View Full Version : Favorite flower/shrub?
iris lilies is not allowed to answer ;). JK. Of course, IL tell us WHY you love irises and lilies
But for the rest of you guys, do you have ONE flower that just pulls at your heartstrings?
Today, on my way to pick up my grand-dog for the weekend, I went to my favorite nursery up here--it is truly an amazing place--and they had a nice selection of balloon flowers and it reminded me of my balloon flowers in NJ and how much I miss them. Then I remembered that I probably have a lovely corner that I can plant some in!
Also, this year coleus has been a high on my list. It's in all my planters and in the house. I love the contrast of the lime green and Burgundy.
So there are my two: coleus and balloon flower.
How about you?
Variety of colors, perennial, expands to fill in empty areas, likes the acidic soil in my area.
Lavender. Its such a useful and pretty plant. Good for the body, good for the senses, good for the soul. Essential oil is good for /everything/ (bug bites, burns, stress...).
I also like zinnias because they are cheerful and last a very long time, both in my garden and in a vase. But my handle here is herbgeek, not flowergeek.
Scotch broom, specifically red-splotched Scotch broom.
I spent much of my childhood nestled in bowers of the stuff; I love its smell when the sun warms it, but really-everything about it. It's a hardy and tenacious plant. It was adopted as the symbol of the Plantagenets, whom I may or may not have descended from.
Red geraniums. I don't really know why....just always have. Every May I line our driveway down both sides. Our back patio has 6 large pots with 6 in each. I'm a good customer of the Fred Meyer sale early May.
Runners up:
Peonies: Mom loved them and I miss her. I have a beautiful peony in the front garden in memory. It was awesome this year!
Roses: i have 5 bushes up front along the sidewalk. All fragrant with Peace being my favorite next to Angel Face. i planted these as a memorial to Mom the spring after she died. My childhood home had a front yard at least 1 acre. Mom had a rose garden the entire perimeter. I've never known life without roses in the yard.
I love daffodils...the bright yellow trumpets call to me. I remember carrying one every day when they were blooming- I stuck it in my 3 ring binder- even used one of those plastic stem holders to keep it wet. When we bought our house (42 years ago) we had $100 left in the bank account and I bought $20 worth of daffodils and hyacinths.
Bougainvillea - bright and lively even in 115 degree heat
Williamsmith
7-13-18, 11:02pm
Shortia Galacifolia
Oconee Bell
My brother in law lives in the Appalachian Mountains on the border of North and South Carolina where can be found a rare North American flower that makes its home along creekbeds and near natural waterfalls. It has a creamy white flowerette and an evergreen leaf and is the first to bloom at winters end. It has a minuscule diameter blossom and is so unimpressive that it might easily be passed by on a walk without ever knowing it. It is considered an imperiled or at risk species. It’s beauty is not in its glorious display but rather as an example of the value of simplicity and plain elegance.
https://youtu.be/5PDcbsnrA8E
Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.
Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.
iris lilies
7-14-18, 8:50am
Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.
Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.
I love peonies, they are stunning, so fragrant and beautiful. But here, peony bushes do not get huge, it is too hot and humid I guess. Up North in Iowa I see peony bushes as big as cars, well, almost. Also, peonies bloom at rhe same time as tall bearded iris, and I am so busy running around with a focus on iris that I seem to miss mich of their bloom.
I have a cRefully chosen collection of 11 peony bushes that I keep dividing and apreading ober multiple,properties.
Daffodils are so charming, I love them too, but have a hard time distinguishing cultivars. i could never be a Daffodil
society judge where you have to identy around 100 cultivars, cold, to pass the judging test.
At my Hermann property we will have tons of daffodils because they are safe from deer, and the premier daffodil hybridizer and grower of my state lives there. I will buy many many daffodils from her.
Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.
Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.
Lovely. I love both of your choices also.
We have one peony bush right on the path to the entrance to our house in NJ. It's been there for years--we got it when we had the dog prior to my last one--so that had to have been in the early '00s. But because it was a few steps outside our front door, it was unfortunately the first place our male dog stopped on our walks, so we always called it our "Pee-On-Me."
