What are you sorry you planted..... Part 4

Cindy, I'd love to get one with chartreuse leaves to show up! That would look amazing!

The purple one isn't something new, according to a friend of mine. He used to rent our house from us when we were moving around because of the Navy. He's a landscape architect, and comes over from time to time to get a plant or just see what I've got growing. We were looking at the columbine in the back and I told him he needed to see the one in the front yard that showed up on it's own. He then mentioned the name of a columbine that he really loved, and I told him I had never seen one of them. We got to the front yard, and he said that it was the one he mentioned, but all of a sudden, the name was gone out of his head, and I couldn't remember it either! I took a picture of the whole plant, but can't find it anywhere! The flowers hang straight down. Here's a picture looking from the top down.

Natalie

This is from the bottom up!

Natalie

I am glad that you posted about sweet woodruff smothering your hostas. I moved some from another garden to some bare areas around my hostas and ferns. It was an experiment to see how it endured the shade and juglone from the black walnut trees. It is spreading lightly and attractively, but I will keep it away from my fussy new hostas. The big green noid monsters can take care of themselves. I love my rescued tough green hostas. I am not sure of the variety - maybe I should call them 'Incredible Hulks'. They were the first plants to survive by my heavily shaded northern patio garden under a row of black walnut trees.

Maybe a variety of A. vulgaris? At least that's what the short spurs remind me of. Definitely not 'Camelot Purple' and spurs are too long for 'Melba Higgins' (and it's more purple than blue). It is a beaut! If the plant grows for several seasons and roots really develop, they can sometimes be carefully divided (actually, you'd have to cut them).

GardenQuilts, you may want to keep a really close eye on the sweet woodruff! I'm sure I'll be battling that net of roots for years! The majority of my hostas are now large enough to hold their own against it, but I have to be careful when I plant a small one!

Cindy, Melba Higgins doesn't sound right, but now that you've said a woman's name, I'm thinking that Bill may have called it by a woman's name before he saw it. Are there any others that you can think of? The flower is a very deep purple, and not as blue as it looks.

The funny thing about this columbine is that it first started growing right next to one of the water faucets, and I could have sworn that it was clover! They look so much alike at first, and since I had no columbine planted anywhere near that faucet, I tried to pull it up! I actually did this for about 3 years, and couldn't believe that it kept coming back! I'm horrified to even admit that now! We went out of state for a couple of weeks at the end of April this year, and when we got home I noticed that the "clover" had grown a ton, and it wasn't clover!! I moved it to another area of the yard and it grew like crazy! Before I knew it, it was blooming, and was my favorite! At the same time that this one bloomed, the other one bloomed. I'm positive that the other one wasn't in the yard last year, and it wasn't reseeded because of the one I moved, since I had been trying to weed it out! If I can find the other picture of the whole plant I'll post it. I sure hope this one becomes invasive!

Natalie

Gooseneck Loosestrife! That is a monster to kill. I just weeded a bed with the weedeater then sprayed Eraser which I purchased at our Feed Store. 3 oz mixed with 1 gallon of water and it kills most everything in it's way. Much higher concentration of the active ingredient than RoundUp.

If anyone wants to trade their columbines I'll take them! They are also at the top of my love list. I prefer tall columbines.

I'm also over run with Walkers Low Cat Mint. I'm going to offer it for trades. It's so pretty, butterflies love it, but it grows so quickly for me. After the first flush of flowers I cut it back and the flowers emerge again so nicely - but I need to divide soon.

Kathy

Kathy, do you cut your Cat Mint all the way to the ground after it flowers, or you do you just cut off the spent flowers? A neighbor has some and I love it, but I think she needs to cut it back more often to keep it looking better. It's so pretty! She hasn't had a problem with hers spreading, but it does get very large. My neighbor keeps telling me to take some home with me, but I'm worried about keeping it more compact than hers seems to be. She cuts it to the ground in the fall, but doesn't really trim it otherwise.

Natalie

Mine also self-seeds way too much, gets too huge and I don't have the time or inclination to play nursemaid to it by cutting it back as often as would be necessary. It is beautiful but not worth the work.

Nepeta Dawn to Dusk gets huge, and if you don't prune it, it splits. But it's irresistibly lovely. I took advantage of its tendencies by using it as a yard unifier, particularly in places where the ground is difficult. It performs like a champ and makes it look like I'm a much better gardener than I am!

Natalie - you might try looking at the DG plant files. Most of them have pics. I honesty haven't kept up with the latest in columbines. Got so used to the limited selection in the T&M catalog that I just started saving seeds from my own plants. Duh. So no other variety names come to mind.

Just went to PF to try and help. Found this one: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/133459/

There's also a Mrs. Scott Elliott. I didn't finish with all of them.

