I’m surprised yours is in bloom already. Mine are just starting to bloom now. None of them here look like yours yet… It sounds like you may have got more rain than us too. We’re definitely suffering from being in the rain-shadow of the Niagara Peninsula this spring :-(

Oh man, that is huge! (I think i’m gonna need a bigger perennial bed!) Mine was planted last year, so only about 5ft tall…mine has been in full bloom for a couple of weeks. I underplanted it with shrubby potentilla which is not in bloom yet and is not nearly tall enough to compliment such a large plant, so this bed will be getting a do-over come fall. I’ll take a pic tomorrow.

It sounds like you may have got more rain than us too.

Rain has been plentiful here for the last....30 days. But it looks like the 2nd half of June will be lots dryer.

Beautiful!! Like lovemycorgi's, mine has been in bloom for weeks.

I have a huge one that started as multiple plants and I need to move some of it in the fall since it's encroaching on a path. I tried to put a shovel in it this spring, but I think it's going to take the reciprocating saw or at least hand-cutting with a garden saw.

Here’s mine! I planted it just last year, so it’s gotten fairly large so far this spring. This is in a bed I’ll be rearranging come fall. PP can stay in her place, but I need some taller things around her.

I’m surprised I don’t see this perennial at more garden centers; so many of my neighbors ask me what it is and where I purchased it.

I looked at our two main Persicarias late this afternoon. The front bed one is the oldest and gets the most sun (at the back of the front bed). It has to compete with everything else there so sprawls around a bit :-)

The one in the patio bed in the backyard is a bit younger and I noticed this year that the fringetree is now big enough to 'eat' the Persicaria a bit so I might need to limb-up the tree a bit. I was hoping the removal of the ash tree might give the backyard Persicarias enough light to bloom better. I'll have to check the rest to see how they are doing....

PPs are so lovely, but I am only planting natives now. Not digging out all my non-natives, but definitely not planting new ones. I will have to just enjoy looking at your photos.

Cyn - why only natives…? I think, in a changing climate, it is more important to plant things that will do well in whatever conditions you will face. ‘Native’ is, after all, something that has varied over geological time and we may now be at an important inflexion point. In the long term we need to establish an ecosystem that functions in whatever new climate conditions that happen now and in the near future. For me, that means we need to investigate/be open to all sorts of plants, evaluating what works and what doesn’t. ‘Native only’ seems too narrow and backward- facing to me. A controversial view, I know! :-)

Hi Woody, I have been reading a lot of Doug Tallamy. The insect populations have evolved to pollinate and use as host plants the native plants that have been here in a certain spot for thousands of years. I do get pollinators on my non-native plants, but that does not mean the caterpillars will use those plants (eating and laying eggs on). Some of the pollen collected from non-native plants is also not the most healthy for the insects. If bees collect from dandelions only, the nutrition is not enough to keep the hive healthy. They need more. Hence, my decsion to get to the point where I have maybe a 50/50 division between native and non. Most of my trees are natives and have always been. I try to get straight species instead of cultivars as well.

I have also quit going to our 'regular' nurseries here because they have all told me they cannot guarantee that their growers' plants are neonicotinoid free-I ask and they won't and give a variety of excuses. I now only shop at several native nurseries who collect their own seed and do guarantee that their plants are free of neonics.

Tallamy has studied trees, shrubs, flowers and has recorded the number of insects the flora supports as a host and a pollen source. Native oaks support almost 1000 species and they also provide food sources and habitat for birds and mammals (who will keep the pests in check as well). As he says, if nothing is eating your plants, you are doing something wrong. His books are definitely worth reading.

I have friends who agree with you. I just don't. I am open to lots of different plants-I just choose to discover those native to my area. There has been a huge drop in the numbers of insects and if I can do something that might help, I will. I have three granddaughters who are learning to love insects and gardening with me. I leave my leaves in the fall and if I remove them at all, it isn't until mid-June. I will not spray any pesticides because of the girls and the dogs. All of my neighbors spray their sterile lawns. Seeing a firefly is a rare sight these days. We are creating environments that support fewer and fewer plants and animals. The world is enough of a mess without me making it worse.

ETA: The climate is changing because of what humans are doing, so maybe we need to give other creatures than humans a helping hand.

The insect populations have evolved to pollinate and use as host plants the native plants that have been here in a certain spot for thousands of years. I do get pollinators on my non-native plants, but that does not mean the caterpillars will use those plants (eating and laying eggs on).

this is an ongoing discussion in Europe as well.

not all insects evolved to become oligolectic, eg highly specialised so they or their larvae can only feed on pollen (or foliage) from one genus or even species, there are quite a lot of generalists too.

what I find tiresome is that with your position it seems to me that one should not have a garden but an insect zoo.

and there are some issues with those statistics regarding species on oaks, because the mere size of it must bring different/higher numbers than a way smaller shrub (quoting Ken Thompson, No netltes required or DO we need Pandas)

mind you, I do all the no chem on my plants, roses, fruits, use mulch, leave leaves in fall wherever possible, keep a pile of wood logs/ dead wood and stuff,

we have some "lawn" to play badminton on it or have a picknick, I use little fertilzer, do mow, but less frequent and higher, it hardly gets any additional water, unless I water a struggeling plum tree, which is growing in a patch of grass.

but I still really enjoy the composed mixture of different plants

always suitable for the site but from all over the world, as long as they have "good garden manners", gardening for me always has a design and structure component, so the native-only approach looks kind of dissatisfying to me

ironically around here we have heavy loam, and most of the "desired, rare" species do not thrive on soils this rich, and the ones that do tend to be "bad mannered" bullies and thugs, rampant self seeders or spreaders.

in Europe a lot of the natural habitats for rare plant species (for dry, poor soils in sunny positions) dissapeared because they were amended and improved for farming,

the remaining ones today get "fertilzed" from the air by an annual nitrate-disposit (from traffic, life stock, domestic heating thingy) in a range of one handfull of rose fertilizer per sqaure-meter (9 square feet?),

an amount any smallholder or farmer in the 1600 or 1700 only could dream of,

this additional N-input is it in the long run that makes it harder for highly specialised wildflower species to hang on

Linaria, I am sorry you find my preferences tiresome. I consciously tried not to be critical of anyone else's position and I thought I made it clear that I was speaking to what I have decided to do. I even said that the PPs are lovely and I will enjoy looking at everyone's pictures.

ETA: I have 'known' Woody for years and years from this forum, although I rarely post here anymore. I was trying to answer her question fairly briefly and I do encourage people to read Dr. Talamy's books.

Just two quick points: One in reference to the differential in size of oaks being the reason for the high numbers of insects, please note that it is not raw numbers of insects being tallied, but rather the number of different species. An altogether different thing.

Two, rather than terming a garden an insect zoo, a garden should be an insect oasis. Just mho.