Rouge! I was just thinking of you today! Your plant looks great! I really like the allium seed heads with it.

I have GOT to get a picture for you of this growing in the vacant acreage across the street from me. About 15 years ago I deposited 2 of them over there when I shovel-pruned them out of the garden. I can't get past the smell. Mine never smelled "sweet".....rather more of a mouse urine smell. That area has been logged in the years in between, and currently a guy has a tree service business out of the entrance to the 40 acre lot. Well, somehow, whether it is from seed or something else, there is a polymorpha as big as his truck! It's the craziest thing I've seen with this plant. I was just telling DH today that i have to get a picture to get on GW for you! I'll take one either later today or tomorrow and get it posted. It's remarkable. And why can't amazing specimens ever grow like that in our gardens?! HAHA! Like when I see fantastic shrubs growing in grocery store parking lots!

I have GOT to get a picture for you of this growing in the vacant acreage across the street from me.

I am waiting Thyme2dig! :)

"....rather more of a mouse urine smell...."

Lol. I don't think I know what mouse urine smells like. Thank goodness, hahaha! And I don't want to know!

:)
Dee

Here‘s mine lol.

I ordered two bareroot. They took forever to receive due to the post office being so behind.

They were about dead so I soaked them, then cut back and planted.

They are real troopers I can say that. Here is one of them after two weeks from planting with lots of new growth....

I’m thinking/hoping mine won’t get as big as the monster above. I planted them on my dry slope so we will see...

Also hoping for a pleasant smell LOL

Thyme that is too funny! If I ever smell one of these I guess I'll know what mouse urine smells like lol. Not sure that's a great selling point for these, haha, but that photo certainly is! Wowza is right! It's beautiful!

But you are so right! It's frustrating sometimes when things that you know are being neglected are doing great. I used to take care of a woman's flower garden, and her husband had a fenced off area for vegetables. I never once saw him go in there, and it was horribly overgrown. And full of huge, gorgeous tomatoes! Which I don't think they ever picked and ate. And my tomatoes at home, tended and fussed over, didn't produce nearly as well. Sigh.

How bad is it when I'm jealous of the plantings at the gas station one town over lol?

:)
Dee

Thyme2dig, that is a gorgeous specimen! Incredibly robust and the flowers look pearly white...amazing.

I’m thinking/hoping mine don’t get as big as the monster above. I planted them on my dry slope so we will see...

Dont be so sure. The first picture I posted shows a Polymorpha under a canopy of water sucking Buckthorn bushes/trees.

Rouge it’s hard to tell how big it is, but I am prepared (yet again ugh) to extend the bed if needed....

I’ve been wanting these for quite some time and I’m excited to see them grow!

Re the scent: That’s interesting... I’ve grown these for years and never noticed any scent! DH and I both just sniffed the one in the patio hosta bed... It does have a mild scent that is hard to describe but neither of us found it offensive and it’s not a scent that broadcasts around. I wonder if the scent depends on growing conditions/soil pH, or something like that...? Or maybe it’s a personal sensitivity...? The neighbour to the north doesn’t like the scent of one of the bugbanes I grow near the fence, but I can only smell it if I’ve got my nose in the flowers and, even then, I don’t find it offensive. I didn’t like the smell of the flowers on a dwarf mockorange we have, but I do like the scent of the big mockorange’s flowers. But neither of them broadcasts their scent very far so it’s not very noticeable on either of them. So, my suggestion would be to find one in flower and sniff it - both close up and at a distance - to see if it’s an issue you need to worry about.

Now that I think about it...I tried rooting the budded cuttings on my windowsill above the Kitchen sink... very close proximity, and thankfully never noticed a scent.

Btw...no luck with rooting them.

When I first read this thread yesterday, I'd just come in from hacking down my pp in the front yard. I do that every year once the blooms lose their whiteness, because the Incrediball hydrangeas are then starting to bloom and the pp detracts. PP will bloom again later, but much shorter this time. I cut them to about 8 - 12 inches.

But when I read this, I thought I'd go out and take a picture of the big one I have on the side of my house. We'd had three inches of rain the night before, and lots of it was flopped over into the neighbors yard. So I had to cut most of that one as well. I tried cutting it higher though, so will see what happens.

I love the plant, though, and keep trying to get it established in the area behind my back gardens (weedy commons area where I sometimes guerrilla garden). The plants back there have stayed small or not survived so far. I'm going to divide my front ones and try again.

I love the plant, though, and keep trying to get it established in the area behind my back gardens (weedy commons area where I sometimes guerrilla garden).

Ruth, that is exactly the circumstance for the PP shown in my first picture. It is has grown to a good size even in this less than hospitable location. Dont give up!

Re the scent: That’s interesting... I’ve grown these for years and never noticed any scent!

And same here. I pass by my Polymorpha all the time and never anything re odor...of any kind.

This is a favorite in my garden. I love its scale and bloom. I also have never noticed any scent at all.

I posted this earlier in the day and see it did not appear, hmmm.

i have one remaining polymorpha. It takes up a lot of room but almost serves to anchor along perennial bed. I have tried tge Chelsea Chop on it but the result is lanky stems that splay so I let it do its’ thing. It does have an order but I don’t find it offensive.

be prepared fight its’ size. I dig out large parts of the roots in late winter to curb it somewhat. Lovely pink/mauve color change of flowers in late summer.

A superb picture cercis47...so many things "happening" in this shot. I think I spy Culvers Root? And what plant is supported by that obelisk?

Beautiful cercis...I love all of its companions too! I plan to move my Culver’s root also to mine in the spring. I have the purple and white and I think I’ll try layering it...

Thank you rouge and gardenho. It is culvers root. I love that plant, I have the lavender, pink and white which must be virginicum as it seeds around quite a bit, usually in a pathway or in the center of another perennial.

The obelisk was a Mother’s Day present from my SO. It is in that spot on a temporary basis until I move some tired iris in another spot (constantly moving things it seems). Now there are 2 pots of Heavenly Blue morning glory trying to fight their way out of the shade of the persicaria. Once the obelisk is in its’ permanent home, there is a Perle d’azur and a Jackmanii clematis waiting for planting.

i forgot to add another benefit of the eventual size of the P. polymorpha:: it is a beacon in the night, especially on a moonlit night...

Wow, I hadnt heard mention of "Perle d'azur" for so long! I had one awhile ago...gorgeous colour but it has since long gone to clematis heaven.

I have some catching up to do! Wonderful P. p.'s. It is one of my favorites. I missed taking pics until after a storm that did some damage.

Ay caramba peren.all....spectacular! Clearly if one is able to provide room all around the polymorpha, like I see with your specimen and 'Thymes' and 'cercis' it takes it to a completely different level. We are glad you are back peren.all.

I’m late to the party but mine is now blooming: