"Spider" wrote
"Sacha" wrote On 2012-08-09 13:26:03 +0100,
"Charlie Pridham"
said:
Lemon Queen is good stays in a clump (all be it a rapidly expanding
one!)
Just the one I'd go for. It's a lovely plant. Inula flowers well for
quite a while but tends to be a bit thuggy here and it's probably
not pale enough.
Thanks Charlie and Sacha. I don't think the one I have already can be
Lemon Queen, which looks in pictures to be a more attractive and
paler shade.
I have Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' and, whilst it isn't the worst thug
I've come across, it can still smother more polite plants, makes a
strong mat of almost woody stoloniferous roots and a lesser mat of old
roots, which have to be cleared before anything else can be planted.
The roots of this one are indeed fleshy, spreading stolon type but I've
not let it ever make a large enough clump to find out if it gets too
woody and difficult to deal with. Usually the roots dig out easily
enough each spring.. it's just that more seem to be lurking secretly,
ready to spring up new shoots when I've stopped looking. Maybe it's
reseeding itself every autumn and these are seedlings.
I did wonder about Anthemis tinctoria 'E.C. Buxton' which is a pretty
soft lemon, but it is more of a sub-shrub than a spreading perennial
and is probably less than hardy in some areas. It is, anyway, one of
those rather short-lived plants, so you would need to take cuttings
from time to time.
I do have that Anthemis in another border which isn't happy where it is
and really needs moving. Agree it's a good lemony shade although
probably too sprawly for the rear of border place I had in mind.
Sorry for taking so long to follow up but I've got round to taking some
snaps of the Helianthemum at last - it was too windy over the weekend.
Does this look too deep a shade to be Lemon Queen? I included one of
stems and leaves as well. It's only flowering at about 4ft or so atm,
which is
surprising in view of all the rain we've had. I have known it to be 5' -
6' some years.
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjBnvybf
If anyone's got any other ideas for a well-behaved, tallish, lemon or
creamy-yellow flowering plant to stand up at the back of a border I'm
still dithering over what to put in there.
--
Sue