You're welcome!
Visions of Spring '08!
Wow! I'm so impressed. After 7,002 bulbs I shouldn't be, I guess, but I am. Good luck, Patti, and skip the idea of using the old 20 year+ wood. A good chipper is probably worth the investment. Ours is used about three (long) days a year and it keeps our six compost bins filled.
Here he is: Jack the chipper!
Jack has quite the collection of hats. I will be renting a giant one that we pull around with the truck. Our lawn mowing guy will rent us his for a weekend in the spring for 150.00 bucks which is such a deal and we can do really big stuff fast. He would charge us that for an hour if he was doing the chipping himself. All his does is mow the lawn for us and in the spring his crew helps me mulch the beds which take a two days. So I don't know why he is so nice to us, because we aren't great customers. He likes the garden I guess. Patti
I'm sure you'd be chipping 100 times what Jack chips, at least! We have no clearing to do and most of what went into chipping was from Butterfly Bushes but since I removed 13 of them we're bound to have less to chip this year. Right now the vegetable garden has about 50 bags of leaves from neighbors. They'll get chipped in April.
Did you remove the BB's dues to spreading, Pirl?
They're much too time consuming, Victor. From the time they flower they need pruning of the old flowers or they look awful and they take up too much room and seed themselves far too much.
I agree - to a degree.
I left one, which was a seedling but a gorgeous shade of violet and prettier than Black Knight ever was.
Pirl, did you prune the Buddleja back hard each spring before you finally whacked them for good? I moved some that were being rambunctious a few years ago from a mixed perennial bed to a spot in the yard that is a mix of Viburnums, High bush blue berries, Clethra, Syringa, llex, Rose of Sharon, Forsythia, so I really like the grey color leaf and Aug blooms. Plus now they are not in need of such careful and constant pruning being out in the yard. But since I have added some more Cultivars to other places in the garden. I now think I may be sorry if you found them a big bother. I have had little self seeding occur however. My favorite is still the one I trained as a tree, Buddleja alternifolia which blooms in the spring and again in the fall. It is in one of the mixed beds and is a delicate tangle of weeping limbs. Here it is in mid June. Patti
Some are worse offenders than others. 'Bicolor' is a nightmare.
Beautiful Patti.
Pirl, do you have a name or photo of the violet one you kept?
Do you have any baby bicolour to pass along at the next R.U?
Patti,
That is beautiful!
I never had any seeding until a couple of years ago, and then Black Knight seeded all over the place for me, awful. I have some of the new cultivars, Adonis Blue, and some of those, that stay small and have never seeded for me.
I have some of the buddleia alternifolia, and love it too. Have you seen buddleia lindleyana? That's an unusual one, also.
Polly, I hadn't seen this one before. I have put it on my radar. Thanks, Patti
I have Adonis and a couple of others from that series. So far they are small here too. Michaela - sorry, I ripped them out. I don't think alternifolia should be a problem. Neither is weyerana. I have the 'Sungold' one - very nice.
'Sungold' died the two times I planted that variety.
Yes, Patti, I cut them back severely every year in late March to early April. Getting the roots out on two of them had to be worth a pound of weight loss. What huge trunks! Here's a photo of Jack after cutting just one trunk from the BB we had on one side of the dog's pen. Your tree standard is wonderful.
I do have three new ones from a sweet person and they've behaved quite well, I'm happy to report.
Polly and I shared the same grief with 'Black Knight'. Jack and I must have removed over 1,000 seedlings in the years we had that plant.
Harper - I don't have a photo of the one grown by self seeding. I'll try and get a photo of it this coming summer.
Patti, here's a pic.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/00088.html
Polly, That does it! I love the droopy look and that it is stoloniferous will be fine if I plant it as a free standing specimen in an area that is mowed I have been mentally gazing for the best spot this morning and I think I have it nearly planted While searching for more information (deer) on line I came across this article, which finally explains the strange spelling of Buddleia/Buddleja which has always confused me as well as a lot about lindleyana Thanks, Patti
Just call it a Bud!
