So, can we say something like, "salvia"? Or do we have to get specific with cultivar names? This will be hard... (I'm secretly hoping it's like a recent similar thread where the first few folks started posting THREE favorites instead of one and then everyone did the same thing hahaha!)

Gardenho, that hibiscus is STUNNING! Wow what a color. I love that color in the garden. Do you know which hibiscus it is?

:)

Dee

Are Hibiscus a perennial or a shrub? I have one 'Berry Awesome' that looks a lot like that yours, Gardenho. I love mine! It has the biggest brightest color blossoms in my garden. I had no idea that if you deadhead you would get more blooms? I was under the impression that a certain number of buds are created at the beginning of the season and they open one after the other until they are gone. There is like a cluster of buds at the terminal end of the stems, isn't there? And the blooms only last a day or is it a little more? Reminds me of how a daylily blooms. I think mine is in bloom for 3 weeks to a month.

I had a white one with a pink center eye, but it bled into the white, which I was not crazy about. I still have it but not in a position of prominence. I did try to move it and the base was hard and I ended up cutting it in half and one little section broke off and I potted up all three pieces. In the spring when I started seeing stems start to show on my 'Berry Awesome' I didn't see anything from the white divisions. But sure enough about a month later I looked out the window and noticed there was one long stem coming up out of the pot with a cluster of leaves on the top. And the other two pots had started to grow as well. So now I have three and I'm trying to find a place for them in more sun than they were in. Berry Awesome is in all day sun.

It is pretty care free. I probably could fertilize it once in awhile but I don't seem to need to. And right now there is a tiny bug that is making holes in the leaves and I need to get out there and hand pick those.

Another good point about Berry Awsome is the foliage is dark, so that adds another attraction to it. Plus, all Hibiscus bloom at a time of the season that I could use a big burst of color before the season is over. I look forward to that every year. And it blooms when the Hydrangeas are in bloom and they really complement each other.

If anyone were to ask me, I'd say, Hibiscus is a shrub and therefore you have another pick for favorite perennial, Gardenho. :-) I'm still thinking what mine is.

There are many species of Hibiscus and some are herbaceous perennials and some are shrubs. Both the one posted by the OP and the one referred to by prairiemoon are herbaceous perennials and so qualify as favorite perennial......if you wish :-))

Personally, I have never met a hibiscus of any type I liked and those colors (pink) really put me off! I don't have a favorite perennial but there are a couple of shrubs I would never exclude from my garden.

GGal - I think we all would be happy to hear what your favorite shrub is that you would never exclude from your garden. :-)

I am surprised that my Awesome Berry can be considered a perennial, but now that you mention it, it does come up from the ground new every year and all the old stems need to be removed. So...that is unlike shrubs I grow. Right...and now that I'm thinking about it. The shrub that is a Hibiscus, has the smaller flowers and acts like a shrub. Plenty of those around my neighborhood. Rose of Sharon.

Dee thank you and you can say whichever one you want to lol.

I dont know which one this is. Others have asked but I still havent come across the tag. To be honest, I’ve had it for years and dont even know if I saved it.

PM yours is pretty close although yours is more ‘pink’ than mine, plus yours has the dark foliage which I love. I really dont know how to describe the color of mine other than…unique? And yes, try to keep up on your deadheading this year, I think youll be amazed at how much longer they bloom.

GG I know you dont like pink but I think you might like this one just alittle if you saw it in person…although you probably wouldn't admit it 🤣 So what is it you dont like about them in general? Is it the large blloms?

There's a lot........but oakleaf hydrangea would have to be at the top of my favorite shrub list. Four season appeal, long lasting flowers, sun or shade, not overly thirsty, plays well with others. And it doesn't come in pink!!!

btw, there is an accepted horticultural definition of what is a shrub: a shrub is a plant that has persistent woody stems that survive above ground year-round. Also, anything that lives longer than 2 growing seasons is considered a perennial, so technically ALL shrubs are perennials, just not herbaceous perennials, which die to the ground each season and then come back to life the next.

I have enjoyed Oakleaf Hydrangea too. Beautiful fall color. Which variety do you have GG?

