Re: late blooming perennial

In a message dated 8/16/02 9:35:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
mmorgan@wcgnet.net writes:

<< wanted something that would bloom about a month from now.  The monkshood
 would have been perfect, and almost everything on the list will be finished
 by then.  It's also too dry and/or too shady for many of them.  But I'm
 still open to ideas. >>

I think I got lost on the monkshood.  I have one that blooms in very end of 
September and resists frosts.  You can ignore this plant most of the season 
but when it begins to form buds, you have to water it.  There are several 
late ones, Marge or Gene will know them.  Hosta plantaginea or the Hosta 
'Royal Standard' are both late bloomers and despite what the hosta folk say, 
will grow with no watering, mine do.  

Another late summer bloomer that will stay in place in the shade is 
Lysimachia clethroides.  If the soil is dry, it will not run around.  Mine 
does not and is about to bloom right now.  The tall Japanese anemones bloom 
late and don't need much help.  I don't ever water them but they do need help 
to become established.  I don't know which ones I have as I have tried all 
kinds and some don't make it here but a goodly bunch do.  There is a 
chrysanthemum ( I hope it is that name and not another now) called 
'Sheffield'.  This plant is some spreader so a little dry soil or a little 
dappled shade might contain it.  It blooms in late September or early October 
here and is frostproof.  You need to buy Sheffield and not another one or you 
won't get the same performance. It is a McGourty plant from CT.  There must 
be a few more suggestions out there.  Finally, you can grow a plant in a 
black nursey pot and drop it into some ground cover growing dry shade if you 
really want some bloom there.  There are a great lot of dry shade ground 
covers.  A pretty plant is the shiny leaved ginger the proper name of which I 
cannot remember tonight. You can grow the plants in a row somewhere and drop 
them in the shady ground cover in the early fall.   Lilies also bloom in 
semi-shade and if you consult a lily specialist catalog, you will find late 
blooming bulbs.  And don't forget ferns, ferns are good companions to 
everything.

If you think this not exactly kosher, it was the way the famed Ms. Jekyll 
kept her also famed color coordinated borders always looking first class.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index