What are your favorite perennial flowers?

Phaedra

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I love digitalis too. Didn't realize they were biennial when I bought them - so mourned when they died. But 4 healthy seedlings popped up last year, so I'm looking forward to a good show. I've got to plant another clump in the off year, so they (hopefully) alternate continuously.
+1
I just grow digitalis these two years - they are tiny heavens for pollinators.
Some of them can already produce flowers in their first year, but the true show will still be the second growing season.
 

R2elk

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i've grown two kinds of flax here (both with the blue flowers). the blue you mention is what i'm most familiar with (if it is black seeded) and i found out that while it really can cover an area it does not grow thickly enough to crowd out much of anything else so it is really hard to keep weeds from getting into it and then being hard to remove. the plants themselves seemed to fade after a few seasons so i would not quite consider them perennial as much as a shorter lived type. i loved the flowers and we had a lot of them growing across the entire back part of the yard here but it was just too difficult to keep the weeds out... i still have a few plants around but i don't cultivate or harvest the seeds specifically any more.
I "naturalize" Blue Flax. It does well in the grasses where it isn't over watered.My guess is the reason your Blue Flax didn't continue well is from over watering. It really is xeric and doesn't take that much water to drown it out.

It even grows well in my field which gets zero supplemental water.

I would not plant it in a garden setting.
 

flowerbug

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I "naturalize" Blue Flax. It does well in the grasses where it isn't over watered.My guess is the reason your Blue Flax didn't continue well is from over watering. It really is xeric and doesn't take that much water to drown it out.

mostly clay here, it did well the first few years wherever it was planted but it certainly did fade in vigor after those first few years. other perennials in the same areas didn't do that.

most places where it was growing were not usually watered apart from what the rains brought.


It even grows well in my field which gets zero supplemental water.

I would not plant it in a garden setting.

yes, i mostly let it do what it wants where it wants except the few i remove if they're in places i don't want them. last season the plant never developed seed pods that i could see.
 

Blueberry Acres

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(even though the daylilies are just deer salad).
Really? They never touch mine, and trust me, they will destroy almost everything else.
Last year they ate all my tulips because I didn't put a cage over them :he

Catmint is the only plant that I have found that is truly deer resistant.. The deer here will not eat it.
Never had deer eat mine either.
 

Blueberry Acres

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I "naturalize" Blue Flax. It does well in the grasses where it isn't over watered.My guess is the reason your Blue Flax didn't continue well is from over watering. It really is xeric and doesn't take that much water to drown it out.

It even grows well in my field which gets zero supplemental water.

I would not plant it in a garden setting.
Yeah, my garden is quite moist. I guess that rules out blue flax unless I can find a better spot for it.
 

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