I don't have luck with my hardy geraniums here. I wonder what the problem is....I don't think it's our rainy climate.
I also haven't had luck with the Veronica, Sunny Border. I was told it could take shade but when I think about its name, I kinda doubt that. What is your experience with that one?
Centranthus is a new one on me. Where can I buy it? How much shade can it tolerate?
I have enjoyed my foam flower. I cut it back and fertilize after each flush.
Longest blooming perennial?
Thanks hortensia. I'm in a cooler micro-climate because I live in a wooded hollow, so I've got to try centranthus in spring. Woodspirit1, I just saw them in the spring Bluestone Perennials catalog and it says they need full sun to partial shade. Does'nt sound like they will take much shade though.
This spring I got a collection of 6 varieties of veronica, and some were described as tolerating some shade well, while a couple of others needed sun. The ones in my sunnier areas are happier ( my sunny areas are lucky to get 6 hours of sun- here, the sun comes up around 10am and goes down around 3 or 4pm!). 'Icicle' and 'Sunny Border Blue' have both kept blooming all summer.
Woodspirit1, what varieties of hardy geranium have you tried? I've got some tough old ones that were from my grandmother that seem like they will grow anywhere. Seems to me like there should be some that would perform well for you.
Neal.
I don't remember; it's been about 4 years since I tried any.
gemini - My sunny border blue only gets about 4 hours of sun, from late morning to early afternoon. It started blooming in late spring, and it's still going gangbusters.
sstateham, beautiful blue and white border! I'm glad I can expect really good things for 'Sunny Border Blue' next year; I have it combined with Roses 'Portmerion' and 'Heritage', Lamium 'White Nancy', Daylilies 'Little Wart' and 'Temple of Dawn', and Asiatic and Oriental lilies in pinks and white. Love the way blues and pinks enhance each other. Neal.
I have your 'sunny border blue' too and yours looks wonderful with the columbine (?)...gives me a good idea for a combination, and I could put some hardy geranium with them too, for a 'blue' garden corner...
I have a number of kinds of hardy geraniums but don't quite know what to do with them...they don't bloom 'as advertised' in my garden. They are very moody. No 'confetti', though. I do have "Claridge Druce", a 'tough old one' that is pretty bloomy but gangley and invasive, and would be swell in just the right spot. Also Max Frei, Purple Pillow, Orion, Rozanne, Splish Splash, Brookside, and several others...some died out this summer, too, and I thought that was impossible for them!
Right now, my buddleia is still blooming and the butterflies are loving it. And my rudbeckia hirta 'prairie sun' is blooming, but it's wanting to pack it in for the year and tomorrow I may give it a haircut.
Happy gardening. t.
I planted that bed two years ago for my sweety. It's the first thing you see from the back deck. I noticed some time ago that he only paid attention to plants if they were blue, purple, or if he could smell them when he mowed. I put that in, and he stopped teasing me about the money I spend on plants. I just planted a sweet autumn clematis today on the fence by where he parks - it will smell wonderful.
The white is actually a really light blue delphinium (connecticut yankee ), it's just hard to tell in the evening light. I probably could have cleaned up the shot before I posted :) The border is the veronica, some campanula blue clips, delphinium connecticut yankee and dark blue, columbine spring magic blue and white, and geraniums splish spash. In front of the sedum are a few different pulmonarias and hostas. There's a hole behind the hostas that has blue lobelia, peach blossom astilbe, a white bleeding heart, and some toad lillies.
Tobasco - my mom had "moody" geraniums when she lived in Georgetown. Maybe it's something with that area. I just added the geraniums to the blue border this year, so I'll have to wait and see how they do. I've grown the claridge druce for years with no trouble.
I have had no luck with "Sunny Blue Border." It doesn't do well and doesn't come back in the spring. Anyone have some tips?
The Corydalis and fern leaf Dicentra (I have white and yellow corydalis) and they bloom from April to Thanksgiving. Never had any luck with Centranthus..it blooms in June and it will repeat bloom if deadheaded but it seems to be very short lived here in Baltimore (for me at least). SouthernOhio..the Begonia you are talking about does a great job in foliage all summer and then blooms a long time with the seed heads hanging on til November. It is Begonia Grandis.
