Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Deer Resistant Plants - P to R

Rabdosia longituba is probably a plant most of you don't know, but it is a lovely perennial for September bloom. It likes light shade and a well drained soil.
This is not your typical Pulmonaria, since most have either almost white/silver leaves or green ones with white spots, but this Pulmonaria 'David Ward' is one that I really like. The pink flowers are a nice bonus. I think what puts the deer off eating these is the fuzzy leaves. I even hate working around them because they make me itch. Hank has no problem, so don't let my itchiness put you off trying these if you don't yet grow them. They like shade to part sun. The flowers appear in very early spring and after they die back, the new foliage for the year appears. On a mild winter these can be evergreen; in bad winters the foliage dies back.

Primula japonica is something I always thought was hard to grow. I couldn't have been more wrong. There are similar looking primulas that are difficult, but this plant of light shade gardens is easy, expands a big each year, and comes in a huge array of shades in the flowers, including eyed and ruffled ones.


Polygonatums - Solomon's Seal - also come in a huge variety of forms. This is Polygonatum biflorus since the flowers come in pairs. We have several variegated ones, some with extremely thin leaves, tall ones, short ones, all sorts of ones. They are easy to grow in a shady, woodsy garden and most make nice clumps after a few years.



This last one for today if Pinellia atropurpureum. It self seeds, but doesn't seem to do so as freely as Pinellia tripartita, the plain green one, that seems intent on totally populating the world. I still grow it, but pull out a lot of seedlings. It is just too cool to not grow. We also grow one, a hybrid, called Polyspout that is sterile so you can enjoy it without worrying about weeding out all of its offspring. We grow 2 miniature ones, less than 6 inches tall, but they need a very special place so they don't get overrun but their neighboring plants.
Hot today and hotter tomorrow, but the weeding goes on ...
Jane




1 comment:

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

I don't know much about deer resistant plants, But I do know many plants they say rabbits wont eat, they do nibble on. My lavender which is behind a wire fence, has all been neatly nibbled back where it pokes through the wire. You would think as fragrant as Lavender is, they would not care for it.