Northeast Gardening: End of season report card, 1 by milesf1

milesf1 wrote:
Ok Victor, you hooked me. Speaking of cone flowers, my double header that I bought last year and hated (looked like it had warts) was fabulous this year...glad the SO would not let me rip it out...told me to see how it did this season first! It looked completely different then last year, had several rows of petals and bloomed all season and kept compact. The standard cone flower next to it did well but got too leggy and a bit tall. I'll leave it for next year and see if it is containable.

Some stuff I was real happy with this year:

Roseanne Cranesbill...gorgeous color and leaves and still blooming! Been going since I put them in in June. I planted 9 along the driveway and liked them so much I did 3 more in the back where I can see them from the house. I might even do a couple more in some new lasagna beds I'm planning for next year.

Jethro Tull Coreopis. I bought this from bluestone in April on a whim because it was new and everyone had it. Amazing! Was blooming when I put them in in April and is still going. I do deadhead them every week or two and that seems to keep them humming along.

Compacta oregano...never grew this before...it is amazing...nice to look at and tastes wonderful, I used it in anything savory. Did greek too which is very peppery but a nice little pant

Goldsturm Rudbeckia...planted several of those for uniform color around the garden, they are great...got about two months bloom out of them.

Becky shasta daisy...we love this plant. Did two last year and split one off this year...planted it with Mother of Thyme and some Asclepias tuberosa at the end of my veggie garden that one got as big as the two year old plants in no time!...I'm going to break off more plants in a couple weeks for some new beds.

Neptea Walkers low...this was a great plant...got to full size and bloomed like crazy. Along with munsted lavender and butterfly blue scabiosa and Brookside cranesbill. All under plantings for my wall of roses along the garage...as seen in this pic, that stuff is all bigger than the roses ;-)

tall rudbeckia I got from the organic farm down the street....still blooming, about 4-5' will small flowers...love that.

The yellow daylillies my sister in law gave me last year...they came up tall around the cone flowers and Platycodon so I had a nice mix of yellow, blue and pink that was pretty cool going on.

My stella d'oro daylillies on the side...they went for months.

Autumn Joy Sedum...love that stuff....got it form bluestone as well.

Moonshine coreopsis...kept going and going in my new bed by the rose arbor.

Buddleia...planted two pink davidii and two blue, plus one other blue one, I can't remember the variety off hand...all were fantastic....went from 4" pots to 5' woody shrubs in one season...

I can't even get into the roses (34) and clematis (10) I planted in this thread!


Things that I'm not 100% happy with:
silver brocade artemesia...it is too flat and sprawling....I thought the ones like silver mound would get too leggy, but not crazy about this either. I have to move one or two to keep them from taking up too much space.

Wegeilia...planted it last year in the front...starts out brown at the bottom and thows up leggy canes...and the blooms are the wrong color....I moved them all to an out of the way spot and put in red double knockouts instead...they have only been in a month and are blooming like crazy right though frost, I'll be happier with those for sure.

My Asters that I planted last fall and immediately turned black and wilted. They came back strong and did it again so I ripped them out and put in standard garden mums...they did good for a couple weeks then the slugs got them all in the front and back...must have been the wet weather...I beer trapped a lot of them but did not stay on top of it...

The maggie daylillies on the side did not bloom much....all be it northern exposure. I was spoiled by the stella d'oros!

My Kobold liatris did not bloom in thee spots, got big and bushy, but no flowers...very weird since the soil is rich and my roses and other stuff did great in the same bed. And that is one of the things that is in every perennials for idiots book I read!

Anyway, I planted like a 100 things so I could go on for days...but I need to head to bed at this point!

Miles