Bought all my plants-need help w/planting info please

Hello....so I went crazy today and bought the plants for my beginner's perenial garden.

I got things for shade, partial sun and full sun.

I will list what I have and the light to verify it's correct if someone doesn't mind confirming?

Noticed that some I got that were in a perennial marked pot when verifying the tags are listed as annuals-Will they re-seed ? I got mostly all the small versions of all these (cheaper) and since i'm new at this and did enough $ damage figured I'd at least start with the small ones.


I also need to ask...I'm in 7B georgia clay zone haha--so I have some potting soil-some plant food (blue granules) and some peat moss....once I dig the holes and rake the dirt where I want them ...should I make a mix of those three to refill the hole with??? One just use one thing, or none? Not sure about the "planting" part of them.

Ok so here's the list-also I need some more ideas for shade perennial flowers-and some more part sun perenial flowers.

If anyone knows what a good combo to plant them would be-please advise-example...which pair good, which in back, middle front...I'm new at all this and hoping you guys can help me!

Full sun:

Pandora Daylily- Penta red and lilac-
Initiator Asiatic lily- Blanket flower-
Mexican Heather-(listed annual but possible pereniall I hear)
Angelonia- (listed annual?) Speedwell- Wave Petunia (annual or perennial?)
Festive Gerbera Daisy- Salvia-East friesland and red - (annual or perennial?)
Homestead Verbena (trailing annual-perennial?) - Barbarini Lilac
Ageratum - Zinnia (annual or pereniall?) - Pentas (lilac and red)
Plants-accents: Sweet potato vine- both Rose and Gold Barberry -dwarf lavendar cotton

Partial sun:
Foxglove - frost proof gardenia - Queen Victoria lobelia - Cala lily -
Vinca periwinkle (annual or pereniall?) - Lobelia - grass-liriope and new blue liriope-

Shade: Hostas-assorted ferns-impatiens (annual?) - caladiums

As you can see the part sun one is bare :( Do any of the annuals re-seed? What are some ideas for the part sun and full sun for big back standing plants, with like an impressive leaf/flower?

Thanks in advance if you can help w/any answers to this newbie.

Also-(can't find an edit option) have one listed as Fuschia-Electric Lights? Annual? Can't find any info online on it -looks nice-for shade...would that possibly re-seed?

Again thanks

I have only partial sun and shade around my house and I planted the fern leaved Bleeding hearts...They like it on the shady side. I have it in partial shade with some morning sun. They are a pretty plant and have heart shaped flowers, They come back every year. They are easy to grow...they even grow for me.

I also grew columbine where it only got morning sun, I had blue and yellow. Just give them water and some good old poop and they will be very happy.

Poop ? My dog poops in the garden and have a litter box full of it haha!! Do any of those help? Won't the cat poop just stink up the backyard since it's so strong normally? And then I'd have the problem of the dog trying to eat it LOL

So say just gather the dog poop and throw it around the flowers?

How do people go about getting cow/horse poop? And don't those stink up the yard? I'm in humidity central 7b so that concerns me a bit.

Now a days you buy Kow Poop in yellow bags in Home Depot or Lowe's...Used to be that ranchers would bring you pick-up truck loads for free! They were happy to get rid of it! The problem was the weeds. Poop can have a lot of weed seeds in it! All that digestion in all those stomaches didn't kill weed seeds.

Fresh poop smells, but it is cow poop, so it isn't like dog or cat poop. I used to let horse/cow poop stay in a pile off to the side where it wasn't near the house...old poop is better than new! Both flowers and vegetables love the stuff. I am planning to go to HD or Lowe's and get some "Black Kow" for my flower garden!!!! My brother will DIE when he sees what I buy!

Wave petunias ARE VARY Invasive for me. After 5 years I am still fighting it. I hate the stuff!!! Sorry, I was outside fighting it again today.
Daisy and Salvia are perinnial. Is the Vinca the flower or the vine?

Overit,
You have Georgia clay, we have blackland prairie gumbo! When we prepare the soil for planting we just put in a lot of compost (you really can't overdo it) and composted cow manure. That breaks up the gummy soil and helps with aeration of the roots. I wouldn't recommend mixing in your blue fertilizer since it might be strong enough to burn roots.
You were smart to buy small plants--not only are they more economical, but they transplant with less shock.
Your plant/light listing sounds fine. The Mexican heather is a tender perennial here in Texas' zone 8b--sometimes it survives winter and sometimes not. Pentas are a tropical and don't survive, so are annuals here.
As to large plants for the back of the border, have you considered shrubs? It is getting a little late to put shrubs in now, but a good nursery will be able to advise you on what is appropriate and how to care for it. Personally, I'd go with Knockout roses, or antique roses. Both are hardy, need minimal care, and are gorgeous!
Sounds like you have researched and made good decisions on plants. You'll have great luck with them, and a load of enjoyment!

