My cheap flowerbed

[thistlebloom]

I renovated this bed last year, it had contained Pee Gee hydrangeas and an assortment of other perennials, and just looked shaggy and awkward to me. I removed all the plants and relocated to other parts of the property so I could have a clean slate.

Now it has hostas, ferns, bergenias, meadow rue, astilbe, japanese forest grass, and clematis.

The bergenia and a few of the hostas were divisions from clients gardens (free! )

I purchased the meadow rue, clematis, and j. forest grass at the end of the season for half price.

My favorite bargain though, was a box of dormant perennials that I bought at Costco for $20. It contained 5 ferns, 5 astilbes and 5 hostas. They were much bigger roots than I would have expected for such a low price.


This year they have just taken off and I'm so pleased with the
result!

 

[lesa]

And doesn't that look lovely!! Very nice job! I just bought meadow rue, yesterday! Your edging looks perfect- how are you achieving that perfect edge?

 

[thistlebloom]

Thanks Lesa! If you've never grown meadow rue before, you're gonna love it, it has the prettiest foliage IMO. The edging is done with a half moon edger (manual ). I got my line a bit wider than I wanted, but you can always count on the grass to correct that!

 

[Greenthumb18]

Those boulders give that flower bed a nice look I must say.
Great job thistlebloom!

 

[digitS']

That looks wonderful !

Tell us about your clematis, Thistle'!

And, just where are the thistle blooms?

Steve

 

[Collector]

that is a really nice looking bed, A great addition to your yard I'm sure. Clematis is a plant we have never had luck with, we have planted four over the years and have never had one live through the first season, what's the secret?

 

[thistlebloom]

Steve, I don't remember the name of that particular clematis in that bed, I just remember it's a white one. This year I added a Nelly Moser
to the same hole, but it's still just a leetle thing. Next year I will have to make a more substantial trellis, because the shepherd hook they're attached too isn't going to cut it.

....and the thistle blooms..., well you know they're just shy little things and tend to just pop up where you don't expect them....

Collector, gee, what a bummer that you haven't had any success with clematis. I don't know if there's a secret, just make sure when you buy one that it's substantial enough to begin with. I plant mine deeper than they came in the nursery pot and keep it well watered the first season."They" say clems like their heads in the sun and their feet in the shade, but in my experience it's not critical. I have several that don't have anything shading their roots. They can sometimes be a little slower to come out of dormancy, so don't give up on them too soon.

ETA - oh, I just thought of one more thing, with clematis you don't want to loosen the root ball like you would with a regular perennial, they have brittle roots and can get a little offended.

 

[lesa]

I fell in love with meadow rue in Vermont, years ago- and could never find it. Saturday the first booth I walked into at our local garden festival had it!! Does it spread? I only got one stalk of it...
I think your edging looks so much better than mine-because you have actual grass in your yard. The green stuff, I affectionately call grass- just doesn't make a neat edge like that!
Have you ever transplanted a clematis? I have a neat fluffy white flowered one (that is the latin name) that needs to be moved- it is getting over powered by other climbing things in its present location...

 

[digitS']

Clem-u-tis, there are lots of things I don't know about the vines.

When I bought this house there was a rosebush on the north side. It was a huge rambler of some sort, it never bloomed that summer. The realtor had a photograph from the year prior when the house was 1st listed showing that rose bush - it wasn't blooming then either.

The rose was trying to get around the house and out of the shade. Maybe I should have just moved it but it went in the garbage can and I went looking for a clem-u-tis.

I had noticed a beautiful white one in my old neighborhood but after one season of bloom, it disappeared. Suspecting that some of these varieties weren't very hardy - I just went with Clematis jackmanii, the purple variety that seemed to do well everywhere around here. I've never known whether I could have had one of the stunningly lovely newer types.

The jackmanii didn't disappoint, however! I bought 2 and put 1 on the north side of the garage. The 1 on the house gets summer sun early and late in the day because we are so far north and that sun sure gets into the north sky. A fence and the chicken house blocks the afternoon sun for the clematis on the garage. It may die all the way back to the ground during a winter but makes adequate growth come spring so that it is, at least, noticeable. The 1 on the house is almost beyond the vine category and into a "landscape feature" class.

Steve

oops, edited to say that the garage clematis may die back in the "winter" - not the summer!

 

[thistlebloom]

I fell in love with meadow rue in Vermont, years ago- and could never find it. Saturday the first booth I walked into at our local garden festival had it!! Does it spread? I only got one stalk of it...
I think your edging looks so much better than mine-because you have actual grass in your yard. The green stuff, I affectionately call grass- just doesn't make a neat edge like that!
Have you ever transplanted a clematis? I have a neat fluffy white flowered one (that is the latin name) that needs to be moved- it is getting over powered by other climbing things in its present location...

Meadow rue can reseed and I work in a couple of gardens where it has done that, but it's well mannered in it's spreading. Mine has not spread and I don't know why.
Those in the pic are on the north side of the house and I just put them in last year, so they may. But my others are in a shade bed under a fir, and even tho' they've been in for at least 5 years they are much smaller and haven't reproduced themselves. Could be because there is a lot of other plant competition going on in that bed and the seedlings don't make it...

I have moved clematis a few times, once unsuccessfully. I think the best time would be very early spring.
Dig as big a root ball as you can manage and put it into a deep hole you have already prepared.
Lots of compost and bone meal in the bottom sure wouldn't hurt. Then plant it deeper than it was in the original hole, it will make roots along the stem. Keep it well watered the first season and it shouldn't miss a beat!
I love the latin name of your clem, that's one I can actually pronounce!