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#1
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
More by accident than design, at the moment my garden looks really good, but
in a few weeks time, there will be very little flowering. I have a major problem and that is DEER. We love having them in the garden really and the plants that are growing at the moment the deer more or less leave alone. The real garden problem is slugs. Currently, I have aqualegia, foxgloves, (Michaelmas?) daisies, forget-me-nots, osteospernum, iris (lemon stinky iris?). Coming soon, dusty millers (white & dark pink), a type of cottage iris, and a variety of poppies. Then almost nothing apart from the odd plant that has survived the deer like japanese anemone, hollyhocks. The only bedding plants I get are busy-lizzies as if I sort of hide them, the deer don't eat all of them! The rest are a waste of money. If the deer don't eat them, the slugs will, or the squirrels will dig them up! What I really want, are more cottage garden type plants that will flower July onwards and self-seed like most of the current plants do. Any suggestions please? I don't like red colours much and definitely not orange. |
#2
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
Pinot Grigio wrote: The only bedding plants I get are busy-lizzies as if I sort of hide them, the deer don't eat all of them! The rest are a waste of money. If the deer don't eat them, the slugs will, or the squirrels will dig them up! What I really want, are more cottage garden type plants that will flower July onwards and self-seed like most of the current plants do. Any suggestions please? I don't like red colours much and definitely not orange. Don't know about deer or squirrels but we do have a slug problem. Verbena bonairensis seems to be reisistant to slugs and is really good value later in the year, and I've been told self-seeds readily. I tried it for the firt time last year so I haven't found out if this is true yet. What about hardy geraniums? There are hundreds of varieties, a long flowering period, a variety of colours in the pink, magenta, blue and white range, a range of sizes and behaviours (ground-cover to mound-forming) and slug resistance. I love them. Echinops (globe thistle), Eryngium (sea hollies) and teasles all flower later in the year and are lovely stately plants (I believe the word is architectural) and I've never seen a slug go near them. They all have blue flowers. Teasels would surely deter deer too being rather spiky, look great when the seed heads are left to overwinter and attract goldfinches too. They certainly self-seed if they like the conditions! They'll take over if you let them but I've found a few hours spent in early spring digging out unwanted seedlings before the tap root really gets going sorts them out. If you dead-head regularly the Geums seem to keep going well into autumn (ours starts in spring so has a really impressive flowering period). There are some yellow ones though others are red. How about fennel? Lovely foliage and yellow flower heads later in the year. I suppose the deer might have a taste for aniseed but the slugs don't like it. Mint too, although it does get a bit rampant you could try and control it by planting it in a bottomless bucket. Verbascums? Esp the type with big felty leaves. Scotch thistles? Or even milk thistles (which rejoice in the lovely name of Silybum): a bit too spiky for me but look lovely. Hope you like some of these ideas. Anita |
#3
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
"Pinot Grigio" wrote in message ... More by accident than design, at the moment my garden looks really good, but in a few weeks time, there will be very little flowering. I have a major problem and that is DEER. We love having them in the garden really and the plants that are growing at the moment the deer more or less leave alone. The real garden problem is slugs. Currently, I have aqualegia, foxgloves, (Michaelmas?) daisies, forget-me-nots, osteospernum, iris (lemon stinky iris?). Coming soon, dusty millers (white & dark pink), a type of cottage iris, and a variety of poppies. Then almost nothing apart from the odd plant that has survived the deer like japanese anemone, hollyhocks. The only bedding plants I get are busy-lizzies as if I sort of hide them, the deer don't eat all of them! The rest are a waste of money. If the deer don't eat them, the slugs will, or the squirrels will dig them up! What I really want, are more cottage garden type plants that will flower July onwards and self-seed like most of the current plants do. Any suggestions please? I don't like red colours much and definitely not orange. Apart from those you've mentioned, here Polemonium self-seed as do astrantia, violas, hardy geraniums, anemone sylvestris, euphorbia, just to name a few. Penstemons are great as the slugs don't touch them - don't know about deer though! Iris McCanna |
#4
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
"A.Malhotra" wrote in message ... Pinot Grigio wrote: The only bedding plants I get are busy-lizzies as if I sort of hide them, the deer don't eat all of them! The rest are a waste of money. If the deer don't eat them, the slugs will, or the squirrels will dig them up! What I really want, are more cottage garden type plants that will flower July onwards and self-seed like most of the current plants do. Any suggestions please? I don't like red colours much and definitely not orange. Don't know about deer or squirrels but we do have a slug problem. Verbena bonairensis seems to be reisistant to slugs and is really good value later in the year, and I've been told self-seeds readily. I tried it for the firt time last year so I haven't found out if this is true yet. What about hardy geraniums? There are hundreds of varieties, a long flowering period, a variety of colours in the pink, magenta, blue and white range, a range of sizes and behaviours (ground-cover to mound-forming) and slug resistance. I love them. Echinops (globe thistle), Eryngium (sea