Favorite astilbe 2

I hope this works
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1010033/#new

Somehow I think it bombed.
Hope everyone can find the new thread

Your link worked.

OMG thats a lot of responsability.Hope I remember How i did it.

I love this 'Visions' astilbe. The plant tag just said 'Visions' and not a color. Guess I lucked out.

Nice with the hydrangea

Thanks. I'm going to delete all the deer food in that area (daylilies) and replace with hosta - just a different kind of deer food.

I call my Hostas in the lower garden the all-you-can-eat-salad-bar for the deer. I don't use any deer repellent since that area is so big. To replenish the repellent every time is beyond my patience.
pirl - Nice grouping. Lots of color there. 'Visions' was on my want list but I couldn't decide what color to go for.

Many of us have neither the patience or the time to constantly spray to repel the deer.

Thanks. It was the one and only Visions they had so I bought it. When I cut back the flower stems from last year I counted 19 of them. Not bad for a 4 year old plant. I just might split it up if I can get to it shortly.

Pirl suggested Hakone grass and its just the image I had in mind, for the edge of the Giant hosta garden

Glad it worked out so well. It does look lovely.

Pirl, that astilbe is gorgeous. Rich, raspberry pink is my favorite flower color for anything. I think I also have a "Visions" astilbe, bought when I first started gardening. It's a paler lilac that yours. I need to get rid of it or move it where it will be treated better (watered). Anything in the very back tends to not get watered well. So needless to say, it doesn't bloom well and barely survives.

I bought something today I really, really don't have room for- Dicentra 'King of Hearts'. Again, the flower color got me. I was thinking I might keep it in a pot or use it to replace some non performing Heuchera ("Hollywood")

Violet is probably my favorite color in the garden along with that ethereal blue, like Royal Aspirations delphinium.

Astilbe can tolerate a lot if they have constant moisture. Why not try the water crystals?

ge - I love my "Hak" grasses. I even have some in a pot and they overwinter in there just fine. And they're easy to divide. I'm thinking about 'Beni Kaza' but haven't bitten the bullet yet.
Noreaster - I didn't think I'd like my 'Braveheart' (am I remembering that one correctly?) because of the yellow foliage with the pink hearts but ended up liking it. The foliage did it for me.

I have found hakonechloa m. All Gold to be the most reliable performer.
It clumps up quickly and is really a gold accent.
I've been disappointed by the new red-tinged cultivars, such as BeniKaze and Nicholas.
I have found All Gold far more vigorous than the more famous Areola.

Thats great news

Have had 'Areola' for several years now so that's the one I've been dividing. 'All Gold' has only been in my garden for two years and it's a bit slower but it's also in a different light situation.
What's the downside on the 'BeniKaze'?

I am looking to choose between the 2

I prefer the variegated one, ge. It holds the interest of the eye more - just my opinion.

Here's the growth rate on the Hakonechloa Aurea for me:

Left: 7/13/07 when I planted it.
Right top: 9/7/07
Right bottom: 9/29/09 (after I divided it!)

I like both varieties, and the albo striata variety, which is also a fast grower....faster than Aurea The most vigorous for me is the all green one, which is too vigorous, which is why I'm getting rid of it this year. I'm not real crazy about the ones with pink/red in them because they look kind of busy to me.


Pirl, I really like your plant marker there....Did you hand letter that with a marker or something? I don't usually like markers, but that one is very unobtrusive.

Thanks. I do the lettering myself - Calligraphy 101 in Adult Ed. many years ago.

I have a green and white grass - Carex Siderosticha, very well behaved and works well with Polygonatum and friends. I'll have to take a photo of the area.

I had that Carex s. also but had to move it elsewhere. It is pretty vigorous and I have a tendency to plant things rather closely. Sounds like the pairing with Polygonatum would be great. I moved mine to a rather rough place in the lower garden so I'm curious to see how it holds up.
I was thinking about the all green "hak" grass but I'm too much of a sucker for the yellows. My 'All Gold' doesn't seem to have that uniform arching habit like the others - maybe it's too young yet.

I have Carex Bowle's Golden, which is the same color as the gold Hakone....I really like it, but it's been a super slow grower for me (which in this case is fine, because I just crammed it in there). The all green Hakone is more upright than the other varieties, and besides being overly vigorous, I think it's kind of boring (maybe wouldn't be, with the right companion). But man is it tough- I actually dug one up a few years ago, and left the whole rootball sitting out, totally uncovered, the whole winter. It lived!!