Can't recommend dog or cat fecal material. First, all fecal material of any animal would need to be well composted. Second, dog and cat fecal material is not recommended for compost piles due to parasites dangerous to humans. I searched and searched for a book or an internet article telling me it would be okay to use my dog material in my own compost piles, even asked our vet, all to no avail. No article or vet says it is safe. If you do it anyway, try to age it well, keep it away from plants before it is well aged, and don't use it around anything you will be injesting, wash hands very thoroughly before touching your mouth or eating, and so on.

Salvia 'East Friesland' rang a bell. Here are my notes, sorry they are so sketchy:
Salvia x superba ‘East Friesland’
Perennial meadow sage, good for cutting.
ht 12-18", sp 12", full sun
quantity 1 bought 5-9-93.
I must sheepishly admit I don't know what happened to this plant, it may have died, and I can't remember anything about it.

Note that I am in Zone 5b, so a plant which likes full sun up here might like a bit of shade in the afternoon down there.

Incidentally, my favorite annual salvia is 'Victoria Blue', it is lovely shade of blue and needs no deadheading. The perennial salvia which i have in my garden will bloom for a long long time if i deadhead it religiously.

Foxgloves are biennials, and they like a bit of shade, maybe more in your zone. They may self-sow for you, so if you learn to recognize the seedlings (so you don't weed them out), you'll have them year after year, popping up here and there.

Periwinkle is the common name for Vinca minor, a groundcover with glossy green leaves and periwinkle blue flowers. It's a good groundcover for shade. You may want to carefully decide whether you want to allow it to spread so much that it intermingles with other things. If you don't like that look, keep it from co-mingling, because it can be heard to separate them after they've already co-mingled.

Hopefully more people in your part of the country will come along and tell you what to expect from each plant you bought. You are off and running with your gardening, hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

You also mentioned you bought potting soil ???? Only use potting soil in containers....what you need is garden soil if you're planting them in the ground.

I must agree with the suggestion of knock out or double knock out roses for a back drop. They are beautiful and very care free can take full sun to 4hrs. of sun a day. You can get deals on them now at big box stores, though they may require a little tlc to get them going this late. I really do not believe you could kill them. I have one that has been run over twice only had it one season and it looks as good as the others around it. It has more new growth than the other two planted at the same time. Of course the new growth is where the branches broke off after it got run down the second time. Another hardy that likes part shade but will require regular feedings is angel trumpet. They can be trimed to conform to the area you have and cuttings root easily. A big plus for us beginners. The stalks I threw in my compost pile last year have sprouted several new plants this spring. Another plus is you are not supposed to put them out till after Mother's day. Though angel trumpet comes up late it is certainly worth the wait and humming birds love it!

Potting soil is usually mostly peat moss, and some brands of potting soil have some fertilizer added to the peat moss. Peat moss retains moisture well, and is lighter weight than soil. In containers, which must have drainage holes, and where most people are fertilizing every week or two to keep annuals blooming through the entire season, potting soil works well. Garden soil in containers is heavy, and the roots can get waterlogged. (Roots need air molecules as well as water.)

Some people like to use peat moss as a soil amendment, but actually compost is better because it adds moisture retentiion plus nutrients. (Peat moss doesn't have nutrients.) Maybe someday you can add a compost pile in an out-of-the way spot in your yard. . . When you become a gardening fanatic you'll want to make your own compost too! Just watch and see if it doesn't happen to you!

Peat moss is undesirable on top of the soil as a mulch because it forms a crust which prevents rain from being absorbed by the soil.

Some plants are true annuals, and they live only one year. They depend on flowering and seeding to reproduce themselves. If you keep them deadheaded, they typically will bloom all summer.

Other plants are perennials if they are grown in an area that doesn't kill them off. Many of the plants that we use as annuals up here in Michigan are actually perennials in warmer climates. It was kind of a surprise to me when I first learned that some of the flowers which I thought of as annuals were actually tender perennials used as annuals. (Example: I tell everyone my favorite annual is Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’. But it technically is a tender perennial. I love the shade of blue, the shape and height of it are useful both in containers and in the garden, and it keeps flowering without needing any deadheading.) That's one reason I am hoping someone in your hardiness zone will help you categorize what you bought.

