Just put in three lillies.
Facts:
Under a holly
About three hours of morning sun, then two to three hours of partial (filtered) sun.
I have an Aucuba to the right, and some ground green around.
What can/should/oughta I put around the lillies for nice contrast. I may just leave it and throw down the mulch before it gets too hot ... but I don't plan to mulch until I've had a few days to think about what else to put down.
Thanks
W J
I don't have a clue.lol That's why I'm watching to see what somebody else says, cause I have lilies coming from a coop. What kind of lilies?
Asian Lillies
Somebody in the lily forum did say she plants daylilies to shade the roots of her lilies. Can't remember what else.
Purple Coneflowers could be very pretty and they are perennial too.
Oh, yes coneflowers would be great. If they get enough sun. There is a discussion in the lily forum about this. It's a thread called "how far apart do I plant my lilies?" or something like that. Are you putting your lilies in full sun or will they get afternoon shade? The general concensus is that in really hot climates they need pm shade.
They are in 2-3 hours of direct morning sun
then 2-4 ish hours of shaded light (under a holly)
then shade for the burning parts of the 100 degree texas day
I agree with Josephine on this one--they actually fry from too much sun here. =(
And I have too much sun almost everywhere.
(I assume Josephine is silverflutter)
I will also assume that my plan of having only 2-4 hours of direct morning sun should not make that much of a difference. I am pretty close to leaving the site as it, and letting the lillies just stand on their own.
Besides, my wife has asked me when those three bags of mulch that are sitting there on the patio are going to "disappear"
Guess it's soon.
WJ
Josephine is frostweed unless there is another Josephine
Shade is very under-rated in Texas.
Amen, dmj. I wish it was heat that grew the plants, not sunlight. We'd be a jungle by mid-April.
Yep Brigidlily--I coined that phrase around here.
I have noticed the nutgrass is unaffected by either heat or sun (she says tongue in cheek). Have you noticed what weed is back with a vengence after all this rain this winter? and is annoying me to no end today?
Josephine is Frostweed and Mary Lee is Silverfluter.:) Whoever rights the text for those tags I see on plants at nurseries must be from the northeast or something. Sun in the south is a whole different animal.
Nut grass is a scourge. It will and does come up thru asphalt - maybe even concrete, for all I know. Because of that stuff, I no longer have monkey or mondo grass. In a lawn it can be controlled by keeping the lawn well fertilized and cut at the proper height. There is no way to dig it out or mulch it out - that simply encourages it. There is a well kept lawn down the street and they have those lovely little white flowers of the nutgrass. Really obnoxious.
Is nut grass synonymous w/wild onion or wild garlic? We had a field next to us that the owners cut every so often which was filled w/ the onion and garlic and it was really pungent when they mowed. Whew!!
Ann
If you don't have deer, I would put in some hosta's with neat leaves.
Mondo Grass
Wow! I was unaware of that. I have some mondo grass around the edge of my patio. That particular ground is 90% clay, and terrible when it rains. I trenched it about two years ago, and put in mondo grass to help with runoff. The water gets in there and is channelled into some pond rocks I have near the entrance to the french drains.
If anything, the mondo grass is doing poorly or fairly ... but I don't see it taking off like you mention. Maybe our dry summers have something to do with that ... versus the wet humid conditions in Harris county.
W J
dmj1218 wrote: Shade is very under-rated in Texas.
I always thought that too until I moved into my house last April. Now I am trying to fix up my front and back yards and am realizing I have a lot of shade! There is a huge acorn tree on the side and some tree int eh front and one in back i don't know what it's called. My flower bed in front of the house gets minimal afternoon sun. I have some oleanders along the front of the house because I thought that would be pretty and they have yet to grown. :(
Good luck in finding something to pair with your lilies. I planted some oriental lilies in between my roses so we'll see how that goes.
Sublimaze, you might try some salvias in that spot, or pentas. My black and blue salvias seem to like a bit of afternoon shade and the pentas do great in dappled light or morning light. The purple pentas stay shorter than the other colors, but the pink is my favorite. I have black and blue salvias, East Friesland, Mystic Spires and another that I forget the name of at the moment. They all survived the hard winter freeze and are blooming like crazy. I did loose some of the pentas in the freeze, and they were several years old. I will replace them because they're so carefree and have such a long bloom time. Happy gardening!
crowellli -
excellent choices ... all of 'em. I'm a fan of Salvia.
Salvia ... "when all else is dead..."
The orange one on the left is worth it's weight in gold. I have eleven flowers at a time on that.
Brilliant !!!!
W J
How about a nice columbine. I planted 'Texas Gold' in a spot that gets only a few hours of morning sun and it seems to be taking of nicely.
IMHO I would fill it in. I think it looks too bare. How about Hosta, Coleus and Caladiums? They are all great in shade and I dont think a few hours of morning sun will hurt any of them...
