Lilies: I'm a newbie & I need help with Asiatic and Oriental Lilies!, 2 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
That is interesting! I must have purchased, and then seeded, 50 campanula persificolia. And oddly, the supposedly invasive glomerata disappeared from my garden - all three colors. Frankly, I pretty much ignored my balloon flowers, other than deadheading them. There is an immediate "dropoff", then they persist. Three platycodon grandiflorous were installed for me. I lost one, but had the others fromm 1998 to two years ago when I moved. They were near a viburnum dentatum that was rarely watered. All of mine, I realize, were on the south side of my yard (HOT!) They got occasional watering, and I think thta they are not fussy - my soil was quite alkaline.

The stuff in the bed in the picture that grew successfully was rose Marchesa Bocchella, Rose Morden Blush, Salvia Rose Queen (much tougher grown from seed!), miscanthus sinensis gracillimus, salvia coccinea coral and white, parsley, and allium christophii.

I germinated a bunch of them and got 11 white and 7 pink years ago. There was a dropoff, after a year, of 50%, and the rest thrived. One thing about them is that I germinated them over and over again.

Here are my seedlings from last October of 2012. They are surface seeders, so it's easy. The tough part is transplanting them and bringing them up to size. I got them into pots by digging deeply below them, and out them in the ground, but lost them all to curious squirrels and chipmunks. Since I grow them from seed what the heck. Last October I saved four from ravaging beasties and put them near Gruss an Aachen in the front of my yard, marked the location, and kept treating them. We'll see.

One thing I have noticed is that there are a whole bunch of plants that do much better if you grow them from seed. Heuchera for one. Salvia Rose Queen is another. I must have planted 20 that I purchased before I started growing them from seed. I had ten in my previous yard, and brought several with me. I threw one in a pot for months and rarely watered it. I thought that putting it in the ground was a waste of time.

April 7, 2012 after a winter in the garage not being watered. Picture 2

The same plant on May 1, in the ground. Picture 3. It's a zone 3 plant, by the way. And even if they heaved, I built the soil up around them with compost and they all lived.

By the way, the source of every seed mentioned here is JL Hudson. Whenever I find a plant that I like, and want to grow a lot of, I go with his seed (I love surface seeders because I'm lazy). I bought one bergenia winterglut and loved it. I grew half a dozen more, and they are with me here at the new house. The same with fragaria vesca reugen. I had enough to use them as edging plants (with the help of bunnies and bird that ate the berries and, well, spread around the seeds.)

Another campanula that looks delicate but has persisted for years is Campanula trachelium Bernice. I grew it with lilies at my former home and have it in two lactions here. I had to purchase it but it is really tough. I "lost" one amongst a bunch of other plants. It was a tiny scrap of basal foliage. A little water, a little compost, and it was rocking out two weeks later.