If you have already opened the potting soil & can't return it to the store, you could either save it until you do some container gardening, or you can use it as a soil amendment. If you are amending an entire bed, work the amendment well into the soil. If you are amending each planting hole: Dig the hole, put the root ball of the plant in the hole, then refill around that root ball with a mixture of peat and the original soil. Try to keep the peat/potting mix down in the hole, not up on top of the soil.

Good luck to you!

I might hesitate to recommend roses for someone who is just beginning to garden, but if there were a rose for a beginning rose gardener, it surely would be the Knock-Out. Roses need to be planted well (the expression is something like "a $100 planting job for a $20 rosebush"), and need fertilizing, mulching, watering, and pruning at the appropriate time, and up here most need winter protection, but the Knock-Out roses are the most resistant to insect and disease, and they are fantastic repeat-bloomers. The KO roses in my garden are the most eye-catching thing there most of the summer because they just bloom, bloom, bloom. I wish the color were a little bit more of a raspberry, but it's really hard to complain about such a good performer.

Ella: The only thing I do with my KOs and double KOs is feed about every three to 4 weeks. They are at the head of my drive way and they are a wonderful welcome mat for all comers. I have several different color climbers that are getting trained on to a split rail fence as you proceed down the drive. As for the $100 planting job, I use this rule even for a five dollar plant. I have only a very few that don't come back, lantana and 3 men in a boat are two that the wife likes and I keep planting. Maybe one day I'll find a way to get these tender perinialls to come back for me. Imust ask have you seen the newest KO rose it is a multiple color I think called rainbow? I've seen pics on line but not in stores as yet? I think it would be very pretty. It is listed as KO not a double. I don't like buying on line for plants, I like the hands on approach more.

Ella, & gcorrier: not to hijack this thread, but I'm about to put a KO rose in the ground (if it ever stops raining) that my MIL gave me for Mother's Day. You mention feeding it every 3 or 4 weeks . . . what do you feed it? Just good old MiracleGro or is there something special you'd recommend?

Several companies make it but the brand I see most often is Bayer. It is a slow release fertilizer blend and insecticide in a granular form. Just sprinkle it around the base of the Rose. I also mix in a cap full in the loose soil at the botom of the hole. Again a $100.00 planting job for any plant will help. Dig hole with at least 2 to 3 inches clearance all the way around and 6 to 8 inches deeper than the depth of the pot. Back fill with a 50/50 mix of compost or other suitable sol amendment and the dirt from the hole. Now add a cap of rose food. Stir well you should see very few granules. Plant rose so that top of root ball is just above the hole no more than an inch work dirt in all the way around so as to remove as much air as possible amending soil as you go. As I go around I actually gently poke at the sides of the root ball to stimulate new root growth. Cover root ball completely and use some left over dirt to form a small ridge around the edge of the hole. Root ball slightly elevated allows for settling in bottom of hole and ridge helps keep water from running off. A light layer of mulch not to close to the crown and sprinkle on a cap full of rose food. Done and you will be well rewarded in about a month with roses you won't believe. The actual label name is Bayer Advanced 2 in 1 Rose and flower care. I have used the same type product from ortho with just as good results. I usually start use when night temps are above 40 degrees regularly and stop when the temp is below that at night. The plant will also tell you when it starts putting on new growth and when you have your first hard frost. Container says up to six weeks but I put some down when I can no longer see any left on the top of the ground. With regular rain or watering 3 to 4 weeks. I plant all my roses this way and have some nice ones. The tent caterpillars did a number on leaves this year as I got a late start with up keep and prevention. But all my KOs and climbers are blooming and throwing out new growth daily. Congrats on your new rose with just a little effort it should give much pleasure. MIL must think highly of you to give such beauty and ease of care in one package.

Thanks gcorrier . . . I will follow your advice to the letter! :)

I live in Zone 7b also. I agree with the Knock Out Roses as a perfect shrub for this area. Also, almost any kind of sage does well here. Pineapple Sage is my favorite and at $3.50 a plant ( because it is sold as an herb at Lowe's ) you can't beat it. It grows well into the fall...has beautiful red flowers on it and when you rub the leaves...it does smell like pineapple. Coneflowers also do wonderful in this zone.

We planted pink Fairy roses a couple of years ago. I must admit even though when I planted them I put composted manure in the hole; I haven't fertilized them since. They are non-stop bloomers!

I use the 2 in 1 primarily for pest control and the feeding here is just a plus with all of our rocky red clay. I think my soil here is pretty good for what it is but the feeding can't hurt and the aphids here are horrible. They attack everything! With the 2 in 1 the little green monsters only get a little suck then DIE!