Viewing comments posted by ssgardener

In my Mid-Atlantic garden, 'Harmony' usually blooms in March, right after the early crocuses have faded. The ones in full sun bloom around 1-2 weeks before the ones in partial sun.

The bulbs multiply gradually every single year, even in my clay soil. Squirrels and voles seem to leave it alone completely.

It's a striking blue color that brightens up an early spring garden.

I have mine in mostly shade, hidden behind a miscanthus and another viburnum. It tolerates my wet clay soil very well.

We've had some cold winters, towards the lower end of the range for zone 7 (getting down to almost 0F degrees), but it has stayed semi-evergreen for me.

Its growth rate is rather slow, possibly because I have mine in too much shade. It doesn't look as full as the pictures I've seen on line and has stayed just around 5-6 feet tall since it was planted a few years ago.

I don't have a pollinator nearby so it doesn't fruit very well.

It's still a very handsome viburnum with shiny leaves.

Plenty of sedums can handle part shade, but this particular sedum seems to do best in full sun. I have one that receives a few hours of direct sun and also a few hours of dappled sun, and it's struggling. I've found that Angelina, Blue Spruce, and Autumn Joy varieties do just fine in the shade.

I've seen Dazzleberry in full sun where it has a much prettier growth habit, although the color is still a nice purple in part shade. I think mine will need to get moved next year!

Oakleaf 'Snow Queen' didn't bloom for me the first year it was planted, but the next year it bloomed beautifully. The white blooms started turning pink in mid June.

The first year there were rust colored spots on the leaves, which was probably some sort a fungal infection. Nothing was sprayed and it did fine, although the leaves looked tired by the end of the season. Even so, the fall colors were gorgeous.

I sprayed some fish oil on the leaves during the spring of the second year when the rust spots appeared again. The spots have not progressed and the blooms are not affected.

'Snow Queen' has not required any additional watering or fertilizing in my amended clay. Very easy plant.

This brug is supposed to have a nice scent, but I couldn't notice any scent at all. They may need to be more mature before the scent is noticeable. The blooms are huge and have a beautiful soft yellow color.

They don't like to dry out, but mine was planted in the ground in amended clay and required very little supplemental watering, even during a very hot and droughty summer. It was a small cutting that grew fast and bloomed beautifully starting in late summer. Unfortunately, I let it dry out too much over winter, which killed it, so I'll be trying it again with better winter care.

Common foxglove is very easy to grow from seed, and also very easy to wintersow.

I had great luck with it last year, but this year all the white foxgloves got some sort of a fungal infection. It was very sad to see the white blooms and leaves turn black and rot away. The yellow foxgloves that were planted next to the white ones did not have this issue.

I won't be planting the white ones again. It's too much to wait 2 years for the blooms just to have them rot away like that.

This is supposedly a heat tolerant variety of variegated brunnera. When I purchased it early this spring, the leaves were tiny and looked lanky, but bigger leaves have come in and filled in pretty nicely. I'm still waiting to see if it holds up to heat and humidity. Right now it receives 50% bright shade and 50% direct sun, but there's no sign of melting or burning.

I've had this JM for less than a year. It doesn't have the yellow-green foliage of "Aureum," but the leaves are still a light shade of green. So far it's handling the heat and humidity really well without any additional watering. The tag that came with the JM says "Full Moon," which I believe is the common name for this species and not a separate cultivar.

This has smaller leaves and spreads less aggressively than a regular ajuga.

I had a large patch in a clay area with poor drainage, and they didn't survive a very mild winter in zone 7. I think voles might have been in that area, but I was surprised they didn't survive at all.

They need very little water but do spread and grow better with regular water and good soil.

This is another heuchera that looks different in my garden than it does in photographs. The closest it comes to is NJBob's photo.

Also, one of the plants has new growth in the middle that is just plain green with some variegation in the veins. It's probably reverting back to one of its "parents," but I think this "anomaly" gives it some extra interest.

Another heuchera that doesn't photograph well. It's a very vigorous grower with large leaves. The leaves have pretty variegation in the winter.

I know heuchera are supposed to be deer "resistant," but the local deer ate every last leaf at a neighbor's home.

It really is as pink as it looks in the pictures. The leaves are huge and stayed completely evergreen for me over a mild zone 7 winter. I can't even remember if it bloomed for me last year, but it's the leaves that are the star anyway. Doesn't seem at all bothered by slugs.

This is a gorgeous euphorbia all season long. My favorite is the winter color, because it provides such wonderful color when everything else is brown or just plain green.

I've read that it needs to be cut back in early spring, but that may be for well established plants. It's listed as full sun, but I think it'll be fine in part sun, like other similar euphorbias. I don't know whether deeper shade will affect the variegation.

This is a super-early bloomer for me. For two mild winters now, it started blooming in early January and lasted until early March. The temperatures dropped down to the teens but didn't affect the blooms.

Another pretty plant that doesn't photograph well. It really sparkles in the shade and looks great next to a bright green hosta or another heuchera. It stayed completely evergreen for me in zone 7.

It was carefree in a container, not requiring much water or any more extra care than the heucheras planted in the ground.

This has gorgeous lime green color that brights up a shady corner. It stayed completely evergreen for me in zone 7.

I know it's not supposed to like wet feet, but I have it in pretty heavy wet clay with no issues. There was also no leaf burning even in very hot, humid weather with a couple of hours of very intense afternoon sun. This heuchera stays in a pretty round mound.

I have this grass in full sun as well as part sun, and it seems to do fine in either location. I got one as a tiny mail-order, and it was a huge clump by the second year, just as big as the one I got as a gallon.

It also seems to do fine in heavy wet clay as well as highly amended soil. The only spot where it suffered was in unamended, dry, hardpan clay with half sun.

This grass does give 4-season interest. The fall color is especially pretty. There's only a one-month period after it's been cut down in early spring that it looks bare.

This is a gorgeous grass that doesn't seem to photograph very well. The name is confusing, too, because I think it looks more silvery than gold.

I've read that some people cut off old leaves in the spring, but I don't see why that's necessary. Having old, tattered looking leaves may be more of an issue if you're in a colder climate.

This grass does fantastic in my wet clay, and lights up a dark shady spot. Right now I have it in front of azaleas and rhododendrons. I plan on getting more and mixing them with brunnera, hostas, and hellebores. They look great massed together, and also in containers. The grass falls over the sides so it would be a good "spiller" in an arrangement.

I have this in afternoon sun, maybe 4-5 hours of direct sun. It blooms beautifully, right up until a hard freeze in November.

Last year the blooms were so heavy and numerous that they flopped over. I don't know whether it's related to not getting full sun, or my poor pruning job in the spring. No more flopping after that first very heavy flush of blooming.

This is truly a carefree rose. They got a little bit of powdery mildew and black spot during mid-summer heat, but they recovered on their own without being treated. There was a bit of Japanese beetle damage, but no treatment needed for that, either. I give them a little osmocote in the spring and mulch with leaf mold and coffee grounds.

When I purchased this plant, the tag said that it was an improved version of Dragon's Blood. I purchased both to compare, and I found that Fireglow spreads thicker and is less sparse. The winter color is very dark red, and green in the spring.