Re: [SG] Low Maintenance Gardening/cimicifuga
Nancy - this is my first year with Cimicifuga and mostly I have ramosa. I did
buy one C. brunette(which was even more expensive than the C. ramosa) and it
has a flower wand now. Hpowever, I don't have high hopes for it. The bottom
leaves are a bit tatty.
Nancy Shlaes deGrazia (Long Grove, IL)
Nancy Stedman wrote:
> Funny, I was just about to bring up cimicifugas. I'm really perplexed about
> the bloom times. I have a C. ramosa that used to be in a really dark and dry
> spot and didn't bloom until November. I moved it to some place lighter and
> easier to water and now it's putting up wands. Is it possible that it will
> bloom in August? That's when the C. acerina (aka japonica var. acerina)
> blooms. Also, I have a C. foetida variant--an obscure species, I
> believe--and I have no idea when it will flower. Does anyone know? I'm in
> zone 6B, in New York City.
> My experience, by the way, has been that the Asian cimicifugas are tougher
> than the American ones. Seems to me that the Asians will flower in more
> shade, possibly because the leaves have fallen and the light is lower when
> they bloom. Am I alone in thinking this?
> But they're all wonderful. Elegant and natural at the same time. Definitely
> low maintenance when they're happy.
> Nancy
>
> >Nancy, I bought ONE C. ramosa about 5 years ago and it lingered for 3
> >years before finally giving up altogether. Fortunately, I have forgotten
> >how much I spent for it but it was expensive--and painful watching its
> >decline. I will never get another. A gardening friend grows the plain
> >Cimicifuga racemosa (?) and she has a bunch of it--no fuss, no muss,
> >attractive, not temperamental or difficult. Doesn't smell as good, true,
> >but MUCH cheaper! It's a native, as opposed to ramosa, which comes from
> >Tibet or somewhere. As soon as I get around to it, I'm going to get some
> >C. racemosa. I am getting more and more into native plants. They seem to
> >LIKE my dreadful Lower Midwest growing conditions.
> >
> >We put in mulch everywhere this spring--except in my hosta garden, where I
> >am convinced that mulch near hostas exacerbates the Southern Blight
> >problem.
> >
> >Bobbi Diehl
> >Bloomington, IN
> >zone 5/6
> >
> >