hollies) and teasles all flower later in the year and are lovely stately plants (I believe the word is architectural) and I've never seen a slug go near them. They all have blue flowers. Teasels would surely deter deer too being rather spiky, look great when the seed heads are left to overwinter and attract goldfinches too. They certainly self-seed if they like the conditions! They'll take over if you let them but I've found a few hours spent in early spring digging out unwanted seedlings before the tap root really gets going sorts them out. If you dead-head regularly the Geums seem to keep going well into autumn (ours starts in spring so has a really impressive flowering period). There are some yellow ones though others are red. How about fennel? Lovely foliage and yellow flower heads later in the year. I suppose the deer might have a taste for aniseed but the slugs don't like it. Mint too, although it does get a bit rampant you could try and control it by planting it in a bottomless bucket. Verbascums? Esp the type with big felty leaves. Scotch thistles? Or even milk thistles (which rejoice in the lovely name of Silybum): a bit too spiky for me but look lovely. Hope you like some of these ideas. Anita Thanks for your ideas. Verbascum - I have tried before and for some reason they have just died. I always look for healthy plants when I buy them so I don't know what went wrong with them. Verbena - I have not tried any hardy varieties so will look for them. Geraniums - The deer love them. I do have a few hardy varieties that do ok if almost smothered by other plants so the deer don't find them easily. Echinops & Eryngium - Yes the deer would probably leave them alone and I will look into these although I usually avoid prickly plants in the borders! Fennel - would be interesting. Mint - ARGHH! It used to grow all over the place! |
#5
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
"Barry & Iris McCanna" wrote in message ... "Pinot Grigio" wrote in message ... More by accident than design, at the moment my garden looks really good, but in a few weeks time, there will be very little flowering. I have a major problem and that is DEER. We love having them in the garden really and the plants that are growing at the moment the deer more or less leave alone. The real garden problem is slugs. Currently, I have aqualegia, foxgloves, (Michaelmas?) daisies, forget-me-nots, osteospernum, iris (lemon stinky iris?). Coming soon, dusty millers (white & dark pink), a type of cottage iris, and a variety of poppies. Then almost nothing apart from the odd plant that has survived the deer like japanese anemone, hollyhocks. The only bedding plants I get are busy-lizzies as if I sort of hide them, the deer don't eat all of them! The rest are a waste of money. If the deer don't eat them, the slugs will, or the squirrels will dig them up! What I really want, are more cottage garden type plants that will flower July onwards and self-seed like most of the current plants do. Any suggestions please? I don't like red colours much and definitely not orange. Apart from those you've mentioned, here Polemonium self-seed as do astrantia, violas, hardy geraniums, anemone sylvestris, euphorbia, just to name a few. Penstemons are great as the slugs don't touch them - don't know about deer though! Iris McCanna Thanks for replying. Polemonium - a new name for me but I've looked it up and I like it. Is it a name not often seen in the garden centre? I will check it out next time. Astrantia - I have a variegated variety that does very well. Violas - they do well and seed themselves around. They mostly seem to be early flowering though. Anemone - They do ok in my garden. I have a few spring varieties and the japanese anemone that will flower around July. Eurphorbia - I have one type that grows like a weed! The deer don't eat it though. Penstemons - I like these and usually buy a few plants. They don't often survive till the following year though. I don't have a greenhouse (yet) and for now have given up trying to grow plants from seed unless they seed themselves or the seed can be sewn in the garden. Probably why the early plants do well is that they have had a chance to grow before the slugs and snails have taken over. |
#6
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
"Pinot Grigio" wrote in message ... Thanks for replying. Polemonium - a new name for me but I've looked it up and I like it. Is it a name not often seen in the garden centre? I will check it out next time. Astrantia - I have a variegated variety that does very well. Violas - they do well and seed themselves around. They mostly seem to be early flowering though. Anemone - They do ok in my garden. I have a few spring varieties and the japanese anemone that will flower around July. Eurphorbia - I have one type that grows like a weed! The deer don't eat it though. Penstemons - I like these and usually buy a few plants. They don't often survive till the following year though. I don't have a greenhouse (yet) and for now have given up trying to grow plants from seed unless they seed themselves or the seed can be sewn in the garden. Probably why the early plants do well is that they have had a chance to grow before the slugs and snails have taken over. I've tried to mail you off-group with the offer of a polemonium to try, but the mail has been returned. I cannot see any spam trap. If you are interested please mail me off-group. Iris McCanna |
#7
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Cottage Garden Plant Suggestions Wanted
Thanks for replying. Polemonium - a new name for me but I've looked it up and I like it. ...You may have heard of its common name - Jacobs Ladder. Nice in blue or white. Dead head and it will produce more flowers. Leave to seed and you'll have palnts everywhere next year. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.481 / Virus Database: 277 - Release Date: 13/05/03 -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =----- |
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