Woodspirit1---do they get enough sun, and good drainage? They are suppose to be Hardy from Zone 4-8. I have had them both in humid and dry hot summers, so don't believe that is the problem. They usually adapt to most soils as long as they are well drained, but some organic matter improves them greatly.
Probably not enough sun. I was told they could do well in part shade, but I guess because it is so cool here in the mountains, they need more sun. I would like to try them again. Does anyone have a division they want to risk on me?
I have had very bad luck with Sunny Border Blue too -- it seems to want terrifically good drainage here, never forgetting our famous rain. Otherwise it just hobbles along gettingmildew, throwing out a pathetic looking flower spike here and there, then dying off in spite for being asked to make the effort.
I'm afraid I just gave up on it, so I don't really have anything else to offer but sympathy
Maybe that's our problem. We get 80 inches of rain a year (the weather service claims) but I'm pretty sure we will top 100 this year. Does anyone know if drainage is important for this beautiful perennial?
As far as longest blooming period, I'm not sure, but imagine my surprise when I was watering yesterday (onaccountofbecause we didn't get the rain they said we were going to this week), and I get this whiff of something familiar, something wonderfully sweet. I look up and right in front of my face, on the trellis, are a couple of honeysuckle blooms! That would make the third bloom time this year. It always reblooms once, but I don't ever remember it doing it twice.
Solanum Leonardi; for the hot climates I think there is no other like it - it blooms practically 10 - 11 months of the year. And the misleading conclusion - by looking at its pic - that the little flowers are delicate, is proved wrong when day after day it looks the same, heat or no heat, wind or no wind, May or November. I wouldn't change with anything.
Dimitri
I'm not big into perennials because I have such a tiny apartment flower bed but I just bought a 1/2 price perennials phlox from a local nursery. They markdown their perennials when they haven't sold and start to go dormant. I bought this small pot of scraggly half dead stalks about 1 1/2 months ago. I still don't have it in the ground but it has perked up and now has 2 pretty pink flower heads on it. I hope it does that again next Octobers after I have it in the ground:)
sannie..I just had to go to the nursery one last time before frost comes.
I found a Fernleaf Dicentra Luxuriant on sale for $4.00..and it still has a bloom on it. Thanks for the encouragement. Now to find the perfect spot for it.
Starzz - what a deal! When my Dicentra x Luxuriant was still too young to divide, I bought some more for elsewhere in the garden, but it was NOT the same plant. Yes, it had fern-like leaves and bloomed a long time, but it's habit was more open and creeping. The original Dicentra x 'Luxuriant' was, and still is very much a clumper.
There is some confusion on this but I found out that Dicentra x 'Luxuriant' is a hybrid between the two species Dicentra eximia (Fern-Leaf or Fringed or Eastern) and Dicentra formosa (Western or Pacific). I'm not sure which species is the one that creeps, but I do know that Luxuriant is the well behaved clumper with a very nice rounded shape.
I hope you have the clumper. Put it in part shade and you'll love it, I promise!
Thanks for the tip sanannie.
When I bought this it had a few broken brown stems and I pinched them off..and this is what's left. I took this pic this morning..sure hope it clumps up nicely for me.
Yep, that's the one Starzz!
No one has mentioned Spirea -- I have a large bush that has been blooming steadily since early summer and still has blooms on it ... I love this plant, carefree and a nice big rounded bush ... I'd like to get the kind with the crinkly leaves too ...
Crinkly leaves on a Spirea? Sounds neat. I was under the impression that Spireas only bloom in the Spring. What kind do you have?
In April my Whirling Butterflies began to bloom and they have not stopped since, even through all the heat and drought of this year that only ended last week. I also have a miniature rose (see pic) that began blooming in April and has been covered with blooms ever since. It has grown since this picture to where it is about 4 ft now, but it is still covered with flowers today.
pins2006:
Unfortuantely I planted this before I knew to save the tags ... in PlantFiles it looks like Spiraea x bumalda or Spiraea Japonica ... anyway a great hardy shrub that I highly recommend ... some have wonderful fall foliage too ...
