Heidi's Helpful Hints #1 Baby Divisions or Seedlings

A late season score: I found these gems in a compost pile out for pick-up in my 'hood: rejects of Echinacea. My eye caught them before curb collection. Nine plants in total.

Be sure to examine all the leaves and the roots to find any issues; disease or possible rot. Discard if so.

This is the hint:  even though there are a bunch of tiny plants, instead of planting them separately and having to wait ages until they bulk up - group them instead. Here I've clustered the separate plants together, making two groupings.

Dig a large enough hole and place all the divisions together, making sure you don't squish them, allowing just enough space for adequate root growth. 

You can do this as well with the self seeded "plant-lets' that are generally around Echinacea in the garden. A great idea to pot them up as gifts for a friend. This method will allow for less wait time for the plant to establish and plentiful flowers for next summer.

Photo of the Month - September 2014

Even though this Echinacea bloom hasn't fully unfurled, its intricate detail astounds me.

Whacky Echinacea

I see weird and wonderful things when it comes to plants.

How about this three in one bloom...

This patch of Echinacea has gone through the ringer. Drought stress, foot traffic and salt drift from both roadways and walkways close by.

Resulting in two smaller flowers coming straight out of the "cone" centre of the original bloom.

On this one, nearly a dozen flowers off shooting from one bloom. Crazy!!

I decided to leave them, to see whether they will grow any larger or set seed. Just intriguing to see and learn. A certain means to ponder.

Plants are incredible.
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Update: A colleague of mine diagnosed what is happening to these Echinicea.  Aster yellows is what is causing this strange growth. It's a chronic, systemic plant disease caused by a bacterium-like organism called phytoplasma. It can be transferred around by small insects (leaf hoppers and mites). It's best to remove and destroy the entire plant, so that other Aster family species of plants close by don't get it.

Coooooool! Learning something new every day. That's why I love plants!

Perennial Plants For Shade - Part 4

More shade loving choices:

1. Vinca minor - Evergreen Ground Cover. Excellent for adding texture, sheen and coverage. Can be invasive if left un-manicured.

In May, dainty star-shaped, blue flowers emerge with new foliage.

Vinca minor "Illumination" - variegation is quite vibrant, but slow to grow.

2. Ligularia stenocephala "The Rocket" - great for moist soil conditions. This plant needs adequate spacing as well, but there are dwarfer, more compact varieties of Ligularias...

....such as: Ligularia dentata "Osiris Fantaisie" - bronze foliage in spring and early summer, paling to green. Lovely yellow daisy flowers in late August. If you have slug problems, this is slug bate (as you can see).

I do like its contrasting foliage in spring and the daisy flowers. They help bring colour continuity to the garden by flowering along side my Rudbeckia.

3. Heuchera villosa "Caramel" - So many choices of Heuchera are out there. I love this "Caramel" variety of Coral Bells for its contrasting colour and red leaf undersides. Stands out from a distance. White pinnacle flowers in July.

Shades from brown, to red, to plain green - there is a Heuchera or Heucherella for any garden. Here, bronze foliage, with burgundy pinnacle flowers make a great selection against lime green and blue hostas. So many cultivars to choose from.

4. Echinacea purpurea "Magnus" - ok, this plant is so versatile. It grows in full sun to shade. In shade, the flowers last longer, but the coneflower is slightly smaller and the colour is not as vivid. Yet, bees love this plant and so do I. I find the newer introduced cultivars require more sun. The original 'Magnus', does quite well.

5. Euonymus fortunei "Emerald Gaiety"  Whether you grow this as a shrub or climber, it tolerates a lot of shade. Here, I am training it as a vine. Again, many cultivars are available in shades of green and gold variegation - all evergreen.

Growing along a trellis....

...or used as ground cover. This cultivar is called, Coloratus Winter Creeper. Purple/Bronze winter foliage.

6. Ajuga repens "Chocolate"  Great ground cover with blue flowers in Spring. Several other cultivars available too!

Still more to follow.

Here are the other three posts prior to this one: Part One, Part Two and Part Three.