I like Oakleafs also, although I chose bad placement for my Gatsby gal. Planted on the side of my house so I dont get to enjoy it like id like to. My neighbor behind me has one in full view so at least I can enjoy hers lol. I also have Little munckin and it stayed tiny for so long it seems. This year I think will be its best yet.

I've had several different cultivars over the years but the one I've had the longest and the only one in my new garden is 'Little Honey'.

That's a nice color foliage GG. Such pretty shaped leaves and big too.

Not particularly a 'favourite' (which changes from season to season, or even minute to minute) but a flower which has accompanied me in every garden I have ever made, including customers. Practically a weed. My gardenweb name should be a clue - Campanula. I simply cannot imagine being without the persistent, always delightful peach-leafed bellflower - casmpanula persicifolia. Although I have the common blues and whites and even a couple of doubles, my favourite is a dainty, lavender tipped one called Chettle Charm aka George Chiswell. This modest evergreen spreader adores my calcareous rubbish soil. It requires absolutely no effort from me and reproduces itself year on year without ever outstaying it's welcome.

Amazingly gorgeous colour, Gardenho. Hibiscus is a no-hoper in my gardens (too dry) but I have always had a lot of time for the mallow family. Currently pinning my droughty hopes on sphaeracea (have 3 or 4 - uncertain of species).

Ah, all the hydrangeas are unavailable for me so I can only live vicariously through the sterling efforts of Rouge and GG et a.

Oooh, sneaky Dee. Could easily pick salvia myself but would find it impossible to pick just one.l

That is a beauty gardenho!! I have a white with a pink eye h. m. southern belle. I thought it was a goner after decades but it appeared last year.

Alas gg I am just shy of being able to grow the Oakleafs. LH is lovely.

Suzy I am fond of the C. p. as well as a couple of hybrids - Kent Belle & Sarastro.

Perhaps not a surprise that Cyprpedium reginae - Showy Lady's Slipper is my pick.

Thank you all.

Hi Camp!! That Chettle Charm is a beauty, I can see why its your fave!

Peren you know thats always been my fave too 😀 I remember you saying you lost your old hybiscus…and surprise! it came back. Dont you just love those kind of surprises? I had one return also after several years. Cant remember what its called but its a groundcover with some of the bluest fall blooming flowers. Happy to see it back.*edited to add that I found it and its Plumbago.

Markay and others, Im surprised to hear you cant grow hibiscus. Its such a no fuss carefree plant here and grows in a couple of my not so great soil.

I did have another for many years…a true pink, but it was hugh and took up so much space. I even used to chelsea chop it too! I finally removed it and its absence made room for many other plants….

@gardenho_z5 it frustrates me that I can’t grow them when they grow wild in the roadside ditches around here. I have sandy fast draining soil though and it is too lean and dry to keep them happy.

Markay that is frustrating and puzzling. I planted one of the divisions in soil that sounds alot like yours and its doing good. To give you an idea of how bad the soil is…it is the preferred area for the birds to take their ’dust baths’ in….

Gardenho, that's absolutely gorgeous. I have a Cookies and Cream hibiscus that I really love, although it seems to be sulking now that I have moved it from its pot to in ground. I also really love your sedum, do you know what cultivar it is?

I had a hard time deciding on one favorite but I think I'll settle on phlox. I have a few kinds including paniculatas and subulatas and enjoy them all, especially because they all attract hummingbird moths. A few nights ago I was out in my garden just after dark with a flashlight watching a hummingbird moth go from bloom to bloom.

Claudia thanks. Just alittle transplant shock I’m sure on yours. The sedum is Autumn joy. My second fave is definitely phlox!… love it for its long bloom time and variety of colors. Here are my recent bargain finds ❤️ going to divide these as many times as possible lol Just waiting for these brutal temps to pass 😨

Astilbe :

It comes up reliably, has early lovely foliage, amazing blooms of so many colors, doesn't flop, no bugs, gives structure in late summer after so many of my floppers and self seeders have been pulled out , keeps color through the early fall, makes an excellent cut flower , I can't resist getting more and more each year as they are readily available at Costco - it holds its own in my challenging weedy garden.

