I had to go look Tamarix up in the catalog. It looks really nice.
Mine is Gaillarida, Arizona Sun. Planted seeds up at the lodge several years ago in a corner by the walk way. They have gotten to be rather showy now. Everyone comments on them. I still can't get the hollyhocks going though. Maybe I need to go to the Far north forum and ask for help on them.

Tall grains. Sorghum and amaranth. Super easy from seed and look spectacular at the back of the vegetable garden. My sorghum was 10-12 feet tall last year.

Pondy,

I also have a Tamarisk, but not as tall as yours yet. Mine is planted in a "screen bed" in front of a parking slab, designed to someday screen the vehicles parked behind it. I appreciate how fast it is growing!

My "stand out" that everyone is drawn to is a Purple Smoke bush that accents a daylily garden. It's very stunning when in bloom with its pink "cotton candy" like blooms, and reddish fall foliage.

This thread is a great idea!

Julie

So I had to look up the smoke bush also. Sounds like it has great color in the fall. Thanks for another great garden idea for me.

My purple smoke tree and my phlox are the standout ones in my gardens. My phlox have had only 1 bad year(out of 12) and that was this past summer. They bloomed earlier than usual and looked great until early August. We had a fairly dry summer until then, and then in the beginning of August it started to rain...and rain..and rain. All the blooms just fell off because of the downpours. I have them by my deck and I just love their smell. Even when the pm strikes, I still love them. One year when the pm was so bad, my hubby was looking at them and said he didn't realize I had so many variegated phlox! He thought they really looked good! LOL!! I was laughing so hard I could hardly tell him that it was pm. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. :)

Kat

Julie, your Tamarisk will fill in and out and up within 3 to 4 years. Birds love it, altho, I don't know why. And it will be a beautiful screening tree at maturity. Mine is multi-trunked, is yours?

I really want a smoke tree, and plan to have one by this Spring. How do you keep yours trimmed and good looking Kat?

Amaranth has been featured in several of my garden books.
Havent seen sorghum. Do you start from seeds? and when?
Need your input, Cranberry. Does it spread from seed heads?

I really want someone to mention a wonderful daylily that has a long bloom time. I want to plant a largish garden with daylilies, autuum joy sedum and one of the grasses.

I am going to try starting a new tamarisk from cuttings.
Wish me luck.
Pondy

Yes, Pondy, my Tamarisk is multi-trunked. I'm afraid this year the bunnies (or some other hungry creature) trimmed a few branches about 12-24" from the ground, because of the huge snowdrifts we had this year. Sooooooo, now I have some very short stems next to some very tall stems. Not sure what will happen - may have a lopsided bush/tree!

I don't do a thing with my smoke bush - YET. My DH actually rescued it from Shopko, of all places, about three years ago. It was almost dead, and had two stems left, one very short, and the other tall and shaped in an inward curved. I just rolled my eyes when he brought it home, not knowing the first thing about smoke bushes. But I since learned that once a smoke bush/tree is established, it can withstand drought conditions very well. It has filled in, with no pruning whatsoever. Maybe someday, if it gets too bushy, I will prune it.

I also love Phlox, Kat! The fragrance is wonderful! Some have gone to seed, because of my lack of deadheading soon enough, and I get new unusual colors as a result.

Julie

I forgot to mention an idea for long blooming daylilies.

Try this link:

Happy Ever Appster Daylilies

I have the tree form of the purple smoke bush. I've had it for either 7 or 8 yrs...just can't remember. Anyways, like Julie I didn't trim it for several yrs. Two years ago I did trim at least 1 1/2 ft off the top and side branches. I trimmed them in mid summer. The next summer I had some bloom but not as much and it was later than usual. If you trim the tree or bush in Spring you will get very little, if any bloom that summer. They bloom mostly on old wood. But the leaves are bigger with better, deeper color. I don't want mine to get bigger than 10ft. So every few years, I'll have to forgo the blooms.
Julie, a lot of my phlox have come from the seeds too. I deadhead them regularly, but you know how it goes...I always miss some. But all of them still smell and look great. I've gotten some nice colors also from the seedling. Thing is, the garden I have them in, is getting crowded so I'm going to have to trim some out. Btw, my favorite and longest blooming is 'Miss Ellie'. She's the 1st to bloom and blooms until late September. She branches out a lot too, so there are many flowers. The flowers are a shocking pink for the eye, and fading to white at the edges of the petals. It is one beautiful phlox.

Kat

Kat,
I also have 'Miss Ellie'. I agree, it's one gorgeous Phlox! A nice short variety that looks good in the front or mid-garden area.

Julie

I also get lots of comments about my smoke bushes. I have the purple one, and last year I I bought the Golden Spirit at the Paine art center spring sale. I was a little worried about the gold one, but it made it through winter with flying colors.

I also have had people who were walking or driving by stop to ask about my ligularia. I have one in the front that is about 5 years old and it's huge.