Thanks! I'll keep looking. It's not Melba Higgins for sure, and I may be off on the woman's name, but I'm pretty sure that Bill said a woman's name! However, he could have been wrong about that!

Natalie

Natalie
I cut the catmint back by at least half after it blooms. It is a very stunning plant and does produce a perfect round, mounded plant. I don't have a problem with self seeding. I think next year I will divide, cut back more often which really doesn't take long if you use a weedeater (lol) but I usually use a large kitchen knife to slice through while holding it. Clippers would take to long.

I think several patches but divided often, maybe spring & fall, would give a beautiful display and it's worth it for the butterflies that love it. I just need to be more proactive than I've been with it.

I can trade some if anyone is interested.
Kathy

I have a nepeta with a slightly larger leaf which has self-sown in a few places. I plan to move them to make an edge along a line of shrubs as ground cover/weed suppressant. So far I'm happy to have the extras. Walker's Low doesn't seed itself around for me, but whenever I move one I end up with at least one division which quickly fills in and becomes a full size plant. Again, so far, so good. But I have started deadheading more regularly...

Pam

Will hybrid columbine come back true from seeds? For some reason in my mind I was thinking columbine will not come back from seed like the mother plant.

happ - It depends on whether or not you have other varieties growing and even then, it's not a sure thing. Columbine can be very promiscuous. The ones I have that are fairly true (if I collect the seed) are 'Sunlight White', 'Melba Higgings' (although the blue color does vary a bit), 'Yellow Star' and 'Nana Alba'. The Woodside Mix variety is kinda fun to see all of the different leaf variegations and flower color can vary but I don't think it's as good a bloomer as the others. Most of mine aren't mixed in any one bed though.

I surely don't know much about them at all, but glad to hear that about the varieties. I really only have 2 one on the northside of the house that has a varigated leaf which doesn't do much. One on the southside of the house in spotted shade that does wonderful. So many things just don't come back from seed true, that I know people are sometimes disappointed.

This thread is always fun. I was thinking that I'm OK with invasive plants if they can be controlled with pulling in spring and/or fall, but not if they spread out in high summer. I like weeding until the temperature gets above 75 degrees F. Spring is especially pleasant because the mosquitos don't show up until it's reliably above freezing. But I don't like gardening in August. So:
Native violets: can be controlled with hard weeding in spring and fall. (In my yard.) I got the Garden Orcs to stop using weedkiller on the back lawn because I prefer thriving, mower-abbreviated violets to weedkiller-blighted, pathetically twisted violets. Eventually the ones who know about this will be replaced with new guys who don't, and I'll have to go around the yard pointing and ranting again.
My neighbor's English Ivy, on the other hand, is growing spectacularly right now, and has been since it got warm. It loves the warm wet weather we've been having, and I don't, so it's taking over tens of square feet in my yard, which doesn't have any to spare.
It's interesting how hardly anything is universally invasive (or universally stationary, for that matter.) Woodruff exists for me as three little clumps along one narrow strip of soil, each one marking where I set in one of a 3-pack from Bluestone. (Also as a lavender-blue annual, now self-seeding, from Select Seeds.) It doesn't even bloom every year.

Garden Orcs - LOL! Sam was a gardener, wasn't he?

Dawn I am like you and let some invasive go ahead and try to control with pulling, coneflowers have gone a little nuts this year for me but yanking works wonders.

Darn meant to take a picture of the russian sage, that is not yankable!

My west garden is a mess, it has been miserable hot, not much rain, the strawberries (talk about agressive) in there are all burnt up, the grasshoppers are eating what else is left green, russian sage is running wild, and now to add insult to injury, I found voles have eaten the lilies in that garden. I am so worried cause I have surprise lilies back there a huge bunch but I don't have any blooms yet. Can't poison the Voles cause I have dogs and cats. Cat won't go back there cause it is a long haired solid black and it is too hot. Gardening can sure be a test.

I made the mistake of letting a few patches of clover go and omg those little bulbs are buried deep everywhere. Whenever I see any sprouting I get my narrow spade and go straight down parallel to the plant and try to keep all the bulbs together in one clump with the foliage.

I have cannas that I regret planting--I dig up everything I can see in the spring with the ground damp and 3 ft from their last bloom site they pop up anyway. They are now sprouting up 6 ft down from where I initially planted them 7 yrs ago.

I regret the peony I planted dead center in my only flower bed 10 years ago. Gave it a lot of time to do something and finally got the fluffy pink Sarah Bernhardt flowers only to find that they bloom during our rainy spring. Flowers end up looking like wet tissue paper on a bad parade float. Now I don't have the heart to pull the darn thing as I have invested years in getting it to grow:LOL:

I'm so sad for you about the peony-- but cannas a pest? Here, they're the kind of annuals that either cost a lot to buy big enough to get a decent display, or require over-wintering in a root cellar or something similar that I also don't have. Even more complicated than dahlias to me... A mixed blessing-or curse- I would say. Amazing what a difference a zone makes!... or two...