Has everyone's butterfly bushes quit blooming? There is a white one in front of the office where I work. I have been cutting off the fading blooms and it keep growing more and more. It is still loaded and has lots of buds.
I have 2 that are in full bloom, yet we are way south of you.
I still have blooms on buddleia Harlequin and on the b. weyeriana Sungold. This last is quite amazing. It is about ten feet tall, tucked away on the west side of my house. Only when we were building the stairs nearby this year did I discover that I had never actually planted it!! Tired, I assume, of waiting for me, it broke out of its one gallon pot and crawled out into the surrounding dirt. Now it blooms proudly, wearing the broken pot as a kind of triumphant bracelet.
My five bushes are still blooming but not as pretty as they were. I forgot to mention them above.
Could we see a photo...? Sounds lovely.
mel
the one wearing the bracelet reads like a good candidate for the photo contest coming up...
Are the ones that are blooming for you folks still blooming because you dead-headed them?
woodspirit1,
Nope, I don't deadhead the three long bloomers I mentioned in this thread (Dicentra x Luxuriant, Persicaria 'Darjeeling Red' and Corydalis lutea), so deadheading is not the reason for these 3 long-bloomers.
Dimitri, do you have more info on Solanum Leonardi, please. I did a Google search and came up with nothing. Does it have a common name I could do a search on? The little flowers are just beautiful. Thanks for any information. Adeline
LOL, I should have been clearer. I was asking about the buddleias.
But that is good to know about the others, too.
Hi woodspirit
tried to go out today to take buddleia pictues-- well, actually that is a lie. I stood at the window looking out at the cascading rain; and tried to IMAGINE myself out there, with all too much success. :
DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE END OF THIS!!! wrote more, but had to edit to get it on.
anyhow, what I went on to say was, the only pruning my buddleia has received is cutting flowers to bring indoors. I looked out the window (then, when it was light) and saw brown dead flowers accompanying the gold. So it is just the plant and the weather.
bt do note, my buddleia is protected from the coldest winds.
as I hope this post is protected from the random erase it gods.
M
This message was edited Oct 16, 2005 6:50 PM
Ooops woodspirit, I thought you meant everyone to chime in with their comments on deadheading the longest blooming perennials they mentioned. Oh well..
Anywho, for all those interested, I thought I'd post my top bloomers from this year. I keep a bloomtime record for observation... mostly because it speeds up the process of making same-bloom-time combinations, rather than relying on experience. Longest bloomer first:
Dicentra x Luxuriant - mid May to date
Persicaria 'Darjeeling Red' - mid June to date
Salvia 'Purple Rain' - mid June to date
Salvia 'East Friesland' - end of June to date
Geranium 'Rozanne' - end of June to date
Geranium lancastriense 'Striatum' - first wk of June (3 wk break) then mid Aug to date
Shasta Daisy 'Becky' - first wk of July to date
Oregano 'Bristol Cross' - mid July to date
Corydalis lutea - first wk of June to mid Sept
Coreopsis 'Creme Brulee' - mid July to date
Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' - mid July to date
Heuchera 'Silver Scrolls' - mid July then sporatically to date
Russian Sage - end of July to date
Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' - mid July to date
Thanks, sanannie, for sharing your list with bloomtimes. I am very impressed and it's no wonder to me now why you have such fabulous combinations in your garden!
Here's my g. 'Rozanne' with a lantana--both still blooming...
And my alocasia is blooming although you can't quite see it along with pansies and phlox, but I suppose those last two are considered annuals.
nice pics, tabasco. Those alocasia leaves are so shiny and fresh looking and I wasn't aware that alocasia flowered. I'm curious as to what the flower looks like though, by chance do you have a pic showing it?
alocasia make a flower something like a jack in the pulpit or a ginger--mine are whitish...I almost thought it was a leaf unfurling...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/AlocasiaMacrorrhizaFlower.jpg/240px-AlocasiaMacrorrhizaFlower.jpg
Hi tabasco,
Your alocasia is pretty neat. Just looked it up and I see it is a Z6 plant. I will have to keep on the look out for one. Where did you pick it up? Also, how much sun does yours receive? Your Rozanne is nice too I like the color!