I've done this before, but it's always helpful. Please share the plant successes and failures from this past year. It is not limited to what was planted this year - it could be something planted two or three years ago that has turned out great or to be a bust. It can be anything at all - annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, edibles, etc.
As I said in the early summer, echinacea Pink Double Delight is a real flopper. I'll make a decision on it next year. At least one, and possibly two, of the Heuchera Rave On I planted this year have died.
One or two shrubs I planted in spring died because they were completely shaded out to the point where I forgot about them entirely, so I did not move them, nor water them! That's another reason I prefer fall planting. No surprises about how big neighboring plants get.
On a positive note, hardy Hibiscus Peppermint Schnappes is still blooming and has bloomed non-stop for months. Never had one bloom this much. Hopefully it's not a first year fluke. I'm liking Geranium Rozanne more and more.
I am concerned that my Winter King hawthorn is losing the battle to rust. It looks horrible and there are hardly any viable berries. I will probably cut it down. What a bummer.
My biggest concern right now is for my large JM out front, which is the focal point which anchors my front garden. Many leaves are just shriveling up and turning brown and there are many bare branches. It seems to have come on pretty quickly. That would be a major blow. It's about 25 feet high and I have underplanted it with shade / part shade stuff, including dwarf JM's.
I'm sure I will think of more but I just wanted to get the ball rolling. Your turn!
End of season report card
I hear crickets...
A dialogue requires more than one voice! C'mon now, don't be shy.
Annuals: silver mound is still ok, planted a Nemisia in partial shade when it needs sun but as of this morning still has flowers, though I doubt that it will self-seed. One batch of impatience still doing well. Tree branches cut yesterday will probably let more light on a couple of small beds. Iris a mixed bag although they are all subject to size technicalities--germinated seedlings not moved out into the garden until the end of July so will be small next year. Cornelian cherry (dogwood relative) has been marvelous.
The bee balm(colrain red) I had planted turned out more hot pink than red so it's annoying me I'm probably going to move it. Found out impatiens like my front garden and my side garden, not so much.
Def going to do some more wildflowers next year.
Have to remember not to put Preen down before I seed(duh)
Just saw this thread. Now, please remember I joined this July, so I have a lot of NOIDs, but I'll try my best. Now I know better to keep the tags or write down the Latin names.
Winners:
"nashiki" willow. We'll see how they overwinter. Planted in July
A juncus NOID It was a surprise that came up, but I like how the little flowers stick out from the side of the stem.
I concentrated on containers on the deck this year so mom could enjoy them.
White angelonia still blooming strong. I've saved some seed and took some cuttings. We'll see if they do allright.
An apricoty-colored diascia that perked up lately. Real pretty next to a deep purple osteospermum.
A red mandevilla that I got at the local grocery store. It grew to about 8' or so. During the hot summer it was full of blooms. Must have had 50 blooms or more at a time. Mom loved it.
A reddish/orange lantana that is still going strong.
NOT SO GOOD
My BES this year were kinda sparse. I'll need to dig up and divide.
Some of the forsythia have these warty-looking growths on some stems. Should I get rid of those plants? I'm assuming they are galls of some kind.
Jan I have that willow I love it, overwinters fine here.
Victor I am with you on the Pink Double Delight.... giving it one more year too
loved my Agastache 'Desert Sunrise'... other than when it rains it's floppy... but dries out and stood back up.. I can deal with that
This is one of the threads that I have looked forward to seeing this year. I learned so much from last year's thread. I know I will be adding comments as I think of them.
For now, I can safely say that a few 'happy accidents' have surprised me. The forsythia bush that always seemed to get run over by the lawn mower at the beginning of the season has come back stronger, albeit shorter, than the year before. Once I found a small 6" trellis to help mark its spot, it grew more full than last year.
The impatiens that Anna planted haphazardly along the western fence have been the best bloomers we have ever seen. This is an area that gets all of the run-off when it rains, and not too much sun at all. And, it's not even a 'prepared' bed.
I'll write more later, for sure.
Best results are from unplanned events! Maybe more plants should be mowed?
My arctic fire dogwood is really full after puppy chews this spring.
Tried some Verbena Homestead Purple this year from two different suppliers. It produced nice purple flowers in late spring and is still blooming in October. They didn't get very tall, but five plants spread to cover an area at least six by six feet, and I didn't have to weed under their abundant leaves. If it survives our zone 6 winter it may well become one of my favorites.
Good to know, Jen about the willow.
Lol- on the puppy chews.
