Me too, critterologist & Susan.
Favorite Plants in the Cottage Garden
Mike, I've been enjoying your incredible photos - you are not only a true gardener, but obviously a photographer extraordinaire!!
I bought Black & Blue Salvia a few years ago as a "tender perennial." I'm not good about digging things up and storing them (did I say not good? I mean I'm really bad!) so I mulched them the first year with straw. They have become such strong plants that I don't bother to mulch at all now - hope I don't regret that if we have a cold winter! I also have Salvia Argentine Blue Skies - a lovely, lighter shade of blue. Both have spread nicely, but not invasively.
I'm afraid to write down things I want - the list would be so long it would stretch clear into the next county! So many beautiful flowers showing up on these cottage garden threads. However, that Euphorbia is HIGH on my list!!!!!
I've found that my DG journal is a good place to store my wish list. First go to your journal, make a category called WishList. Then anytime you find a plant you want in plant files, go all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on ADD PLANT TO MY JOURNAL. It will ask you to select a categoy. Select the wishlist category and its there. Its also easy to move into another category once you actually get the plant.
Anyway, that's how I've been doing it.
carol
thanks, Carol - I'll try that. I haven't done anything with the dg journal or diay as I found it slightly confusing. This will be a good way to learn a bit about it.
same here! and then maybe we can all trade when we're bursting at the seams. LOL
Also, a clever way to list the plants you have, is to put your zip code in for each one in plantfiles. I must admit I haven't done this on all the new things I have. (My journal is more robust listing, as I like to see pics too.) But its a simple click to see your list when you click on zip code reports under your name.
carol
Justffurrkids -- Veddy clevah!
Suzy
Carol, Thanks for sharing you journal Wish list Idea. I will try that!!!
I just received Pinetree Garden seed Catalog today And I already spotted a few things I want already.
Chris
You guys sure covered a lot of ground quickly! But you missed a couple of my favorite cottage garden plants.
First - larkspur. A generous self sower I always help along.
And how about dianthus as a lovely edging plant that seems to bloom spring to fall
(ok... spring and then again in fall.)
Tammy, I adore your gardens!! BTW, I think you were posting your pics on a different cottage garden thread - not sure which one, though.
There are so many wonderful dianthus, and I love 'em! Easy, gorgeous, and fragrant; does it get any better? Even the varieties sold as annuals often perennialize beautifully.
Soapwort (Sopanaria ocymoides)
This message was edited Nov 20, 2006 9:23 PM
Tam, is that saponaria? I have some, but have never had rebloom.
Neal - here's a sizzling dianthus for you. This picture was taken 6/1/06 and its blooming today too.
Murmur - I'm feasting my eyes on the colors of the cottage garden forum tonight. Trying not to post
the same picture on multiple threads though.
Tam
My soapwort will sometimes come back a year or two at most. But they do self seed (if I'm lucky). They seem
to prefer gravelly soil and full sun to self seed. That picture is an area that they seem to like. That one and the
peony bed I posted on another thread. (They self seeded there for a few yrs before they petered out & other
stuff took over.)
Tam
This is one of the "annual" dianthus (I planted 4 years ago) with Austin rose 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'
Sorry, Tammy - I get it now. Stunning dianthus - and I'm quite a fan of soapwart - mine's been reseeding or reblooming for several years now.
Gemini, wow! If that's an "annual," I want one!!!
gosh- i just found this forum- lots of talk going on here- critterologist- wanted to mention that in the Philadelphia area where I grew up, Rip Van Winkle dafs were naturalized at my grandmothers...they are still coming up and blooming after 70 years. the doubles are harder to grow the further north you are, i think, which might explain why some of us can't get them to bloom. but rvw is a very old daff.... maybe the new ones aren't as reliable....lets hope that's not true. I can dig you a bunch of bloomers from the spring if yours don't want to bloom! well, here's to cottage gardening! sarah
Hey Sarah!
Welcome to the forum! I've been learning so much from these ladies and gents...and the pictures have been making me swoon. Each is so different and they are so wonderful. I shall have to be careful exactly how I aim my camera -- there seems to be a white 5 gallon bucket in every shot LOL!
Do you have any pictures of your garden?
