Rockgardner, I just read your post mentioning Lily of the Valley. Our backyard had a lot of it that I thought we had eliminated when we had our back yard re-landscaped. The crew dug it all out. TEN YEARS LATER it came back, and is now allll over the back garden beds. It seems to be another one of those plants one can never be completely rid of!
What are you sorry you planted......Part 2
I had lily of the valley around my azalea. I went through the entire garden with my hand and pulled out every root. That was four years ago. I watch all the time to see if there any show up and pull them out. Yes, it's a mess to get rid of. Like all invasives, you have to be on top of the game all the time.
Thanks for the advice on LotV. I received some in a trade this spring. I will have to be very careful where I put them. :-0
Quote from birder17 :
Like all invasives, you have to be on top of the game all the time.
Exactly what I was going to say. You have to be persistent.
Gardening, unfortunately, as much as we love it, has a nuisance (or worse) of a cousin... always hanging around trying to spoil the fun.
Gardening is like owning a boat, half the time is spent getting it water worthy.
I say I'm just going to take a turn around the garden and see what's doing and the next thing I know I'm pulling up something, deadheading, or just generally grubbing around.
Cindy, I love epimedium too. I have sulphurum. It spreads slowly, is really lovely, and smothers weeds. It took a while to fill its space, and I have it in a location that gets afternoon sun. And I can give it to my shade gardening friends, who beg for it when they see it..
Ground covers like epimedium aren't bullies. Which is probably why they aren't being thrust upon people as "gifts", like lots of other thuggy plants.
I regret planting this blue stemmed grass, which I cannot kill and which shows up everywhere I don't want it. Can't remember it's name but it was so polite the first year and gorgeous the second year, then it went to seed, literally. I've dug it out, cut it down to nothing and it still comes back every spring. I try to keep the seed heads cut down to prevent volunteers but I always miss one or two and I only am able to come home every other week or so, which seems to give the seed heads plenty of time to mature. I've tried the strongest weedkiller I can find and nothing works.
I wouldn't mind so much if all the plants stood tall and fountained nicely but they all seem to sprout tall and then flatten out, aargh!
On another note can anyone tell me what the grass is that seems to be a favorite of landscapers - it's a dark green, has round stems and grows about 4 feet tall and fountains at the ends so beautifully?
This message was edited Jun 27, 2010 6:11 AM
Birder, I use epimediums and hellebores for dry shade.
Neither are thugs.
Dragonfly, could you be referring to Miscanthus sinensis gracilimus?
kill, that looks like it might be what I was asking about. Thanks for the name, now I know what it is, I can order some online!
It's one of the best!! Fall color.
And summer isn't shabby either. I have 8. Their diameter is 30 inches, and they were installed in July of 1998. Great mixer, too as you can see.
Those are beautiful. I have other varieties of miscanthus. Some will reseed so keep an eye out. But they don't become a problem. Not for me anyway. If I find them where I don't want them I just pull them up before they get too large. Some I leave.
Donna - I've had some of my Epimediums for 16 years, the first being 'Suphureum' and 'Rubrum'. The 'Rubrum' has been a "stock" plant for me - whenever I need an early spring blooming filler, I hack off a piece. I would never edit these out but I do have one 'Sulphureum' that insists on creeping into a gravel path. Funny about not giving them away as "gifts".
I'm not a big fan of the standard lamb's ear flowers so it is easy to cut the stems for me. I do have a different variety of it though that gets a magenta colored flower (reminds me of a lychnis flower), more at the top of the blooming stalk. A gift from TN that is marginal here but has pleasantly surprised me by surviving. That one I don't cut back.
I think they're not given away as gifts because they aren't completely obnoxious. Under most circumstances you want to keep them, and boy are you ahead of the curve - 15 years! I can't tell you how many times someone has tried to give me lily of the valley!
I wish someone would give me LOV. I've bought it many times and can't seem to get it to stay alive. Wonder what I'm doing wrong.
We've seen LOV growing in the woods around old home places in zone 8a. Maybe it likes a lot of shade in the South.
It's funny about the give away plants and what one considers a weed others love. A lot of people like Yarrow, but I have found it to be invasive and don't find it to be pretty at all.
My Lamb's Ear always dies about this time of year. I'm wondering if it is getting too much water?