Congrats on the impatiens.. Hey, maybe that is the secret - an "unprepared" bed.
Did it produce many seeds, Don? Was it a deep purple?
My rose Paris d'Yves St. Laurent has been amazing this year , blooming 3 times is such a short growing period!!
Toad Lilies ~ 'Golden Leopard' & 'Sunset' total disappointments so far. Golden turned out to be Raspberry Mousse and R.M. is stunning, but that's not what I paid for. 'Sunset' im not sure is actually 'Sunset' as it's struggling to exist never mind big enough to bloom!!
Astilbe 'Diamonds & Pearls' was stunning, like to see this one in a nice clump along side a darker one.
Bethlehem Sage Raspberry Splash ~ My first year with it and i loved the color of the flowers and the leaves are interesting all summer long.
Brunnera 'Jack Frost' is spectacular and im wondering why I didn't get one before now!!!!! (it was the price)
I love everything about it, the shape and color of the leaves, the color of the flowers, ect... May have to check and see if there are a few more varieties of these.
So far all my friut tree's and bushes I planted seem to be doing well.
Magnolia Tree's seem to be struggling despite our best efforts, springtime will tell with these.
My new lilies and daylilies were all wonderful and I enjoyed the new selections. Not that I needed anymore buy I just can't help my self. I am actually off now to plant some huge lily bulbs from Buggy Crazy.
I ordered a few from her and a few from B&D which haven't arrived yet. ^_^
Did plant lilies for an experiment & theydid attract the lily leaf beetle--we picked them off but they are quick. However when these plants go I won't buy any more. Too bad but until they find out how do get rid of the beetles it is too much trouble.
Forum (and computer) newbie here. (What is a NOID??) Funny, I was trying to kind of ballance pluses and minuses while walking in my jungle the other day. Actually fun rather than regrets. After about fifty years of gardening I decided it was time to try to design a border mixed or otherwise after spending decades wandering about with a shovel in one hand and a potted shrub or plant in the other creating chaos. This started in the Spring of 07 when considering a huge sumac with a big clump of wild daylilies and Frans Hals underneath it. My plan was to move the wild daylilies all over my yard to make one huge twenty foot patch by the road back them up with old Hydrangea arborescens and never touch the mess again. Under the sumac there was also a Miscanthus zebrinus and I though I'd copy a plan and work from there. So I ordered Thalictrum, Aruncus,Filipendula ulmaria, bought yellow foxglove locally, found a bargain yellow dahlia, a yellow canna, a couple of sixpacs(??) of yellow snapdragons and started fighting with my acid silty clay-and the sumac roots. Well, its been fun, but it sure doesn't look as I imagined it. The Thalictrum flavum is either a wispier plant than I thoughor it doesn't like my soil. A couple died and rotted last winter. The rest fell over when it bloomed. The F ulmaria was not all double and It seemed too white for the rest of the plants. I may take it up next Spring , divide it and plant the single one elswhere. The Aruncus leaves got pretty ratty before the summer was over. Yellow and drying. The worst mistake was not staking the dahlia which eventually flopped over everything. Oddly, the yellow foxglove didn,t seem to mind the dahlia burying it and is sending up a large spike even now. The snaps fell but sent up lemony spikes the same color as the dahlia- even if that was blooming on the ground. Am I happy? Actually yes. My wife has one of the yellow dahlias with a couple of snaps and some aconite on her desk even now.
Welcome weedy! NOID means no identification. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes, a big welcome here. Kinda sounds like me putting things here and there.
How big did Jack Frost get, Celeste? I've been looking at that for years too!
Welcome, 'weedy'!
Welcome, weedy, to the NE Forum, where the nuts hang out! (I didn't make that up myself.)
The surprise this summer was the pansies in the shade that seem like the same ones from March. The of course is SO MUCH blasted shade. DH, with his chain saw, says things like "but I just pruned that tree last year, what's the problem? You want MORE cut off? Oh, it grew?"
We semi-successfully grew peppers and tomatoes!!!! Only semi because as a tomato would get ripe, something would come eat it, but at least they grew! Apparently rabbits don't like hot peppers.
Always lovely is the Quick Fire hydrangea - I always love to watch it change colors.
Oh this post is great!
I didn't really plant anything new - expect for a few clematises and they all did very well for having been planted this spring. Everything I had did extremely well this year. Oh wait...
I had gotten a blue geranium - yeah can't remember the name - didn't care for it much though....pulled it out. at the end of the season.
And will replace it with - let me guess - a clematis?!
