no general rule as when to start, unfortunately. My last frost date is the same as yours and I just started some of my slower growing cool weather plants this weekend (Pansy/Viola and some bulb onions for example). I also sowed some of my perennials and roses.
morz8 gave you a great list for perennial seeds. I also suggest looking at a site like stokes seeds and it will tell you when they suggest the commercial growers to start for bedding sales. It often gives you approximate transplant and bloom times as well as what size pot to expect in the given time frame. Also it will suggest whether the seed needs to be frozen etc. I have found the info they give to be quite accurate, YMMV.
If it was me I would start at least a few seeds of each now. It will give you practice and any mistakes won't set you back considerably. Plus you will know what to expect from each plant. And it is a fun way to break the winter blues!!!
SCG
Hi Barbara,
I'm in IL as well - far NW Chicago suburbs. Last year I planted a bunch of Arizona Sun from seed - probably too many! Assuming they come back this year you are welcome to some if you are close to me! Also, if you are looking for good compost I really like the Organimix from Midwest Organics. Check the link for places that sell it.
Here is a link that might be useful: Organimix
From one website's description of the Campfire rose:
"Campfire Rose variety starts to flower in early summer and remains in bloom until hard frost sets in. Can a passionate gardener ask for anything more?"
Well, yes. Fragrance. This particular rose however is described as having a "mild" fragrance, which in my experience means you have to stick your nose deeply into the flower to possibly detect a vague hint of scent. Sadly, that's common in modern roses that otherwise have fine attributes. I have a carpet-type rose that bloomed steadily this past year when other roses had an off-season.
In terms of having hardiness, disease resistance, good rebloom and marked fragrance, rugosas generally score well.
Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Pavement
I finally killed ours dead, it took 3 years. It was a massive thing growing on a chain link fence when we bought the house and always looked ugly by the end of the year-- something was always eating it. Maybe it was chili thrips? anyway, it was hugely big, messy and ungainly, rather weedy looking to me and I gagged on the smell when it bloomed. The orange daylily's planted thickly in front of it made it over the top offensively ugly. For added charm, it always had vine milkweed growing up in the mess too twisting around the other green sloppy mess and into the chain links. It took some diligent whacking, picking out winding stems, digging and round-up but the whole disaster (including the gosh-awful row of messy daylily's in the forefront) is now gone.
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 14:19
I'm probably going to yank both my main perennial bed clumps of "Autumn Joy" this spring.The plants look promising up until bloom time, but hold color only briefly before going a dull russet-brown.
Sedum "Autumn Fire" has been much more showy and dependable over a long blooming season in my garden.
Just realized my Sedum Autumn Joy has lost all its glorious beautiful leaves and now just a sad looking green bare stalk. I tugged at the root it is still firm. Is it normal in the winter? It flowered quite a bit from Oct - late Nov but hasn't grown much (at all) and is still fairly small from a gallon pot starter that I planted in the ground.
One that used to be used a lot in hanging baskets and containers around here but hardly seen anymore is trailing nepeta, it comes in both plain and variegated foliage.
Another that goes dormant in winter but comes back in the spring is Kenilworth ivy (Cymbalaria muralis ), a pretty little thing but you have to keep an eye on it it has the habit of spreading itself around.
Actually they have been selling Dichondria argentea in Texas for eons amongst the native loving crowd. It is a standard in Nurseries here that have a stock of natives. It is native to the Big Bend area of Texas and Tucson . Big bend area is Z8b - 8a. Tucson is Z9. I have been growing it for 30 years in and around Austin and it was only damaged when we had a freeze to 12F. It comes back up from the roots every year. I think it grows in moist canyons there because it appreciates a tad more moisture than desert xerics. The common name for it in Texas is Silver Ponysfoot. It is a great spillar for pots and raised beds and will appreciate a draining soil in houston. It wanders all over my garden. I love planting tires with it.
My earliest bloomers are Hellebore/Lenten roses. My soil is sandy, slightly acid loam and we get consistent snow/rain/moisture here. Hardiness zones for them go from Z4-9. Mine form buds in December every year and they bloom between March and April. The flowers are long-lasting and there are many cultivars available.
Here is a link that might be useful: Hellebore
If you purchased this so you would have winter flowers, you might want to consider investing in some heavy weight spun-bond row cover such as Agribond. On nights when freezes or frosts are predicted you could wrap the plant in a couple of layers. Particularly if it is in a sheltered location such as next to a building or if you add a string of holiday lights under the row cover to add a bit of warmth, it might save your flowers and reduce the branch die-back.
here in MI ... when i get frost or freeze damage on various plants ...... i give the plant AT LEAST.. a month.. maybe two .... to get its act together.. before i go cutting on it ...
often ... its just leaf damage.. and the branch itself.. can releaf ...
but how that all works in TX .. in winter .. with a winter blooming plant.. is beyond me ...
ken
Phylis, depends on the plant. Most of the scabiosa, some of the aster, will benefit from the 40F temps of your nights that you describe and germination could be improved by sowing those while its cool. Echinacea aren't damaged by the cooler temps, but they may not necessarily need it and wouldn't germinate until conditions are warmer. The cool moist overnight temperatures could help to break dormancy of rudbeckia seed too....