Suzy
I think each and every one of us learns something from the others . . . what a delightful forum this has turned out to be with more and more intriguing threads.
Sarah, looking forward to some photos of your garden - glad you found us!
The betony does not reseed for me, but then I don't give it much chance. I tend to deadhead everything and also use Preen in the spring, so not many seeds get to germinate. I think it would otherwise. It spread fairly slowly. The one above is maybe 3 years old and about 12" in diameter. I dig them up about every 3 years and pull them apart, like you can a daisy, to make new plants. I will have to warn you, it is not a spectacular plant. More just a simple little cottage garden one. I think some of the newer cultivers might be more striking.
Tammy, you have some wonderful looking dianthus. They tend to be very short bloomers for me.
Welcome Sarah!
Susan
There are so many beautiful flowers, gardens and information on this thread it is hard to absorb. I did want to comment on the daffodils, particularly Rip Van Winkle, as I was gifted these I checked the plant files to check if mine were a match. Mine looked closest to the photos posted by imelling, very full almost round and shaggy. I have had similar experience to sjms, these are very hardy for me and spread prolifically. Critterologist I don't think you have to worry about this one. I seem to have an over abundance of daffodills and I think the trick is regularly dividing them. I tend to move plants around alot, the daffs are underneath and get thinned and spread frequently.
I think my tastes have changed over the years and I enjoy more grasses and native plants now but I still have a whole front garden of daffodils in the spring.
Sempervirens and sjms, thanks for that reassurance! I planted 60 of them for my mom and 100 in my front yard, so I hope they will do well for me also. I was thinking I couldn't go wrong with an heirloom variety known for naturalizing... whew!
What blooms for you at the same time as your 'Rip van Winkle' daffs, do you know? Are they in the lower right of that photo you posted? Blooming with... grape hyacinths and a blue hyacinth, maybe 'Blue Jacket'?
I thought they would be a relatively early bloomer, so I put Anemone blanda 'Blue Shades' and a few Glory of the Snow in with mine.... but if they bloom with the larger hyacinths, I'll be more than happy to plant my remaining H. 'Woodstock' with them! I have an earlier and a later blooming Iris reticulata ('Gordon' and 'JS Digit'), and was thinking of trying one or the other of them in that bed also... I've got 100 of each to put in, so I can split them up a little. Suggestions?
Thanks!!
thanks for the welcome. folks.. there are some great pictures coming along here- lots of color! crit- here's my advice--just plant everything!! i'm always amazed how i don't remember year from year who blooms exactly when, and with whom- actually, i think it changes- this year my phloxes all bloomed late with the goldenrods-that was a first. bulbs can come and go in a flash up this way if it suddenly turns hot- spring thaw takes so long, then its like a rocket from a cannon.... i am dreaming my way through the crocuses and snow drops, then kaboom..it's late summer before i have time to catch up with anything.
It's quite a small bed... so I can't really plant "everything," at least not in quantity... I'll try a few different things and see what works out, then move stuff around. I think the anemone is supposed to have a long bloom period, which should help (haven't grown anemone blanda before, though, so I don't really know).
Jill, its been several years, but I used to grow the white anemone blanda and it did indeed have a long bloom season. I do remember that the show the first year was just ok, but every year thereafter they were amazing. Hoping there will be some left at B&B for 50% off; they'll do really well here in the woods!
Happy Thanksgiving Neal, and everyone else here!
Happy Thankgiving Vicki and all you great garden pals!
Good to know, Neal!
Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!
Have a great holiday, garden friends
peace, gram
Happy Thanksgiving!
early_bloomer
Early, what a marvelous, inviting picture!!!
Happy thanksgiving, all!
critterologist,
In the photos I have you can see Rip Van Winkle blooming with the other daffs in the right corner. The photos are from mid April, the 18th to the 21st. On the 23rd of March I see only leaves and buds of RVW, no blooms, crocus are blooming then. The only thing I'm not sure of is if this is the end of their bloom time because I see in other photos at the same time they are past peak. There are Armenian Muscari, Hyacinth ( could be Blue Jacket), and just the start of Phlox subulata blooming. I agree with sjms again about bloom time varying each year and in each location. As for the anemone blanda, I do not grow it but have read and had considered planting it among the Iberis sempervirens, candytuft, as I believe it blooms earlier.