Here's the Carex I have...I'll see if I can find a picture of it in my garden. It's four years old and just a little spritz of grass still.:

http://www.finegardening.com/plantguide/carex-elata-aurea-bowles-golden-sedge.aspx

It's certainly a nice bright green.

I'm more of a fan of the low mounding grasses than the upright ones. Funny how we can sometimes forget a plant is out of the ground for an entire winter and yet it thrives. I've done it often enough with hostas and daylilies.

Cindy - my Siderosticha is at the base of a 50 year old spruce and how it even survives, without any extra watering, just amazes me. Maybe it would be more of a spreader if it had what it wanted...but it doesn't (and won't).

I have Bowle's as well as a few others. Show me a yellow grass and I'll buy it.

I suffered a severe guilt trip after my post about plants out of the ground and FINALLY did get to plant two daylilies that have been waiting for about two years (maybe three) and I even broke down and gave them some food.

I decided to buy both Gold and Aurelia? The gold doesnt show much in this pic.Its in the rear where its shadier.

This message was edited May 5, 2010 12:54 AM

ge - Congrats on the acquisitions. I think you'll like them. They make a nice statement without flowers.
pirl - Know what you mean about plants out of the ground. I did some renovation in the lower garden last year, had pulled some ferns and plain green Hosta out. They had sat out so long, I thought they were toast so threw them in the compost pile. This year I have both sprouting in my compost pile.

Compost piles can produce such healthy plants! I've had dahlias, sedum, creeping Jenny and a daylily (I hope it's not a ditch daylily) come up in the piles. It's kind of decorative, don't you think?

Found a fern very late last night and the only place I could plant it (where I had enough light to see what I was doing) was behind a big old spruce. Since it's so hidden it will probably end up being gorgeous.

Who knew propagating could be so easy? I also get Virginia bluebells sprouting out the sides of the compost pile. They seed themselves here with abandon. How can I pull out a blooming plant?
Ditch lilies - does anything ever kill them (aside from chemicals and even then I'm doubtful).
I think I had considered the all-green Hakone as a bamboo substitute (kinda).

I only have to plant the divided ginger in front of the Hakone.

Ginger? Tell me more.

I have been trying to replicate this combination. I have a big clump of ginger growing in the middle of three columbines.I can divide it and plant in front of my Hakone and Heucheras.

This is how far I got.Ginger will go at the border.

Hi all catching up from last thread. ge1836 your combo with the ginger is to die for! Are those shiny leafed plants in the border violets? Also all I was THRILLED to find an inexpensive three-in-a-bag of Amethyst astilbe at the hardward store. I killed mine cuz I moved it too many years in a row methinks.

Hi Dnut.
No violets In the original pix which I borrowed from Google, there are ginger plants at the border.
In my version (second pix) I have subd. Heucheras for fern and will plant Ginger.

Is that Canadian ginger? Mine are cavorting all over my lower garden and they're difficult to edit out. The color combo in that photo is beautiful. Wish I were that imaginative.

GE, that shiny ginger looks like european ginger, not canadian (asarum europeum).
Are you having success with it?
I have been afraid to try it, because I heard it doesn't enjoy heat / humidity,
but it may like your area. I'm jealous. I love the shiny leaves!

Pirl, you must have the knack for Aureola hakone grass.
I have pitiful plantings that are 10yr old which just never seem to fill in.
I would be thrilled to have to divide one...
Actually, I presume the problem is my siting - I insist on planting them in an area where they would look great, but not where they are particularly happy.
I guess I'll have to give up on my mental image of how PERFECT they would look where they are now, and move them to a site more to their liking.
That always seems to be the case - plants don't often cooperate with my (fabulous) design plans...

I don't see the "all gold" hakone grass very often, but found some the other day- cheap- so I picked it up. Think I will move some of "Aurea" into containers, because it is so pretty hanging over the sides. Is it my imagination, or is the "all gold" less arching...more like little tufting mounds?

Noreaster - somewhere on DG someone mentioned the one grows upwards while the Hakonechloa Aurea spills over edges. That's the charming part of it to me as well.

So far, Weerobin, I've taken divisions from the mother plant twice and they're all doing fine. Like you, I have visions of what I want them to cascade over and so far, so good. Other plants just won't cooperate.