I have daffodils plants in many places around my yard, but I have nothing else there to grow after they are gone. Would pink fountain guara work in the sunny spots? If not, what would work there. Some are in enough shade that coral bells does well, but I don't know if that's a good thing to plant with daffodils either.
Thanks in advance, Mary Lee
gaura and daffodils?
Mary Lee, I have Larkspur coming up now getting ready to bloom before long. I have potted up a bunch to bring to the RU in April. It is tall though, so may not work where your daffs are.
I have 2 different Gaura, and both have a small base plant, that would take up space. I am not sure how much area you have between your Daffs, but they would definately stay for the duration of the summer!
The standard Gaura gets quite large (3-4ft), and tends to take over... The new Cherry something.... Gaura stayed smaller(1ft), so you would have to choose how tall you want for that space!
... in my limited experience
Melanie
Texmel, Hi how are you? Didn't you say you were moving? I remember you said you would move when DH retired and your next backyard would be mostly pond. You did such a fantastic job on the one you have now, I would love to see the next one.
Guara may not be the right plant at all actually, because what I think I need is something that will fill the space when the daffodils start fading and not compete with them when they come back. I don't know if guara freezes back for the daffodils to come up or if that would matter. Maybe they would come up anyway?
Sheila, thanks for the suggestion of larkspur. I had never considered that at all. Those do freeze back and reseed right? Oh, oops. They get very tall.
This is next to our pond and anything tall would block the view. Well I could use those at the back of the pond. But what can I use in front?
Mary Lee, Guara is an evergreen plant I think. I don't think it would would work well for what you are suggesting.
Mary what would you suggest? Help, I'm in dire need of counseling.LOL
I have daffodils on one end of my moongarden, where I also have daylilies.They seem to work quite well together, and daylilies come in such a variety...some are green & leafy all year and some die back, only to come back right about the time the daffs are dying back. Worth a thought?
dogmansis, yes definitely worth a thought! I was wondering if daylilies would work. I didn't know if the daffs could come up through daylilies. I was in the process of search the plant files for a daylily called Double Purple Thrill that somebody mention on another thread. I haven't found it, but I've only gone through the first 15 pages with some 1,500+ pages to go.:))) Got any ideas?
Guara tends to be the type of plant that gets/and or allows lots of weeds to grow in it because it's not leafy enough to "provide its own mulch"....so I tend to avoid it for that reason..but since weeds come up easily thru it for me--daffy's sure would too (if I could keep out the others! LOL). Tends to allow alot of nutgrass and johnson grass to grown in it for me.
I my daffodils and some other bulb plants are planted around lantana. I prune back the lantana to within a few inches of the ground (even if it has not frozen back) as soon as I see the daffs and other bulb plants starting to emerge. This allows the daffodils and other spring bulb plants to come up. Then, as trhe daffodils. etc. are fading, the lantana are starting to be "reborn". It covers up the dying daffodil foliage so that it doesn't look so unatractive.
Good Idea for all that space left around Lantana in the winter!
Deb
Thanks htop! Wonderful idea! What kind of lantana do you use. Are they all equally hardy? And what do you suggest for the shady spots? Some of mine are in spots that are shady enough for hechera and oxalis. Oxalis grows so thick I guess it wouldn't let the daffs through, but the areas are shady enough that oxalis would like it there. Somebody suggested hostas.
Yeah Melanie, have you moved yet? I would love to see the next pond you create, since you are leaving that beauty behind. :)
Marylee was that you I promised a Hosta last year? Well its still potted and got three or four eyes now. I will bring to the RU. Do you have any Ajuga?
Sylvia
City Sylvia, Well I don't really remember. I do have some hostas from Patrob. She gave me Serendipity and a plain green one and I bought Francee from HD. Hostas are such wonderful plants, I sure wouldn't turn it down.:)
I do have one Ajuga. I haven't planted it yet. I tried ajuga many years ago under my oaks and it never spread and finally died. I guess I should have watered it. DUH Does it need regular water?
Mary Lee
dmj1218, this has worked pretty well.
Mary Lee,
I have purple trailing lantana ((Lantana montevidensis) which dies back later than the others so it is more cold hardy:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2042/index.html
and yellow - gold Gold lantana 'New Gold' (Lantana) which does ot produce seeds and blooms profusely.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/59488/index.html
My neighbor down the street has a trailing white one which is as cold hardy as the purple trailng, but I don't know which one it is. All of my lantanas have come back from heavy freezes over the years although of course they die back to the ground.
In the shady areas, you could use Desert Petunia, Florida Bluebells, Mexican Petunia, Mexican Blue Bells 'Blue Shade' (Ruellia brittoniana); it does back after a hard freeze (comes back up) and would probably be gone when the daffs are coming up in your area. It spreads very fast, but comes up from seed. It is easy to remove from where you don't want it to be.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38180/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38180/index.html
I have a trailing lantana that is supposed to be white and the first year it was white. The next year it was lavender. And I bought what I thought was a New Gold lantana, but it didn't look like what I expected. Some of the flowers were pink. It looked kind of like that confetti lantana. Is supposed to be only gold flowers (or yellow)? The one that's supposed to be white is planted in the ground so I figured it was grafted or something and the grafted part froze. The new gold lantana is in a pot that goes in the greenhouse for the winter because I figured it would freeze in a pot. Should I put it in the ground?
Would coral bells for the shady areas compete with the daffodils too much? Or hostas?
'New Gold' shouln't have any pink at all and should not produce seeds.. I bought a supposedly 'Confetti' lantana that turned out to have only pink blooms. I now only buy them while they are in bloom. I have had it several years and am probably going to dig it up this year. I would plant the lantana in the ground. They have taproots and perform better if planted in the ground. I am mystified at the fact that your white blooming one became a lavender blooming one.
Yes I am also mystified. I will try and get a picture this year. Do they ever graft those things?
I will put the lantana in the ground. It'll be nice to have one less pot to lug around. But I'll probably just put something else in it and then lug that around.:)
Mary Lee
Mary Lee,
I don't think that they graft them. I do know that the bloom colors vary depending upon the amount of sun they receive. As an example, I have one that has orange and yellow blooms when the sun moves more nortward in the summer and it receives more sunlight, the blooms have more yellow in them than they do when they receive only half day sun. You sound like me and my containers ... :o)
Hazel, plants are pretty strange creatures sometimes.
If I could find a bumper sticker that said "Got pots?" I would probably buy it.
Mary Lee, I don't know about flower pots, but that bumper sticker would get you a lot of looks, especially if someone took that "s" off! LOL!
Shelia you were thinking the same as me. LOL Yeah, Mary lee leave the Pots alone.LOL.
Sylvia
Yea I guess you're right. But I might meet some really interesting plant lovers that way!
We used to have a 79 Volkswagon Rabbit and after 20 years or so it needed a paint job pretty bad. I suggested to my son who was 17 or so that we paint it white and have a detail shop write on the back somewhere "Yes this is the White Rabbit." He just looked at me and said "No Mom I really don't think so." Darn, I thought it was a cute idea.