What is your ONE favorite perennial so far??

I know we are still in spring time, but things are blooming all over - lots of eye candy in the garden. I thought it would be fun if we shared our fav perennial with each other - a photo if you have it - why it is your favorite, etc. I know it will be difficult to choose just one - they are like our children aren't they? hehehe.
My favorite this year is Gaura - both Siskiyou pink and lindheimeri white. I just love how this plant gently moves in the lightest of breeze - just like whirling butterflies (hence the common name). My neighbor always comments how much she loves watching these plants from her kitchen window. Nice to give somone else some pleasure! I "only" have 8 gaura plants so far, but feel sure that I will be getting more to use as a backdrop in my perennial bed. These prolific bloomers are such a joy!

P.S. Lets keep this thread open and as the summer progresses we can add our favorite summer perennial, autumn perennial...

Rose campion....

2nd place Homestead purple verbena.

Susan

Thanks - SGL -- rose campion, this is a new perennial for me. It reseeds itself? Great medium size plant for the perennial bed. I too have purple verbena - already spreading happily in a corner of the garden and in a container on my deck.

Rose campion actually gets large for me... about 1.5-2 feet wide! It's amazing.. such a beauty in my cottage garden.

Susan

I have been reading about rose campion in the plant files. Very interesting comments from other DGers. Where in your garden do you have it? Against the foundation, stand alone? Don't suppose you have a picture? Liz

Gliz, we have to choose just one? LOL!!

Liz, I am supposed to be getting my camera back from FUJI next week as the zoom was stuck in the out position. I'd love to share pictures with you. I have seed from last year and would certainly send you some if you wanted to try your hand at it.

Do you grow from seed? If so, Send me a SASE. I'm in the address exchange... If not, d-mail me for it :) I'm going to be sowing lots of seed and could share some plants with you next spring if you remind me :)

Susan

Susan,
Do you find your verbena to be invasive?

No it is beautiful and a great grower. I do have some bee balm that was shared with me and it grew 5 feet in each direction completly covering and growing around the plants that were there!!

Susan

Thanks Susan. I might try to grow it next year.

This is my fave perennial: mealy-cup sage.

Nice... I think I may have just put that in! I hope so! If not, I certainly will be!! :)

Susan

Hi SGL - no, I don't grow from seed yet (newbie gardener), but it is something I am gearing up to do over the winter. Maybe you can recommend a good how-to book for beginners. If I'm successful, I would love to share/swop/trade seeds.
Berrygirl, hmmm - mealy-cup sage, pretty. The only sage I have growing in my herb garden is pineapple sage.

By the way, in case you haven't heard - Pikes Nusery is having a huge sale this weekend (starting today) 20% off EVERYTHING. May be worth a trip to get one more pretty plant!

Liz

Liz, have you checked out the wintersowing forum?? I have 100's of plants due to that method and it was very easy.

Be careful not too spend too much at Pikes even with the 20%... I just visited there and got sticker shock! I would only pay full price for a plant that I knew I could use to make more babies! (or foundation plantings) It's so much cheaper to grow your own and then trade. Once you start gardening, growing and trading with others, your garden will grow exponentially. You really should consider going to the Daves Garden Round Up's. My first one, I had next to nothing to share... dounuts and zinnia seeds and great Daves Gardeners sent me home with a minivan full of plants. This time around I had much more to share and trade, and still came home with some real treasures.

Also, join the garden clubs in your area... I just went to the Marietta gardeners plant auction and wow, did I come away with some great deals!! Also, I've made friends with great gardenrs that have been doing it forever, and they have shared soooo many plants with me as well.


Not only are experienced gardeners so generous with sharing plants, but gaining knowledge is crucial to being a great gardener and they have certainly shared that with me :)

:)

Susan

Great advice. I have been perusing the perennial flower forum but had not thought to check the wintersowing forum. Right now I'm feeling a little timid about the whole process of propagation, growing from seeds, etc., so I have been hesitate to join anything. But I guess that is self defeating -- I won't learn unless I jump in with both feet. I will try to make the fall round-up -- out of town when y'all had the spring round-up. I also need to check out what is available in fayette county. I have been living here for a year but not familiar with the social goings -on yet. I think I remember seeing a notice at Andy's nursery in Fayetteville regarding a garden club they sponsor. Maybe that is a good way to start.

