Fall Color!!

Wow now that is a very pretty slap of reality Victor. :)

I'm trying to find some plants that can live/survive/thrive in an area that is often wet, even a few inches of standing water. Will blueberries work here? I've heard they like moist conditions, but this area may be more than moist, lol!

Thanks,
Dee

P.S. Beautiful color on that blueberry!

How much of the year is it that wet?

Louisiana irises can live happily at the side of streams.

Doubt they can take standing water. Clethra alnifolia is perfect for that. For a great ground cover - Golden Creeping Jenny. Ligularia is a good perennial to use there. Also, Acorus or any of the marginal plants.

I have J iris in my bog garden which is always wet.

Yep, I beat you guys to it - I have all those plants on my list already! Thanks! I was just keeping my fingers crossed on the blueberry, but oh well...

Funny, I started out thinking nothing would grow in these conditions, and now I am having trouble narrowing down the list!

To keep this post on topic, I have to add that happily, lots of the plants I've found for this area have great fall color, as well as winter interest. I'm so excited about this garden that I almost don't mind the thought of the actual digging around in the mud!

:)
Dee

What are some that you're considering?

Well, it's actually two beds on either side of a path. One side is consistently damp, the other side often has standing water. Both are just about half sun/half shade. On one side, the damp side, we are planning:

ilex verticillata
buttonbush
itea virginica
redtwig dogwoods
bog rosemary
marsh marigold
japanese/siberian/louisiana iris
viburnum (not sure which one yet - too many choices!)
clethra alnifolia
japanese primrose
astilbe
peony
hydrangea

also trying to fit in a willow shrub (salix integra Flamingo), filipendula rubra or ulmaria, hibiscus, swamp azalea, and a couple of other smaller perennials, such as penstemon digitalis. Seems a lot of the water lovers are BIG plants!

On the standing water side, we are not as sure yet. We are considering:

asclepias incarnata
carex
eupatorium mac. & perf.
iris
lobelia cardinalis and siphilitica
pontederia cordata
rudbeckia lacinata
mimulus ringens
marsh marigolds

Still doing some research - which is good because as I said, we're realizing there is much more out there than we thought, but bad because we want it all and can't fit it all!

:)
Dee

Hmm, found another reference for planting blueberries in wet soil today. Vaccinum corymbosum, or highbush blueberry, grows in swamps and bogs, according to this book on, well, on swamps and bogs, lol - and wetlands. I shall have to do yet further research, I guess.

:)
Dee

Nice list Dee!! Please post again with the final choices.

Here's a link you might find of interest, Dee.

http://magazine.audubon.org/backyard/backyard0309.html#raingarden

Was going to suggest Chelone glabra (White Turtlehead) and it's there in Victor's link! Used to find it growing in the middle of brooks in Maine so should do well on the "standing water" side - a nice fall bloomer - perfect for this thread :)

This is a sure sign fall is here....the apple tree is not ever prunned or even kept up. Heck it is neglected for the most part but it looks beautiful as is, so why mess with Mother Nature??

Thanks Victor and rcn! Appreciate the help!

:)
Dee

Looks heavenly, Celeste!! The squirrels ate all of our apples this year We also have a big web of something very unpretty at the top of the tree. So much for this year's crop! I can tell it's fall by looking at the dead daylily bodies draping over my stone wall.

Hope you eat them Celeste! I love apples.

Oh looks yummy. No flowers again this year courtesy of the nasty winter moth caterpillars. No flowers no apples. :(

When I first started teaching I used to do the wax thing with leaves all the time. I used them to make bulletin boards. I used to go farther north and get them earlier before they changed color around Glens Falls. Another teacher was admiring my bulletin board and then she said, "see those leaves right there, the branch with 3 leaves on it!!!! I guess that's where the rash came from!! Eleanor

p.s. I grew up on a farm and had never seen poison ivy

Ooh - painful lesson!

Not painful - itchy, very, very itchy!! Eleanor

Ooooooh, Eleanor........that's not fun at all! We have never had Poison Ivy around here in this part of NH for years and years, but now I hear that there is some in our area. We haven't seen any yet around the farm, but my DH is so terribly allergic to it, I hope it keeps its distance from us.

Candyce - do you have PI in your area?

Oh yeah - there's a lot of PI around here. But, so far, no one in the family gets infected by it. I hear though, that you can be very tolerant of the oils from poison ivy one year, and then very intolerant the next, so we ARE careful. And everyone knows how to identify the plant on sight.

Poor, poor, Eleanor!!

Oh I know how to identify it now. good thing to cause it's all over this area. Eleanor

A new strain is being talked about - even stronger than old PI.

Yes you can develop the sensitivity at any time - like most allergies. Another good reason to use gloves.

I used to not get it as a kid. I would pick it and tease my friends with it. They thought I was like a superhero! One day I totally blew them away by squeezing out sap and rubbing it into my face and hands. Guess what? I got a horrible case of poison ivy. Now I get it when I think of PI.

Ooohhhh, Dave! Then be very careful reading this thread!!

My little guy got it all over his face two years ago playing outside Daycare. Doc said it was windblown.

Oh no!

Summers of my youth are filled with memories of one of my sisters with that pink calamine lotion over her hands, arms, legs and face.

'You're gonna need an ocean...'

Photo taken at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden yesterday. Name plate said "aster novae-angliae 'Sailorboy' Michaelmas daisy" but I don't think so.....

Anyone know what it is? We have a fire hydrant out front and I want to plant this behind it.

Whatever it is, it sure is pretty!! I couln't find it in the Plant Files, either.

Candyce...it was at the end of "The Systematic Garden" off the Orangerie. Got a lot of attention as it was the most colorful plant at Tower Hill. Kicking myself because I really want to grow it and I should have known it was not Aster Sailorboy. It is in the family as that garden is laid out by relationship--that is the aster, aster novae-angliae, rudbeckia and sunflower area (there was a huge sunflower with frilly, fennel typel leaves, over 6 feet tall, loaded with buds but not in bloom yet. Should have gotten the name of that too. Maybe I'll have to go back next week.)

Here is a wider shot of the Yellow UFO (unidentified flowering object):