13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Kez, the coneflowers are 'PowWow Wild Berry' that I had grown from seed, this one with a neat pinwheel effect.
GardenHo. very nice photo, I really like the compact nature of 'Buzz Midnight' and how floriferous even very young plants are.
Debbie, in order to ensure survival though my cold winters, I set plants quite close to the foundation and with about 4 inches of the stem below ground, the heat that radiates into the soil from the cement foundation is sufficient to ensure their survival ... but, again, you must plant them deeply, though I otherwise provide them with no winter protection. On the other hand, I now intent to attempt buddleia in the open garden, I'll just protect them heavily for winter. What I like about these plants is that despite their rather late spring emergence, they grow quickly and flower when most other things are at their peak in my garden. Oh, and yes, this is my first year with the 'Buzz'.
'Pink Delight', the largest truss is 18 inches long! .... mmm, I guess, too long to fit in properly below, lol.
'Crown Jewels', the foliage shines on this one!
You need to remove the entire plant. If you don't, the leaf hoppers will spread the disease to your other plants and you'll have to pull them out, as well. This is a nasty plant disease with no treatment, except to remove infected plants as quickly as possible. Other plants to watch are Marigolds, Asters, carrots,Coreopsis, Black-Eyed Susans....I can't remember any more from the list. You can Google Asters Yellow and get lots of info. Sorry this has dampened your garden enjoyment.
Martha
It is such a delight to see the butterflies out there! They're on my butterfly bush, too, and they also seem to like the zinnias. I only see one at a time, though. Like Arlene, I've seen the monarchs and swallowtails, and also those painted ladies and frittalaries (? sp), and the hummer moth like GardenHo.
Buddleia has been a butterfly magnet in my garden for years. I like to watch them flittering around each other.
As I take frequent short walks around my house and gaze out the windows I have seen lots of butterflies that I might have missed while working in a different part of the garden and focusing on the work. Many varieties including the ones mentioned above. More swallowtails, both yellow ones and black, large and small, than monarchs which are still scarce here.
Mine are definitely "Virgin". I have two larger ones I bought in bloom that were labelled as such, and then I mail-ordered one last fall, which is still quite small and not in the pic, and the blooms all look the same. What does yours look like, GardenHo?
Mine did that this year. This one actually had purple on the flower babies. Two others stayed green. I have grown echinacea for years and never have seen this.
Aster yellows. There is no cure. Best to remove the infected plants. This virus, transmitted by leafhoppers and mites, can spread to many of your plants, including some vegetables. Excellent, very thorough, piece by Missouri Botanical Garden at:
That's encouraging! I find myself spending at least a few minutes every day trying to educate folks about Asclepias plants. "These aphids are ruining my butterfly garden." Then every package of stuff and home remedy for killing aphids gets listed, without stopping to realize that almost all of those things would harm the very butterfly (caterpillars) they're supposedly trying to attract. I haven't seen a monarch since I moved to AL in '07.
Very exciting, and I am jealous. I've only seen a couple of Monarchs in a nearby field where there is a lot of Asclepias syriaca growing, they were both males however. I have been meaning to get back and see if any females have arrived and started laying eggs.
I ran across this the other night. Its a good one for comparing color and size. I think its a gorgeous mass planting of various grasses.
To complicate matters in your decision making process, there is a variegated Moor Grass (Molina) that is quite small, has a white stripe on the leaves and very cold hardy. Has fantastic seed heads that would add interest.
I'm in love with Sesleria autumnalis. Its small, yellow green, tough and really brightens up a spot. The seed heads are downright cute. I'm ordering several more if SRG puts them on sale in late fall & I'm saving seed from the plants I have to sow. They have done beautifully and are 0 maintenance with no extra watering, sun or shade. There is a smaller one that is blue, its used in this planting below. Very well behaved with good color and habit.
Yep, it's fine. I'd like to leave them for the birds, but man do they look ugly! Somebody posted a photo of a bundling of cut coneflower heads a couple years ago (was it Echinaceamaniac?), s/he tied up the heads in a bundle and either hung them or propped them standing (can't remember which) for the birds. That is a good idea!
To prevent lots of volunteers in the spring I cut some blooms off and leave one or two on each plant for the birds. One year I cut them all off all the plants and stuck some in a large pot filled with dirt and put it in the garden for the birds which lasted through the winter resulting in only a few self sown plants in the spring.
rouge..thanks.. .. I love Pennisetum's although I know they're not that hardy in northern zones...
...fortunately my 'Monch' doesn't flop... but I think I'm right in saying that there are a number of clones doing the rounds that masquerade as 'Monch' that do flop.... so we never know which we've got until they grow...
laceyvail, I've never heard of 'Pardancanda', so I got to go look that up...
Here's a few that have really impressed me. Surprisingly, the majority are roses considering I'm not particularly a 'rose gardener.'