Why didn't you like the geranium? I love mine.
Me too.
welcome Weedy.... thanks for sharing your story
Allison
Impressed more and more with Itea Little Henry. I'll probably add a few more. Nice blooms in spring and long-lasting, fantastic fall color. And it only grows 2 or 3 feet.
We were pleasantly surprised with the ONE 'Big Boy' tomato plant we purchased in early spring and planted in Taelar's veggie garden. Not only did it produce more tomatoes than we could handle, it grew and grew and spread and spread! It was a handful!
We did well with the one green pepper plant, and the cucumbers and summer squash, too.
Who was it that planted Little Honey oakleaf hydrangea?? I'd like to know how it has done. A few more words about Little Henry. It can be grown from full sun to just about full shade, making it very useful. It does like soil on the moist side, however. I just use crystals when planting if it's out of normal hose range.
Me, and so far it's fine - no new growth, I guess spring will tell.
Thanks. When did you plant it, Deb?
This message was edited Oct 17, 2008 4:37 PM
Things that worked:
Bearded iris
daylilies
grown from seed:
profusion zinnias
purple amaranthus
purple dome aster
Honey Bee blue agastache
tithonia
crackerjack marigolds
corkscrew vine
morning glory - Heavenly Blue
red salvia
things that did not work
petunias - look great for a while - then all straggly
delphiniums - what am I doing wrong?????
I have heard that delphiniums like chicken manure; probably aged as fresh would be rather hot.
They do require very good drainage, Michaela. Could be that.
I had a few successes
Jack Frost two plants both huge(compost and topsoil rototilled in last year)
Aquilegea "Lime Sorbet"
Poppy collection doing well,no blooms this year but crowns look good for next season.
Agastache Blue Fortune WOW had to move one of three
Ferns
NOT so great plants
Echi, Autumn Skies great the first day but as blooms fade ,turns a bland rosgray
Autumn Anemone ,gift from DD#3'S garden hasnt grown
Now lets talk bulb orders.
Brent &Beckys Lily failed to produce what the tag said( they will issue a credit)
B&D lilies DL'Starling didn't look like the picture either,doubt I will order from them again as every order has had a problem
Their tall lilies "Moonlight Strain out of three bulbs, only one was what it was supposed to be no satisfaction with a letter and picture.
The three Copper Kings produced one deep gold lily that was something else ,the other two lilies weren't more than three feet tall and some pale cream with a rose color on the back of the petals.
I am giving until next spring to vote on the Seneca Hill order, they were early spring plants and have died back completely.
Crocosmia failed to bloom,others did well that were new bulbs from B&B's
Hi weedyseedy! He lives up near me, so exciting to have another gardener near to Mittsy and I.
My biggest excitement of the year was finding the groundcover geraniums, Karmina and Biokovo. Both, so far seem to be living up to their promises of weed suppressing underplantings for my beardless irises. If so, I will be a very happy camper.
Not a pepper year in my garden, & I'll never plant the Japanese eggplants again. Heirloom tomatoes were great, but I never buy the same variety--I want to try them all. Flowers---loved my geranium Heidi--even nicer than Rozanne, what I believe is Egyptian Ibis DL & several DLs from Olallie Farms that bloomed into Oct. My Casablanca lilies yellowed & died--hope it's not the dreaded lily beetle---but other lilies were lovely ie Shocking. I still have a glad blooming, was very impressed with the glads from Dutch Gardens. My toad lily did nothing--maybe too small still.
Robin - it took my toads a few years to bloom. I'm with you on the geraniums, Polly. Been trying to find the best ground covers for years now and they are among the best. I love Karmina. Rozanne does a pretty good job too, but is not as dense as those or the macro's.
Smashing successes: coleus, dahlias, JI's, Jolly Bee geranium, mixed "splashed" Asiatic lilies from Dutch Gardens, lobelia, all container plantings, tarragon gone insane and tithonia, which reached 6' before I had to cut it back so we could get into the vegetable garden. Mixing broccoli (from seed) in with the dahlias was much fun and so productive!
So-so: tomatoes, peppers, cukes - mainly because of cool nights or deer.
Flops and "why did I ever buy them": three tree roses that all require an ever present gardener with food in one hand and a hose in the other, a monarda I loved but only realized this past week is an annual, all three sweet potato vines that went too crazy overwhelming other plants, ajuga that also went wild and took a full 8 hour day to remove from the now pleasantly bare of ajuga rose garden, which is bare of roses due to the deer (again).