I took some pics but they haven't shown up on my laptop yet and they are still 'waiting in the wings' anyway, with flower stalks forming.

I reserve the right to change my mind ;))

Lol Lat. I’ve never had any luck with Astilbe. I’ve tried in several diff beds but they just dont survive for me 🫤

I guess it's my rainy climate , haha , so count yourself lucky... without summer heat, I've missed out on so many meadow plants like coneflowers, helianthus, other heat lovers :(

Thanks for the thread !

I keep coming back to this thread and I just love that shot of the four open Hibiscus blooms. I love the ruffly edges and the texture. They look like organdy dresses...lol.

Showy Lady's Slipper

I know I commented on your plant earlier this season but there is no harm in saying again how perfect that picture is @peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada

No picture--I don't have a cell. But my favorite perennial is Agastache 'Blue Blazes'-huge, airy and blooms on and on and on. It does tend to be short lived, but it's done well in my previous place with very sandy soil and also in my heavy, wet clay. For some reason, it's hard to find in the trade. I got mine originally from High Country Gardens. Pictures I can find by googling don't really show it well (and a number of them on the images option are completely inaccurate)

Mine would be peonies. What they lack in brevity of bloom they make up for in beauty of foluage.

all the hydrangeas are unavailable for me so I can only live vicariously through the sterling efforts of Rouge and GG et al

Of course @suzy jackson, you are being too kind but tell me again why "hydrangeas are unavailable for" you?

I think I recall....last year?, you asking for suggestions as to which (paniculatas?) to consider...what happened with that train of thought?

Thanks for the reply, gardenho! I have an Autumn Fire on order for this fall, I think it's supposed to be similar. Love the bright pink phlox too!

Lacey I love agastache also. I used to have Black adder and Blue fortune.…surprisingly they slowly disappeared at this house. At my previous house they lasted for years…

Well, Rouge, I had my usual spell of optimism (delusion) and acquired a number of hydrangeas (via sneaky cuttings from other people's tempting specimens)...and am not enjoying the awful struggle to survive the broiling heat and sketchy irrigation in a teeny walled yard. And as for the long drawn out demise of the woodlanders! The list of plants which have failed to thrive in any of my gardens is a bit horrifying.

Silver linings though. This hot and dry summer has been vary... illuminating.

Stokesia is high on my list, but with the drought here I haven’t had any rebloom, so no pics. i absolutely love day lilies and have about 100 varieties.

100 varieties?! We need pics 😊

Yes indeed, pictures please! Barrheadlass, how do you incorporate them into your garden? Or do you have dedicated daylily beds? I'm very curious - I just mentioned in another thread that I love the blooms but the foliage, not so much, so I'm interested in how you use the daylilies in your garden.

:)

Dee

No garden design skills, i just throw them in where I can find a spot.

Happy to say I got my Phlox divided…with a saw lol. They will be much happier now as they were just a solid mass of roots. Poor things couldn't even hold water

Divided them into 7 and all planted! Also planted a couple cats pjs and a couple Sweet autumn clematis. Then watered alot of sulking wilting plants. That brutal heatwave sure did a number on the gardens 😰 You know its bad when even the weeds are dying…

Perennial - hostas

shrub - morden blush rose

Lc I love hostas too. I dont have as many as I’d like due to mostly full sun beds. That rose is beautiful!

A stunning picture of yours @gardenho_z5.

I thought of you as I reversed in my car to take a quick pic out front of this home:

Very pretty Rouge.

Lol thinking about you Rouge backing up for pics. I wonder if the locals secretly call you the ‘neighborhood garden stalker’ 🤣

Ha ha @gardenho_z5.

I am not allowed to do "garden stalking" when my partner is with me :(. So under those circumstances I will take notebof the address and then return at a later date :).

Stokesia is high on my list,

For sure @Barheadless, one of the prettiest flowers for sure. But the time I did plant one, it didnt make it through to the next season :(.

Lol Rouge ok lets change it to ’Lone garden stalker’ !

I will take notebof the address and then return at a later date :)

Lol you are indeed very dedicated! And we are so glad you are, because then we get to see all the great photos of things around town!

:)

Dee