I'll leave the vegetable sowing to someone else who grows in your zone, its too chilly to consider here farther up the coast. And last year, we had a cold snap in early February that was a surprise, a definite hard freeze into the teens a few consecutive nights.
See which specific varieties you have, then check them here for germination conditions and temps:
Here is a link that might be useful: Germination database
I have some rubekia that has sprouted a couple of weeks ago in the garden. they are small an not growing . I hope they are working on their roots. We have a few warm day and then it is cold again. highs right now in the upper 60's and low around 40. I expect a couple more hard freezes. Most of mine are sewn in the ground. I imagine that in CA. you want to get things going as early as possible to take advantage of all that beautiful rain. We are having the first dampish winter in a long time and I have been seeding perennials all over and seeing great results. I am talking about drylands gardening. I do not water and depend on the rain. Many of the ones that I use seem to come up when it is a bit cool . i.e. the penstemons. I am seeing them pop. God, you have to look carefully. I did get some wild asters popping to. I am seeing Dalea purpuria and Oenothera macrocarpa showing leaf. Generally , in Texas I try to get many perennials seeded in late fall and winter. I do suggest looking at germination temperature tables.
If you are in doubt, reserve some seed and do some later. I have seen that the west coast is projected for a warm winter.... if you can believe that. Believe it at your own peril. I am projected for 3-5 degrees below normal winter so I will throw some leaves over the babies if the cold one comes. So far it has been cool for longer but no real vicious cold snaps. It is still well above are our average minimum . Keep your eye on the 10 day forecast if you ate going to play the seeding outdoors game. I am seeing all sorts of seedlings in my garden sprouting . some I want and some I don't.
They don't die back at all here. I cut them back in late summer if they have those long runners because I think they look ratty, maybe that puts the energy back in the center? They grow new leaves in fall & winter that are evergreen, right now they are all thick and green. I've relegated them to the less attractive dry border -- the tree roots competition part of the garden -- where the really tough stuff is needed because they are so easy to grow anywhere and they take a lot of dry shade well. Anything like that ends up in that spot.
TR10 - I had never heard of milkweed vine so was curious to learn about it. Some Googling around turned up the article in the link below - it looks like this vine is indeed important for the Monarchs in the central plains area where it grows. I also found lots of references to a somewhat similar-looking invasive vine called swallow-wort that is detrimental to the monarchs - see:
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/documents/Swallow-wort_flyer_MJV.pdf
The decline of the Monarchs is very obvious here the past few years, so I hope they will be able to make a recovery eventually!
Here is a link that might be useful: Milkweed vine and Monarchs
Woodyoak, I'm pretty sure vine milkweed covers a large area of the US & seems like I read it grows native all the way up into Canada.
I believe planting milkweed makes people feel good and like they are helping and to a small degree I imagine it does help a small percent of them. Still, I can't help but think its just a tiny drop of 'fix' in a big bucket toward improving the larger problem of whats going on. A bigger problem is the situation in Mexico with the "handful" of remaining wintering shelter areas warm enough for large numbers of them to survive so they can make the yearly migration at all and make use of all that milkweed being planted in peoples yards.
I certainly have the plants growing here to attract butterflies but we have been pretty short on many types of butterflies, not just monarchs, and those are just as big a concern to me even though they don't get the press coverage. Some years are good for butterflies, some bad. Sometimes fall is heavy, sometimes spring is, sometimes neither. It varies from year to year.
I'm editing to add that the terrible and lengthy drought we've had throughout the mid section, which we are hopefully coming out of, probably did more to reduce the populations than tropical butterfly weed planted in peoples gardens which by the way isn't winter hardy except in the deep southern zones.
Here is some good news.
Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/9337/20141002/monarch-butterflies-expected-rebound-mexico.htm
This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sat, Jan 17, 15 at 18:24
Appears to be an interesting plant, for those that are able to grow it.
I suspect that a Hardiness rating of Zone 4, is a result of someone's misunderstanding or a vivid imagination!
Ligularia hiberniflora is endemic to the neighboring Japanese Islands of Yakushima and Tanegashima, where it is companion to Ligularia tussilaginea.
As a result of several high mountains on Yakushima, the climate varies from sub-tropical to sub-alpine, but as we have determined from growing Ligularia tussilaginea, it would not be reliably hardy below Zone 7. In fact, I make it a practice to protect my several different cultivars, when the temperature is predicted to fall below 10°F.
Let us know how your sun-burned patients progress!
In the meantime, I shall be on the look-out for them to appear at my local nurseries, who will sometimes offer something out of the ordinary!
OT...
I am of the old, old school and still prefer the familiar Genus designation of Ligularia!
After all, the change to Farfugium was ignored by the scientific community for almost 70 years, why the urge now to recognize it?
I have it in my yard, bought it last year and put in a wooded area. I think I may have watered it times, it bloomed for a long time and tripled in size in the first year.