In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

SueG
Ontario, Zone 5A

From: SueG
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2003 11:05 PM
Message-id:

In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

SueG
Ontario, Zone 5A

It's gone if you see no sign of it by now. If you had a long hard winter and a
long cold wet spring (as we did down here), you may have lost it to the Big
Wet. Liatris spicata grows from a crown of small corms that must have
excellent drainage, and sometimes even then, rot can get them if they don't get
some breathing space early enough. See if you can find what's left; I wouldn't
be at all surprised if you found rotted corms. I suggest you try again in
future, making sure it's in a very well-drained spot. Other than that very
important requirement, they're easy to maintain and the clumps will increase
substantially over the years.

Best,
Tyra
nNJ usa z7

Recently, Tyra Trevellyn wrote:

From: SueG
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2003 11:05 PM
Message-id:

In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

SueG
Ontario, Zone 5A

It's gone if you see no sign of it by now. If you had a long hard winter and a
long cold wet spring (as we did down here), you may have lost it to the Big
Wet. Liatris spicata grows from a crown of small corms that must have
excellent drainage, and sometimes even then, rot can get them if they don't get
some breathing space early enough. See if you can find what's left; I wouldn't
be at all surprised if you found rotted corms. I suggest you try again in
future, making sure it's in a very well-drained spot. Other than that very
important requirement, they're easy to maintain and the clumps will increase
substantially over the years.

Best,
Tyra
nNJ usa z7

Ah. So it may have been crowded out early on by the surrounding tulip
foliage? I'll poke through the area tomorrow and see if any corms turn
up.

Thanks very much, Tyra. I really appreciate your help!

Sue

I have also found that in my soil and climate liatris reseeds
PROLIFICALLY........
The seedlings look at first like a single fat blade of grass. If you
didn't dead head your flowers last fall, you might look around for these.
They probably wouldn't bloom this year, but by next year I'd bet you'd have
some blooming size plants.
"Tyra Trevellyn" wrote in message
...
From: SueG
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2003 11:05 PM
Message-id:

In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

SueG
Ontario, Zone 5A

It's gone if you see no sign of it by now. If you had a long hard winter
and a
long cold wet spring (as we did down here), you may have lost it to the
Big
Wet. Liatris spicata grows from a crown of small corms that must have
excellent drainage, and sometimes even then, rot can get them if they
don't get
some breathing space early enough. See if you can find what's left; I
wouldn't
be at all surprised if you found rotted corms. I suggest you try again in
future, making sure it's in a very well-drained spot. Other than that
very
important requirement, they're easy to maintain and the clumps will
increase
substantially over the years.

Best,
Tyra
nNJ usa z7

"SueG" wrote in message
...
In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

Mine increase dramatically and I move some last year. All the ones that I
moved failed to come back. I started mine from seed. They had a high
germination rate and transplanted well. You might try starting them from
seed. This time of year you can often find seeds on clearance for a few
cents a pack.

We planted one this Spring, here in Central Florida. It looked fine
for awhile, never grew much and eventually died. I think this is the
wrong part of the world for them.?


On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 03:05:22 GMT, SueG wrote:

In late July last year, I purchased some perennials from my local
garden centre to provide some summer interest to a bed of expired
tulips and hyacinths. They took well and looked good. This spring, all
have returned but one: a liatris spicata. There's no sign of it at
all. Does gayfeather start its growing really late, or have I lost
this one? (And if so, what happened to it??)

Any and all input gratefully accepted. Many thanks!

SueG
Ontario, Zone 5A