Knautia is such a easy, long blooming plant. Not to flashy but it blooms for months and is so pretty.
Knautia and clustered bellflowers
Another favorite is clustered bellflowers. I've been growing these in one house or another for over 30 years and I still love them. The dark purple is stunning and these are just beginning to bloom. Soon that entire section will be covered in purple. Easy too but they do spread. It's easy to pull the extras, though, and I always have somebody who wants some.
Closer view. Again, this is just a fraction of what will be blooming in a week or so so they look a little sparse here.
Here are the two together, knautia on the left, bellflowers on the right.
Very nice combo, hart. Do you know if either of them makes good cut flowers?
I'm sure the knautias would make fine cut flowers. They have nice long stems although the flowers are small, maybe 1.5 to 2 inches across. The bellflowers are much shorter and their stems are pretty leafy so you'd have to trim off the leaves.
Hart those are beautiful pictures. If only my husband didn't like the lawn sooooooo much, I would have perennials everywhere!! I have always thought knautias were beautiful plants and you have proven me right again. I don't have any in my garden but maybe one day.
I'll bet they'd be easy from seeds because mine self sow a bit. I actually have some other colors. These were from the Melton Pastels mix that T&M sells but I bought mine as plants from a local grower. The lighter colored ones are really hard to capture in a photo but I'll try to get some shots if it ever stops raining here.
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/6344?SA=1113
I'm working on having perennials everywhere but I have a bit over 4 acres here so that should take a while. Okay, I promise I won't cut down the woods to create flower beds and the part of my land that's more vertical than horizontal would be a bit hard to work. That's what happens when you live in the mountains. LOL
You would need the woods to grow shade perennials and the vertical area for xeriscape. ( there is always a solution)
I live about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours I believe from your area. I have been camping there when all the mountain laurels were in bloom. It is a beautiful area.
I have 1/2 an acre with trees in the back and lots of sun in the front. I enjoy trying to find plants to work in both areas. I would have to say I am a collecter. I want one of just about everything. LOL
I need to try and start more plants from seed because it would be alot less expensive.
I will check the website thanks.
You should join us in the Mid Atlantic Gardening forum, wisdom. There are usually several plant swaps every year where you can add to your collection. The last one was in Frederick a few weeks ago. I hope I'll have at least a couple knautias for next spring's swap since they are self sowing here and there.
The vertical area I'm talking about is probably a couple hundred feet almost straight down. Luckily it's covered in trees because I have no desire to combine gardening and rock climbing. LOL But I think it will take me a while to get so desperate for gardening space that I have to plant there. As far as xeriscape goes, that would be nearly all of it. It's very rocky and dry here.
The mountain laurels have been gorgeous this year and are still blooming, which is rare.
That's a lovely combo! You have beautiful gardens. What is that that you are calling clustered bellflowers? Botanical name, I mean. I've been calling something else bellflowers, and I bet I'm wrong.
Here you go. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/989.html Forget that photo showing a blue flower. They don't come in blue, only dark purple or white.
There are many, many kinds of bellflowers.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Campanulaceae/Campanula/none/cultivar/0/
Sometimes dark purple looks kind of blue, doesn't it? I wonder what I'm calling a bellflower? Oh well! I have 'Bernice' that blooms later. Thank you for the link!
It was the lighting or something that made the colors a little off in that photo I'm sure. Happens all the time. Why don't you post a photo of your bellflower? I'm sure somebody here can tell you what it is.
I promised to post some more photos when the clustered bellflowers were more fully in bloom. It's really hard to catch the color, which is dark, bright purple.
Color isn't as close in this one, but you can see how they bloom starting at the top and then down the stem.
Bumping so you all can see the bellflowers in their fuller glory.