Bud it is. I forgot to post this article. http://www.plantanswers.com/butterfly_plant.htm
Thanks. How old is your alternifolia, Patti? Do you have any other, closer photos? No pruning needed?
Mine is 15 to 20 years old (late 80's) and it needs lots of pruning. I will photograph it for you and you can see it needs a major whacking now, but as it grows on the previous season's wood, I can't do any pruning now. But I will do a major thinning soon and take out a major branch and all the suckers. Or should I leave it except the suckers until after it blooms? Dilemma. I always do a little pruning after it blooms in mid June and deadhead the spent blooms and it always seems to bloom again for a long time in the fall. No one seems to mention that attribute in anything I have read, but mine always does. Maybe it is confused by my pruning methods. It will be really wild this spring if I don't thin it out. Here is a close up June 12 th in 07. I will post it's present state soon. Cold outside. Patti
Thanks. Do the initial blooms last about as long as the davidii?
What a great thread! I needed some good reading to get me thru this cold nasty weather!
Victor, you are pushing your luck. I would say a two week run in early June and then again from late Aug in to mid Sept from searching through my garden pictures. It is good enough to make me smile, but the color is soft so not a huge standout. Mine has lots of weeping branches and I pruned it into a multi-stemmed tree form which works well in the middle of a bed. I will keep good records this year of it's bloom time and let you know. Promise. Patti
Thanks Patti. Appreciate the info!
Luckpusher
Victor, I went through some later pictures and that dear plant was still in bloom on Nov 2 2007 as well as almost to July. Makes me like it even more. Patti
-8 this morning so I to long for April.Actually I started planting a new area in the front your that has always been an eyesore. Last year I put in bulbs for the spring and some Lillies etc also an area with a collection of Dwarft conifers ,in this spot I would like to add some spikey type plants for contrast such as Yukka,Prickly Pear etc but not sure what will handle this zone 5 climate.It is a full sun area Very well drained.I have contacted a couple of nurseies that specialize in these type plants in Tx and Ga and asked for assistance but they don't reply.Any suggestions appreciated.Thanks, Peter
Hi, Peter, and welcome to both DG and the Northeast Forum.
I lost my Phormium (a spiky plant) but it's probably more my fault than the plant but it can't stay outside in the winter here. What grows for us in zone 7 would be totally different than what grows for you. I hope someone comes along with some great ideas (and photos) to show you what can be grown.
Hi Peter - Welcome aboard.
Arlene you got the hubby some more modeling work I see, tasteful this time too ;)
Buddelia are noninvasive here, and not even long lived. I really like them, but they are space hogs and normally only have one.
Space hog is a great description.
Yes, he's a willing subject but I think he looks better wearing the umbrella hat: unique.
Hi Peter and welcome. I grow prickly pear and it does well but your area would probably be pushing it. It's native in my area. I don't think it is anywhere in NH. Yucca is rated to zone 5 from what I could quickly find but I would double check with local nurseries or your cooperative extension service. Can't think of anything else spiky offhand that would take zone 5.
Hi Peter, and welcome. You'll like it here.
Don't be so sure of that Al. I bet I had mine for 10 years before it started seeding all over. Have you tried the new littler ones like the Adonis Blue? Quite small in comparison. I really like them.
http://www.springmeadownursery.com/adonis_blue.htm
I had Lochnich which was a small one, didn't last. My wife has Ellen's Blue which seems smaller.
My Black Knight was in a battle with a massive dahlia - Ferncliff Illusion and barely held it's own. I really need to move it, but where?
His and her BB's, Al? Does the Mrs. have her own dahlias too??
No, she has her own coneflowers.
Are you allowed in each other's gardens?
She really should stay out of mine. Funny - she walked around this fall and said "oh! - you have plants at the neighbors again"
I mainly do the dirty work in her garden - till up the solid hardpan it was and weed it. She did the rest.LOL The pavers and edging she put in bothered me and I fixed those in the fall too.
Awwwwwwwwwww........ your wife has it figured out! Do a less than perfect job and you will come to the rescue! I like the way she thinks Al! Pat
You got that right Pat. Of course it would have been easier for me if I would have just did all the work the first time.