Epmedium is something I am not familiar with. Will someone please post a larger pic of it than is in the plantfiles?
Quote from angedawn47 :
We've seen LOV growing in the woods around old home places in zone 8a. Maybe it likes a lot of shade in the South.
LOV is a shade loving plant, at least they will look better in the shade. But my personal experience with it has been my patch in the sun spreads prolifically while my patch in the shade stays in the shade. I don't get it?
My thoughts are that because you are so far north it likes the sun better.
angedawn, I could post a thousand epimedium pictures for you.
They are incredibly diverse, come in a dizzying array of colors.
Generally, shade tolerant low-growing perennials which bloom in early spring w/ nice clean foliage.
I have many, many, many. Shade garden shouldn't be without them.
Carefree, rewarding plants.
I love epimediums. I am up to 4 different kinds now. I hope to collect as many different kinds as possible and cover large shady areas with them.
This one is E. x versicolor sulphureum. A pretty common variety. New to me.
Even though my LOV is in almost total shade, it does tend to look pretty tattered by the end of summer and I'm just as likely to cut it down some years. I'm never patient enough to actually dig up the root systems when it starts invading another territory - I just usually tug it out of the ground.
Weerobin - I would love to expand my collection of Epimediums but the price tags make it a little difficult to include too many in the budget.
Donna - I was on a gardening forum years ago and we traded plants quite a bit via mail. My 'Snow Queen' came from a gardener in VT. I also got some from Holbrooks and Shady Oaks - my fav mail order source before they went wholesale. :(
Yarrows are different. I have a pink one that is a runner. Moonshine and Paprika never run however. The pink one makes me really fuss when it comes up amid other plants. The neighbors think I've lost it (again) when I start tossing them out of the garden.
Helleborus--what a good idea! I have two in two different places in the front of my house in north shade. They do so very well, and I don't do anything to deserve such neat plants!! I have several babies from one of the plants that I can put in other dry shaded areas.
Epimediums--I have not been familiar with them. I did check them out on the Plant Files. I am so leery of planting anything that someone says may be invasive. I have enough trouble trying to keep the weeds down, much less, go out and deliberately plant something that's going to be a headache later on.
Hence, I like this thread! :)
Glad to hear Paprika yarrow doesn't run as that's what I put in this spring.
I brought home 5 herbs from visiting a friends garden club. They demo'd an herb tower made of pots, explicitly because herbs tend to take over.
I'm going to pot them individually (from 4-6"rs) group in a biggy shallow pot and mulch to look like planted together. I did this several years ago and it worked well. You can yank one that's spent, and replace. Herbs spin out quickly.
Epimedium x versicolor sulphurum starting to bloom this past April.
DonnaMack - where are you ordering your Epimediums from? Stormyla said she got all of hers from Edelweiss, but the shipping costs are prohibitive.
I don't think I regret growing anything. I'll give anything a chance once. LOL.
Birder, I VERY seriously doubt you will ever have a problem with an epimedium being invasive. Even the ones that do spread are very well behaved. And I haven't heard of them ever being a problem seeding around. I'm sure anyone who grows them would highly recommend them.
Ok, smack me, I got them from a nursery. Milaegers in Racine. 45 miles from my home. Worth the drive.
They are THRIVING!! And thank goodness. But alas, mailed order ceased many years ago. They went through Garden.com, and that just didn't work well for anyone concerned.
Our local nurseries carry epimedium sulphureum. They usually have rubrum also.
But that's usually about all.
The less common varieties have to come from a specialty nursery or mail-ordered.
This is the place for epimediums, GardenVision:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~darrellpro/
Darrel Probst is the expert. He has the biggest collection I know of. Reasonable prices I think. Only good ratings in GardenWatchdog.
Ooh, thank you Killdawabbit ( I hear Elmer Fudd in my head when I see your handle). Return, my wub....
Donna, Thanks.
Cindy, for now I think he only has a paper catalog. I think it's free. Can't remember. It comes with pics of many of the epimediums he carries. Plus Iris cristata varieties and other plants.
I recently bought several epimediums from Naylor Creek Nursery. They have a very large selection and I thought that prices and shipping rates were reasonable.
perennialyme, that looks like a great website. I bookmarked it. Thanks. Kyle