Julie, do you cut your phlox back in late Spring? I've tried that the past couple of years and I like it that way. Basically, I cut the ones in the front. They bloom a little later, but they branch out more, so more flowers.
Margo, do you have the G.S. near your purple one? I just looked this one up on Kemper center plant finder and this is what it said about the flowering:

"GOLDEN SPIRIT (ÂAncotÂ) is a smoketree cultivar that is grown for its unusual golden foliage. This is a deciduous, upright, loose-spreading, multi-stemmed shrub that typically grows 8-15Â tall and as wide, however it can be easily kept more compact through annual pruning. Ovate to obovate, yellow leaves (to 3" long) suffused with green retain good color throughout summer, but turn amber, burgundy, scarlet and green in fall. There are questions, however, as to whether GOLDEN SPIRIT should be expected to flower and smoke in the garden. U. S. Plant Patent PP13,082 was issued October 15, 2002 for this plant. The patent documents state that GOLDEN SPIRIT was grown and tested over a four year period, and that "no flowering has been observed by the inventor to date." On the other hand, many nurseries currently claim that GOLDEN SPIRIT regularly produces tiny yellow flowers in spring followed by the signature post-bloom smoky summer panicles that appear on most other C. coggygria cultivars."

When I got mine, it was a 3 yr old. It didn't get a lot of 'smoke' the 1st couple of years, but then it picked up really well. Did yours flower? I think the color of the shrub is beautiful enough!

Kat

do you cut your phlox back in late Spring?

Yes, Kat, I've been experimenting w/cutting back. Sometimes I trim the branches on the outside shorter than the ones in the middle, then I get two separate sets of bloom times. But that only works well if the Phlox is near the front of the bed, in order to see the shorter stems bloom later, and not be blocked by a taller plant in front of it. (Does that make sense?)

Julie

My Golden Spirit is on the opposite side of the house as my purple one. I'm not worried about the flowers or smoke on the golden one, because like you said the colors of the leaves are beautiful enough.

I use the Kemper Plant Center website a lot too. Last summer I actually went there. It was beautiful. My husband dragged me to the Brewers game in St Louis, so I dragged him to the botanical garden there!

They all sound beautiful, I'll have to look some of these up!

My main standout is definitely my bananas, musa basjoo. They're hard to miss, especially near the end of the summer! The other would be our giant grass, miscanthus giganteus. In the spring it's our crabapple tree, loaded with pink blossoms. It was on clearance at Shopko for $7!

I'm hoping that in the near future my Franklinia will be a real standout in my garden. I just checked today and the stems are still pretty pliable so I think it survived well. But time will tell.;)

And I love my Rhododendrons. They've not been in more than a few years but they've put on a pretty good show.

Dave
Franklin

Franklinia is a tree, isnt it? Let me know how it grows.
the only rhodo that thrived for me was one that I planted in a large cedar-lined pit, all full of peat and other acidic ground. It was magnificant, especially after I learned how to prune. When I sold my old home, it was 10 yrs old. Still, I concluded that the blooms were brief and beautiful, but on the whole, not worth the effort to change the soil, and plant in my new garden. Now am sold on Korean Spice virburnum and its heavenly scent and lovely blooms and fall berries. So many year round bennies and no futzing with changing the soil ph. Yesssss!
Love native plants.
Pondy

Yes, Pondy, Franklinia is a small tree. I haven't found the Rhodies to be a problem. I just dig my hole wider, add some peatmoss ,plant about 1 inch higher than the surrounding soil, and mulch to hold moisture. I have no time to putz with soil pH. Mine do beautifully. But I love the Korean Spice also.

Dave
Franklin

Where did you get the Korean Spice? I've heard they're really fragrant but I haven't found them (and I wasn't sure if they're hardy to our area).

I really want to try a purple smokebush in my front flower bed. I honestly don't have any one plant that really is a stand out but I've only been gardening in WI for the past five years.
Astrid

Dave, I used to have to spray my Rhodies with some kind of waxy stuff, to prevent leaf scald, curling and brown spots.
Forget what it was called. Must admit that I did enjoy seeing this evergreen shrub all winter.

Julie, thank you for the happy ever appster daylily site.
have you ever ordered from this Canadian Co.? Ayway, I printed out the pix and names of all their everbloomers, and plan to shop locally for these hybrids.

Astrid, I dont remember if I bought my Korean Spice virburnum at Steins garden center or a local garden center near Jackson called Lamms Garden and Landscape Ctr on Sherman road. A really cool place to visit. They may even have a web site. I just love the pink and white huge head of blooms on the KS. Sometimes the scent is almost overpowering. Also, they dont get over large like some Virburnum. If you live in the west coast of WI, I surely would look locally. ARe you near the Mississippi? I love to tramp over those towering cliffs and watch the eagles fish. Beautiful non-glaciated area.

Pondy (Sharon)

Pondy,

No, I have never ordered anything from Canada. Several cultivars of the "Happy Ever Appster Daylilies" were for sale at our local Steins. They've done very well for me. Hope you're able to find a few locally.

Julie

Mileager's in Racine has Korean Spice as well as Judii.

Dave
Franklin