Yes, peonies. I love the scent and fluff of them! Mine are from my college roommate's mom's yard- we dug them up in about 1980 in York, PA, I think her mom planted them in about 1956. I brought them to MD and have shared them with many people. They are about 2 feet tall. Most are the pale pink. The deep pink ones seemed to die out or fade. I have 2 of those.
Oh, and I love larkspur. We can't get delphinium to grow and I remember Dickon in The Secret Garden saying Larkspur were poor people's delphinium. The humming birds like them and I love the deep blue. Carroty leaves.
iris lilies
7-14-18, 12:21pm
Yes, peonies. I love the scent and fluff of them! Mine are from my college roommate's mom's yard- we dug them up in about 1980 in York, PA, I think her mom planted them in about 1956. I brought them to MD and have shared them with many people. They are about 2 feet tall. Most are the pale pink. The deep pink ones seemed to die out or fade. I have 2 of those.
Oh, and I love larkspur. We can't get delphinium to grow and I remember Dickon in The Secret Garden saying Larkspur were poor people's delphinium. The humming birds like them and I love the deep blue. Carroty leaves.
It was a great year doe larkspur here. i have the deep blue variety and a light pink. A darker pink grows in our community garden so I harvested seeds last week from it. It self seeds and it so cheerful and easy.
It is one of te few plants I count on being in bloom during garden tour season. Our neighborhood’s garden tour is the first weekend in June, and that is always after iris bloom but before lily bloom. Our weekend place in
Hermann will also be on garden tour one of these years and it is the same damned weekend, between crops so to speak. So larkspur will be a featured plant.
Never having grown larkspurs, I looked them up. Do they actually grow up to 6-8 feet?
My larkspur don't get much taller than 3 feet. I haven't had the dark pink, just pale pink, pale blue, white and the deep blue.
rosarugosa
7-14-18, 6:17pm
There are too many - it depends on the season and where I am.
I just finished my annual love affair with the Linden trees in front of our local town buildings. The fragrance is so delicious and I love seeing all the pollinators. They aren't too lovely the rest of the year though, so I'm glad there are several within shouting distance and I don't need to devote real estate to them.
As a New Englander, I do of course love lilacs. Peonies are another favorite and we have quite a few of them. I also love lily of the valley and of course rosa rugosas, oh and lavender, so I guess fragrance is pretty important to me.
From a garden design perspective, I would not be without hellebores and heucheras and hostas and hydrangeas. I love and grow a few members of the hamamelidaceae: witch hazel and corylopsis and fothergillas. So maybe the letter "H" is important to me as well.
I am sorry that I can no longer grow rudbeckia or echinacea or phlox, but the groundhogs have wiped them out.
I am just crazy for all the adorable little succulents out there: sedums and sempervivums and paddle plants, to name a few.
I am sure to think of another dozen favorites as soon as I finish this post!
iris lilies
7-14-18, 6:30pm
Never having grown larkspurs, I looked them up. Do they actually grow up to 6-8 feet?
No, here mine are 2’ to 3’. But in Iowa, where we recently toured at the lily cnvention, her larkspur had a whole other “story” than mine had and were, say, 3.5’ to 4’. But that's in rich Iowa loam, the best soil in the world.
frugal-one
7-14-18, 7:55pm
The past few years have been planting Nicotiana .... flowering tobacco. It requires little care, is pretty and blooms profusely!
Never planted them until this year and they are lovely and such a variety of colours as a border plant.
The past few years have been planting Nicotiana .... flowering tobacco. It requires little care, is pretty and blooms profusely!
I like salvia, i usually have had purple and sometimes a red. When i rented each year i put in 2 more in the parts of the yard that were hard to water. Super great in dry climate, needs little care, and pops back in the spring. I would trim off the dead parts a couple times over the summer so they would perk up. They were a big part of my drought resistant yard plan
I love purple, i hear there are a huge number of varieties but not always available locally.
I love lavender. Trying yet again. I just can't seem to over winter it.
I just can't seem to over winter it.