I don't suppose you hold classes at your home --hehehe

Liz

If sticker shock gets to you, try shopping at Georgia Perimiter College! I went there today for the first time with a friend, and what GREAT DEALS! Really unusual and some rare native (to the US, not necessarily just to GA) plants. The prices are 1/2 of a nursery. They are normally only open Wed's for sales (we snuck in today!!). You can see everything growing right next door in their gardens.

GGG

I have grown a couple of things from seed this year. If I can do it ... anyone can! LOL Will try to get a pic of my moon flower. It's not blooming yet, but you won't believe how big it is! I also love mints.

Ha ha.. I don't hold them in my home yet, but I do see a day when I'll have a round up here.. Maybe next year when my gardens are more established and I am too! Liz, i'm a member of several groups that meet Downtown... Okay the Rose society and the Dahlia society and the hydrangea society meet at the ABG. The GPPS meets at the Atlanta History Center.. Then there is the GA native Plant Society... There are so many to choose from. Pick what you are most intersested in and start there. I had to scale back some and am no longer in the native society, but have a great friend who is and he shows me all his stuff and I let him take what he wants from our undevolped wooded property. Sorry to native fans, but I always say a plant is native somewhere and that's fine with me! :) Maybe I will mature some in that regard.. but not yet! I need to go check out George Sankos operation.. So many plants...

Liz, I have made the monster of all mistakes when it's come to growing. I've killed running bamboo and it's impossible to kill that! (it was for a container... don't plant that!!) I've started seeds indoors and thought if a little bottom heat is good, more is better and put them on top of my 200 gallon fish tank lights and they grew an inch a day and I thought, wow, I'm the best most smartest gardener ever! And then they flopped over and died. Then I learned how to do it the right way... it certainly helps if you have some guidance which is what Daves is here for and gardeners you meet here! :) Wintersowing is EASY!! This was my first year and it was VERY successful and I just tried lots of different flower varieties. :) And I still learned better for next time!

Susan

Interesting GGG -- where abouts at the college is the sale held? Soul, I just checked on the wintersowing forum and I think I'm hooked already LOL. DH thinks I spend too much time on Daves website , oh well.


SGL - whew - just reading what you are involved with makes me tired. When you are ready to have a roundup at your place let me know and I will help with anything that needs to be done. It would be nice to have something for the metro atlanta folks.

This message was edited May 19, 2006 8:14 PM

Susan - this winter sowing idea has bitten me like a bug and it's only May - yuk,yuk. I found a website that has such great info... http://www.wintersown.org

Liz

Yes Liz, I've been all over that one!! It is good.. I was wondering what would happen to certain seeds if they were started outside in the middle of late spring for instance?? i had thought to try some just for fun and not wait till next year! :)

Here are my wintersowing pots in March... They are much different now for sure and some are planted out... and some are full and waiting. I don't do anything in moderation.....

Susan

all covered during the frosty nights...

you go girl! I can't tell you how many pots I have thrown out - dang! Guess I will have check out my neighbors garbage.
Seems like this thread has gotten a little side-tracked, oh well.
Liz

Another pitch for Perimeter College's sales - you can get wonderful woodland plants, fantastic ferns, and great full sun plants all together. George has native azaleas, too. A great place to shop, but go early.

You can shop at Georgia Perimiter College any Wednesday so you don't have to brave the crazy sales. We went on a Friday and the gate was open so the woman working told us to go ahead and shop, but that she could not necessarily help us with information. I bought "blindly". I was very tempted by the vast array of Goldenrods. Someday I will have them all.
I love native plants. Not many big box stores and not a lot of garden stores would have things like 12 different kinds of goldenrods. Some were even blooming now. I was tempted but currently don't have a spot for those (as I've already planted three others this year!!). I used to fear them, my dad though they caused allergies and actually had the city I grew up in cut them down on the roadsides as I'd get so sick from fall allergies (dad was in the city gov't so he could ask this...). Ends up that wasn't the problem at all. The office where my dad worked had a wooded native garden all round it with thousands of trilliums which is the Provincial flower of Ontario. Those two incidence began my love of natives. I was hooked!