Pam

LOL on the cannas also. Always looking for reasonable priced cannas up here in north country...I do winter over mine but it is a pain.

Peonies I think bloom everywhere during the rainy season. Mine are planted under a high tree which helps break the rain from, hitting so hard on the bloom. Be sure and cut them so you can enjoy them indoors instead of looking at them beat to death.

I always regretted not planting a peony but maybe not after your description, dmac. LOL And cannas - left mine in the ground one winter, never to be seen again up here in the frozen north.

I'll keep ya'll northerners in mind next spring when I'm chasing my cannas down for removal and see if I can't scare up a couple boxes for ya'll. I know I have Wyoming w/ the green/purple foliage and bright orange flowers and one with mid green foliage and a red flower. Yeah, they can overwinter here and tend to run like bamboo. I know one house I pass going to work that lined their fence with them and the bed now runs 30 ft long with cannas about 4 ft deep like a corn field:lol:

I think if I were in a different zone the peony would be fine in a place without the spring rain. I bought the peony at walmart one year, planted it and didn't see anything for a couple of years (probably planted it too deep). Finally got some foliage for a few years then I threatened to yank it and I got flowers in year 4. Maybe I just need to try the non fluffy kind:lol:

Cannas don't last through the winter here in our zone 7. If I remember I lift them but this year I only planted one so it's not a major job to keep it over winter.

Sorry about your soggy peony blossoms, dmac. Peonies always bloom during the spring rains here - it's almost a guarantee. They have far too many ants for me to consider bringing them inside.

Cindy - buy some silk peonies, put them in the ground around June 7th and enjoy them for a week and then put them away for next year. You won't even get upset if it rains.

I do have some single petal peonies, can't remember the name of them. Oh you know what might work for you better than a peony is a tree peony, I have two of them and the branches are more like a shrub so the blooms are held up better than a normal peony.

You could make alot of folks up north really happy with your over stock of cannas.

We have a batch of the old fashioned red cannas up against the East wall of church. Even our bitter winter last year didn't kill those suckers off; I was hoping. No one at church wants them. We have to dig them out again in the spring to keep them under control or we can't see out the windows, even when we dig them out and pitch them in the fall. I'd be happy to send them to you if you are SURE you want them. I'm zone 5, but I'm sure it is the brick wall that gets morning sun that keeps them from freezing.

The building probably emits just enough heat to keep those cannas happy over winter.

That may be a great trick to overwintering them--my cannas are in the bed that runs alongside the brick wall and it retains a lot of heat even in winter.

The tree or single petal peony may be a good option:) I second you about the ants--that is the weirdest thing:)

pirl - LOL! Or I could tape silk flowers to a shrub!
A tree peony - I think I've coveted that more than a regular peony. Sounds like it might solve the wet kleenex dilemma.

Yes, you could, Mindy. I bought some yellow silk peonies a few years ago and then found a yellow peony and this spring it was wonderful. We sometimes tend to forget all we've bought and planted until we get blossoms so this was one of those great surprises.

It bloomed early, 5/22, so there was no rain period to destroy the flowers.

I've also resorted to spray paint as needed.

Lovely color on those astilbes, Pirl... Lol...

Pam

...They are astilbes, aren't they?

What's that astilbe "variety"? Hmmm - you could also disguise ragweed as astilbe for that full sun location. :) Love the yellow peony.

Yup--love that yellow one! You laugh at the fake flowers but we all have driven by places with a bed full of them (sometimes in Dec/Jan) :lol:

You are right about the fake flowers in Dec/Jan. At least they could be poinsettias instead of daisies. (Sorry - I am being snarky.)

Yes, they are astilbe, Pam. One neighbor from a block away was highly offended that I did such a thing. Too bad!

Thanks. I love Prairie Moon peony, too. Wish they could all bloom either before or after the early June rains.

I do know of someone who hates dying daffodil foliage so she puts out her plastic daffodils and then changes to plastic zonal geraniums in May. When I spotted some plastic daffodils last year I bought them so I could pop them in the ground before the neighbor did and tell her I have the early blooming ones.

How funny!

how fun! My neighbor is a dandelion freak, always out digging them, I can hear her from inside my house. When they went on vacation, I bought some small yellow flowers and poked them in patterns around her front yard tree. She had a fit until she realized they were fake. She blamed her mother-in-law, who is a very nice person with a great silly streak. She did finally blame me, but wasn't mad. We've been neighbors for 30 years, so we get along.