I'm in Zone 5 (or at least used to be before usda update) and I shouldn't be able to overwinter lavender. I have about a dozen plants against the south side foundation, and have "mulched" with stone. The stone holds just enough heat to keep the lavender just a tiny bit warmer and it survives. It also cuts down on fungal diseases since the soil isn't splashing up onto the leaves of the plant. I've made a little micro climate and have had these lavenders > 10 years.
Zone 6 here, lavender Hidcote and Munstead do overwinter. Provence...can't get it to do a thing, all in the same area. I love them and the hummingbirds light on them..not sure it they can get any nectar, but they hit at them.
I like salvia, i usually have had purple and sometimes a red. When i rented each year i put in 2 more in the parts of the yard that were hard to water. Super great in dry climate, needs little care, and pops back in the spring. I would trim off the dead parts a couple times over the summer so they would perk up. They were a big part of my drought resistant yard plan
I love purple, i hear there are a huge number of varieties but not always available locally.
Love it too, really brings in the hummers.
Annuals: lantana
Otherwise to be honest if it's anything other than thorny, ivy, vinca. I love it. Oh cactus are an exception to thorny, like them too.
Sunset Hyssop. It blooms late when there the rest of the garden is about done. The leaves smell very similar to root beer and the showy pinkish flower spikes last well into late summer or early fall. It attracts bees and hummingbirds (another name for it is hummingbird mint). It's a southwest native and drought and rabbit resistant. Mine tend to be slightly short lived for a perennial, but some of mine have lasted 5 or years.
I love lavender. Trying yet again. I just can't seem to over winter it.
Where are you? We're zone 4 and lavender is like a weed that is immune to everything! It's monstrous in our yard.
Gardenarian
7-21-18, 1:50am
Daphne odora is one of my favorite flowering shrubs. It's one of the first to bloom and the fragrance is rich and wonderful, like Jasmine tea and lemons and roses and lilacs, and you can smell it yards away - but somehow, never overpowering or cloying. The rest of the year it's an elegant, easy care shrub. The blooms last a long time - over one month this year.
Roses are probably my favorite overall though - so much variety, so much beauty.
Lavender is lovely too, though so common here that I do tire of it.
Gardenarian
7-21-18, 1:53am
Oh, I also love brugmansia. I had a beautiful, perfectly shaped smallish tree in San Fransisco that was covered in hundred of fragrant trumpets most of the year.
Too cold for brugs in Oregon (though that may change in coming years.)
mschrisgo2
7-21-18, 9:32am
Zone 9 here... This time of the year I love the crepe myrtle trees, the city planted them as street trees about a dozen years ago, and many people have them in their yards as well. The profusion of blooms! Almost all of July and August they are 15 ft tall bouquets, so many colors, ranging from very light pink to dark red. I saw a new cultivar in the nursery- a "peppermint" varigated pink and white, of course.
I also love gardenias, though I have not been able to keep one alive here.
I remember my grandma struggling with the peonies, she could never get them to grow in Portland OR, and she wanted them so badly.
iris lilies
7-21-18, 10:13am
Zone 9 here... This time of the year I love the crepe myrtle trees, the city planted them as street trees about a dozen years ago, and many people have them in their yards as well. The profusion of blooms! Almost all of July and August they are 15 ft tall bouquets, so many colors, ranging from very light pink to dark red. I saw a new cultivar in the nursery- a "peppermint" varigated pink and white, of course.
I also love gardenias, though I have not been able to keep one alive here.
I remember my grandma struggling with the peonies, she could never get them to grow in Portland OR, and she wanted them so badly.
Crape myrtle! I love it, too.it is in full bloom here right now. We dont have trees, but we have shrubs, many that get quite tall. In my country place I have enough room to get a group of crape myrtles of several colors. I want one of the black leaved varieties that have pink flowers. I already have a purple one on that property. Here in the city we have a common dark pink and a common fushia. My neighbors have a delicious deep red. Our community garden has a lavender one that isnt doing well, so maybe I will rescue it.
The peppermint one sounds interesting I will look that up.
I dont know why your grandmother couldnt grow peonies in Portland, they should thrive there. The national Peony Society conference is in Des Moines next yesr, and I am thinking about going.
iris lilies
7-21-18, 11:44am
Variety of colors, perennial, expands to fill in empty areas, likes the acidic soil in my area.