Verbena 'Homestead Purple' (planted 2014). Very reliable and very pretty.
Oh So Easy Paprika (Chewmaytime) shub rose (planted late spring 2015) - Grows just 1-2 feet tall and wide with perfectly unblemished tiny leaves and small single flowers that open spicy orange with a yellow center, fading to coral, then yellow before neatly dropping off if not deadheaded before then. Blooms are truly non-stop. All this despite our horribly wet spring and unsufferable hot summer. A perfect edging plant. I only purchased one plant to see how it did. Now I wish I would have planted more. I'm planning to get two more this fall.
Julia Child rose (planted late spring 2015) - I got 2 and they are too young to have reached their mature 3 ft height yet, but they have filled out consistently well and have been blooming like crazy ever since their first flush, even when temps have hovered around 100 degrees this week. The roses are a very pleasing yellow and very full. Very healthy foliage, too.
Easy Does It rose - (planted summer 2014). A floribunda with peachy-coral flowers. A real beauty at its first spring flush, and keeps blooming on and off til frost after that. No disease worries at all.
Aquilegia 'Irish Elegance' (planted spring of 2014) - gorgeous frilly white flowers. Elegant. Carefree.
Aquilegia Origami Blue and White. (Planted this spring). Got 2 of these on a whim locally. They claim they re-bloom throughout the summer but I was skeptical about that here, as hot as we get. I was surprised to find they actually did bloom again, and are still in bloom even now, and it's August 7 today and 102 degrees.
I would have expected to include euphorbia 'Bonfire' on my list because it has looked great since planting last year, but just a couple of weeks ago it started flopping out from the center and one of them is shriveling up and appears to be dying, although there's new buds growing at its base. I'm sick about this. Maybe too much rain?
I bought campanula Sarastro this year and have been very happy with this one. It bloomed non stop for most of the spring and summer. It's not blooming now, but I'm hoping to see another flush. Gaura Belleza, bought this spring. It's looked great all spri g and summer blooming almost continuously. I just hope it will overwinter for me.
Carnival Watermelon Heuchera, planted this last year and it has been growing well and the colors are lovely. Bought these for $4 at Walmart, what a great buy!Limelight and Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas. I planted both of these midsummer last year. Both are blooming well and are so easy care. I will be adding more paniculatas to my yard. They are such reliable bloomers compared to many other hydrangeas.
My last favorite is Royal Jubilee Rose. This was planted last year. It has really shaped up into a great shrub rose. Last year I wasn't too impressed but this year it has been performing well. Most of my other roses have blackspot and insect damage, this one has a little insect damage, but not much, and the blooms are gorgeous! It's starting it's second flush now.
Colocasia "Black Coral" looks very similar to C. "Diamond Head" - both with glossy near black foliage, more attractive to me than the dull-leafed "Black Magic". My favorite elephant ear in 2012 was "Coffee Cups", which is fun to watch during rain as the leaves fill up with water and then dip down to drain it out.
Best tropical accent for me was variegated tapioca (Manihot esculenta "Variegata") which after a couple of failed tries at keeping and propagating small plants over the winter, finally yielded success this time out as I grew several plants to nearly 6 feet (seen here backed by Canna "Australia"):
Musa basjoo benefited from a mild winter, growing to nearly 13 feet:
I just started a Youtube channel that will be dedicated to gardening! My first episode was on my Tropical Garden in Chicago! I would be absolutely honored if you all would check it out and like and subscribe! Enjoy!
Hmmm...
Bluestem grows everywhere at my house... Mulch or no mulch...
I'm sure it does but I like the way it looks best when its growing in very dry soil and I'm not planning to go run out and buy mulch to keep the ground moist around here. Most websites that sell it instruct not to mulch around the plants, I assumed it was to prevent rot at the base although I haven't had any problems except in the way they look growing too moist, it lodges when the soil is perpetually moist & I don't want to encourage that.
You have already bought them, right? What I tend to do is sit the pots out in the garden and move them around until I like the way everything looks, keeping in mind mature sizes. As far as your colors, it sounds like they will all look quite lovely together! Be sure to mix up leaf sizes, shapes, textures since you don't want all the same stuff in the same area as it gets to look boring. More interesting to vary all that. I have ended up needing to move some things that ended up too tall in front or just not playing well with the group. :-)
Aaaannd you could always put the pots out and take a picture for us to critique! ha. We do love pictures.
All three being the same height (except different plants) doesn't work visually, the middle odd duck guy seems like he's between twin brothers with a strap across his middle.
I agree completely tr2. Thanks for the confirmation.
If I keep all three in the same location then next season I will make a much more conscious effort to cut back each of the sunflowers with more gusto earlier in the season to keep their final heights much closer to say...3 foot.
When in doubt, Chelsea Chop! rouge, give us a thrill and post those Splendide pics from last year, won't you?