GGG

I am definitely going to make the trip - sounds wonderful. I only have 2 goldenrods and agree that they unfairly get a bad rap. I have lsome wild goldenrod in the back of my house and it blooms at the same time as ragweed which is the real allergy culprit. I had no idea there were so many varieties! What I love and hope to add to my collection is echinachea - I have purple, yellow and pink (dwarf) with the echinachea purpurea my favorite.

gliz, they have Tennessee coneflowers which is a pale mauve with thin, recurverating petals. There is a fantastic specimine in the display garden blooming it's head off.

GGG

I love my Goldenrod too.. I have two of the same variety and it was from Tawaliga Nursery after last years RU.. it's supposed to be a noninvasive type... and I can't remember the name! I'd like to know how to propagate it.. Do you know G??

Susan

Goldenrod along with ironweed, cardinal flower (lobelia), and blazing stars (liatris) makes a great wildflower garden in the fall.

As for seed sowing, this works quite well if you like a random mix. After working the soil, apply an inch or so of composted cow manure mixed with sand on top. Sprinkle your favorite seeds on top and water well. Foxgloves and Shasta daisies do very well along with echinacea, rudbeckia, and larkspur. Keep moist until seedlings are big enough to fend for themselves. Use a salt shaker with large holes to mix sand and very tiny seed (such as poppies) to get a good distribution. This beats transplanting which can be a large job in its own right.

#1) My Purple Homestead Verbena
#2) Purple Heart (Setcreasea pallida)

I also love my purple and my red verbena.And my Black elephant ears.AND my purple petunias AND my double daylilies!

Solitare, Do your red verbena's come back?? I saw them marked down at a store and marked as annuals. I asked an associate and she said hers did not return in this zone. Do yours??
What zone are you in?
Susan

GGG, which Georgia perimeter college you are talking about? Is the one in decatur? Do they teach horticulture there? Is the plant sale always on?
thank you

The Georgia Perimeter College Botanical Garden (4 acres) is a botanical garden located on the Decatur Campus of the Georgia Perimeter College at 3251 Panthersville Road, Decatur, Georgia. The garden is open daily without fee.

The garden was established in 1990 by George Sanko as the DeKalb College Botanical Garden. It now contains over 4,000 species of native, rare, and endangered plants indigenous to the American Southeast. The garden includes bog plants, native trees, shrubs, vines, and perennial plants, as well as an impressive fern collection and about ¾ mile of walking trails.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Perimeter_College_Botanical_Garden"

thank you very much Susan, I will go there as soon as possible. :o)

I'm getting in this forum very late, but I am taken back with my viola. Having never lived in ice or cold weather before, I could not believe these babies looked as good frozen as they looked pre-ice! It's June and they STILL look good even though I see them starting to droop a little now with 85+ temps. They've bloomed since November so they have a right to droop, I'd say!

Wow. I saw some at the YMCA the other day and they looked like they needed to be ripped out! Very nice :)

Susan

I always have such a tough time ripping them out while they still have blossoms (which they always do). This year I clipped off every blossom and put them into ice cubes for our iced tea. That helped me to pull 'em out and put them in the compost heap. Of course, you might not want to do the ice cube thing if you've sprayed any chemicals about. You could always press them in the phone book! Sheila

I found a great way to recycle viola and pansy blooms! My daughter got married a couple of years ago, and to save money I catered it myself. I would never recommend that any sane mother of the bride do this, by the way, but we made it through and it was lovely. Anyway, I needed a pretty way to keep cold things cold on the buffet table, and came across a way to make an ice "bowl" using two large stainless bowls as molds, and putting the flowers in the water as it freezes. They were spectacular and so easy to do! I made a bunch of them, different sizes, and since they were frozen they last forever!

I just saw that in this months special entertaining edition15 year aniversary in Martha Stewart magazine.. I LOVED IT!~!

:)

Susan