This message was edited Nov 25, 2006 7:08 AM
Thank you! You're right about bloom times varying, but knowing an approximate "window" such as "after crocus, in early daff season" definitely helps!
I was so completely charmed by 'Rip van Winkle' at the Philly flower show last year.. I am already certain it's a favorite!
Since we're on the subject of spring bulbs, I have to say that I really adore the little species-type tulips... I've got them along all the walkways and get so excited when they pop up in early spring. I think they bloom at about the same time as the big hybrid crosuses here (later than the C. tommasinianus). Last year, this T. humilis 'Little Princess' bloomed at the same time as this blue woodland phlox.... These were a mis-labeled bulb, and I took them out elsewhere (not a big fan of orange, especially against the burgundy tones of the walkway), but they were so cute here that I let them stay.
I like the informality of species tulips, but the only regular tulips that have found their way into my garden were a gift in memory of my uncle, a gardener who loved big red tulips. This year, I'm trying a few 'Zurel' and 'Queen of the Night'...
The ADS, American Daffodil Society, has RVP listed as a "Very Early Bloomer" on their public database, www.daffseek.org, which would put it blooming with species crocus, hybrid crocus and Chinodoxa. I'm not sure I've ever grown it, and I don't know when it blooms, but that seems very early to me.
I'll be talking to the Historic Daffodil guy on Sat and I'll ask him #1 why so many people have trouble with RVW, and #2 if he thinks its true that RVW blooms that early, or if he thinks the database is faulty.
Critter, I love species tulips, too; it's just that they have to be so HOT & DRY over summer to increase. So I have a lot of the species lookalikes and named varieites like Little Princess in places I know will get even occasional watering. I just moved some last year to the edge of the driveway, almost under some yews, and am anxious to see how fared over summer. I have been hoping the roots of the yews soaked up every available drop of water because we had such a wet summer.
Suzy
I guess the edge of that side yard walkway is a good place for mine, then, because my "wrong color" T. humilis sure did multiply! I figured I'd wait until the foliage yellowed after they bloomed that first year so I could dig them up and give them away... I dug up at least 3 times the number I'd planted, and at that I still missed some (like the ones with the Phlox stolonifera in the photo). I do have soaker hoses in that bed, but I think it still stays on the dry side there, especially along the edge where the alpine strawberries tend to hog the available water. I've got 'Persian Pearl' T. humilis (spring) and Saffron Crocus (fall) along my front walk, and they seem to be doing well also.
Which reminds me... I think Alpine Strawberries are wonderful plants for edging a border or a pathway! The foliage makes attractive and fairly tidy mounds (they don't runner, unlike many strawberries), and it's wonderful to forage under their leaves for those little gems of astonishing flavor. I'd never want to try to pick enough of those tiny berries for a pie, but they're one of my favorite garden snacks.
I just planted T. humilis 'Persian Pearl'. I had no idea these had to be kept dry. They are on the edge of my rock garden, but I do water. I have automatic sprinklers, but it's tough to regulate without depriving other areas. Well, I'll see how they do.
critter, alpine strawberries would be a wonderful idea around the rock garden...pick a few while I'm out checking the garden, leave a few for the 'critters'. thanks for the idea.
I've really grown to love species tulips too. Since most of the garden gets regular moisture, I've used them in sandy, gravely areas and they seem to love it. Beneath water hogging, deciduous trees has worked well too.
Gram, they'll love it between now and next April/May -- then after they are dormant, if you want them to live long and prosper, you should dig them up and move them to an inhospitable place in your garden where they'll be dry over summer until the fall rains come.
You can also store them in a shed, garage or other hot outdoor place (not in the house with air conditioning) under cover for the summer, they don't have to be planted until fall. I think I read they won't root until the soil around them is in the low 50s-upper 40s.
If it's a rock garden, I wonder if you could get away with planting the bulbs in free draining pockets -- completely surrounding the bulbs with rocks that are about 2x their diamter. They should be on a crown, not in a dip, I would think. I do that with my miniature daffodils sometimes (with mixed results). The object of the game is to have them bloom in spring 2008 and beyond -- they are almost guaranteed to bloom spring 2007.
Suzy