I have been oberving the tall phlox un my garden reproducing. It has produced clumps of slightly different colors.
While I have purchased the fancy colors a few times over the years, they die out. The standard medium purple colored one thrives, and reproduces itself to get lighter shades.
Now that I think about it, I used to have a white tall phlox that has disappeared. I should invest in one of those again.
iris lilies
7-21-18, 11:54am
This thread is good for general discussion of flowering plants, so I will share my current interest (it changes weekly!)
In Hermann I have 4 small beds defined with a limestone border. I have decided that these will be beds for annuals. I dont normally goof around with annuals, at least, I havent in the past dozen years. But
I want to get back into a wider variety of flowering plants, so I thought that each year I would choose one species and get 4 color varieties of that species.
so, I am in the process of finding 4 colors of Cleome from which to harvest seeds.In Hermann I made contact with a guy who has a pretty flower garden in front of his house, and he said
I am welcome to seeds from his purple and pink Cleome. Yesterday I drove by St. Louis
univerity and saw their large plantings of white Cleome, so that will be my source for white. Now, I just have to find a source for Rose colored Cleome. I am not opposed to buying seeds, but Rose is a pretty common Cleome so I should be able to find it for free.
Many people dont like it because it is stinky, also it can be tall and gangly. But it produces hundreds of seeds and is easy to germinate and grow, and it gives color in a late summer garden.
iris lilies
7-21-18, 11:59am
Oh, I also love brugmansia. I had a beautiful, perfectly shaped smallish tree in San Fransisco that was covered in hundred of fragrant trumpets most of the year.
Too cold for brugs in Oregon (though that may change in coming years.)
brugmansia is so exotic! Here, in the neighborhood next to mine, one guy put out one in a pot each summer, on his prominent corner. I loved walking and driving by it. One time
I met up with him at an event at the
Missouri Botanical Garden where he, a strnager, mentioned his
brugmansia and
I asked him if it was On 8th street. It was!
The world of people who love flowering plants is a small one here, haha.
mschrisgo2
7-21-18, 2:57pm
Brugmansia... had to look it up, the blossoms look a lot like trumpet vine, that we have quite a bit of here in the more coastal areas, except the flowers turn up, and brugmansia, seems to hang down. Interesting.
iris lilies
7-21-18, 3:07pm
Brugmansia... had to look it up, the blossoms look a lot like trumpet vine, that we have quite a bit of here in the more coastal areas, except the flowers turn up, and brugmansia, seems to hang down. Interesting.
We call it Moonflower vine, if thats what you mean. But they arent even related, this and
brugmansia:
2349
Peonies and Azalea.......both breath taking. Hydrangea not far behind.
I live right across the river from Portland, and I have peonies. My only complaint is that they don't last long enough!
I love me a mock orange. The fragrance, jasmine-like, just sends me.
For an ornamental shrub, I think Magic Carpet spirea is beautiful because it changes from a gorgeous green-purple-pink to a purplish-golden rust in autumn.
Our lilies are in full bloom and they are gorgeous. I picked up some trial lilies from a grower when they were tiny shoots. I have been waiting two years to see their first bloom and if they were different and gorgeous. I am really excited to see the ruffled edges, the contrasting colours and size.
23572358
Our lilies are in full bloom and they are gorgeous. I picked up some trial lilies from a grower when they were tiny shoots. I have been waiting two years to see their first bloom and if they were different and gorgeous. I am really excited to see the ruffled edges, the contrasting colours and size.
23572358
Beautiful, razz!
iris lilies
7-24-18, 5:32pm
Our lilies are in full bloom and they are gorgeous. I picked up some trial lilies from a grower when they were tiny shoots. I have been waiting two years to see their first bloom and if they were different and gorgeous. I am really excited to see the ruffled edges, the contrasting colours and size.
23572358
those are pretty! They are daylilies, though.
Hemerocallis, not Lillium.
Spirea - it's one of the first things to bloom in Spring. So pretty and delicate. It seems to be an old-fashioned plant to me - one your grandmother probably had.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.