Gardening is a lifelong, continual learning experience. I write notes to myself and read them each year.

I am seldom sucked in by photos........too many chances to alter appearance or the focus is on the plant's best features, ignoring what to me would be major drawbacks. But then I am fortunate where relying on photos to evaluate plants is seldom necessary.....pretty much anything worth growing is available in the flesh at area nurseries. And in some cases, photos of plants that I have seen and immediately passed over or disliked presented very differently when seen in real life!!

Being a dyed in the wool plant geek, I tend to notice plants before anything else just about everywhere I go. And come cross a huge variety daily as part of my business. So that increases exposure to as many negative aspects about a plant's appearance and performance as it does its positive attributes. I'd have to say I have never been enamored about hibiscus in any of its forms and particularly H. syriacus. Saw one yesterday on a client visit that was in full bloom. First, it was pink flowered, so an immediate turn off!! (I don't do pink, period!). But what was worse was this mass of gummy, moldy looking mauvish-gray fallen flowers that absolutely carpeted the surrounding area! Not the slightest bit appealing.

I had a white H. moscheutos that looked like a shrub full of wet wash cloths when the flowers faded. I see lots of photos of perennial salvia that look great, but when I’ve grown it, the plants always looked awful after the first flush of blooms, when I’ve cut off the spent flower stalks. The leaves are invariably full of holes and ratty looking. Rebloom was always spotty for me.

Yeah, the fading/dropped flowers are a drawback of the hardy hibiscuses here - but only for the ones that border the driveway where the fallen flowers are visible. In the beds, the flowers drop to the ground and disappear into the dense plantings there. I find that the flowers drop pretty quickly and don’t linger on the stems more than a few hours. I only have one Rose of Sharon - which is currently smothered in Galore clematis! It manages to throw out a few flowers, which I don’t notice fading. There are quite a few RoS in the neighbourhood and I’ve never noticed messy fading flowers on them - I will have to pay more attention...:-). The double peonies’ fading flowers are a bit messier so most of the new ones I’ve added over the years have been singles - no staking required and the faded flowers disappear quickly. The ‘dying ugly’ plant that really bothered me was Shasta daisies. There are still a few around in the garden but they are vanishing fast...

Yep - single paeonia and roses for me too - never been keen on frilly flowers at the best of times. Ah, GG, if I worked in a nursery I would be in heaven...but for an urban non driver, it is an impossibility. Nearest one to me is a good 40minute cycle away (longer for me cos my bike is a 1920s loop frame, no gear clunker). Also, I no longer read magazines or keep up with any gardening media but here on GW, for example, there will be a mention of something new and interesting (and often native) such as calyophus or puccoon...and I am a hopeless sucker for crazes (have done Cali, SA, last year was Chilean plants and so on). Even just a mention piques my interest and I am off on a seed hunt (I could never afford to buy plants in a million years but seeds are cheap and often free.

this is why I love Gardenweb..you'll find honest comments positive AND negative..unlike a slick sales job in a plant catalogue with staged pictures..

Early on I fell for pictures that showed all types of plants with blue flowers. The descriptions even said they were blue. Of course, when I grew them out they're purple. I then learned in the plant world purples are often called blue. Nothing against purple, but I already have a lot of that!

Saypoint, with perennial Salvias I've found that if I deadhead the blooms my result is like what you described. Ratty foliage riddled with holes and discoloring and a few new flowers. BUT when I cut it down to a few inches, sometimes you see new growth already starting at the bottom, the salvias will put out another green flush of foliage and flower again. My Salvia 'Steel Blue' looks as good now as it did in spring when it first bloomed. (Except for hail knocking it down. ...Always something :)

Sandyslopes, Hmm. Maybe I should try again. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for posting this, as I've been feeling the pull to buy a couple of Hibiscus this season and on the fence about adding some. I have one Hardy Hibiscus - the 'Kopper King' - The size of the blooms are amazing and I love the added benefit of dark foliage, but the blossoms do die an ugly death. I feel that is not a deal breaker, because the bloom period is not that long and one plant, I can keep up with the deadheading to keep it looking great. But the red interior always bleeds pink into the white, which I have grown to dislike more and more - enough to be considering giving it away and trying another variety, like the red, that wouldn't have that problem.

I was also thinking of adding the Shrub 'Blue Chiffon'. A lot of people in this area have these shrubs, not that particular variety and it's a time of year when a lot of summer bloom is coming to an end, so it's tempting. Do these shrubs also drop ugly brown wads of spent blossoms? I haven't noticed that as an issue in this area, but maybe I'm not paying attention once they are out of bloom.

Yes, the hardy hibiscuses...one of those things I can never be totally happy about - because of the whole short bloom thing and then drop. Love so much about this plant otherwise! And I must be having a moment, because I did squeeze two more into the front bed. Datura and Brugsmansia fall into this category - but those at least keep pushing out more blooms so it can be a non-stop show when they are at there peak.

I am sure there are many plants which fall into the "life's great disappointments category". Can't really think off the top of my head, because my mind seems to be all abuzz today - maybe by a thing called "work" (how annoying!). But truthfully, once I learned the cathartic joys of shovel pruning, it's all good...

I have Pink Chiffon. It's been in bloom for a month and shows no signs of stopping. Foliage is dark green and beautiful.

Woody, I was talking about the Hibiscus that you grow. My 'Kopper King' is the same Hibiscus. Because I have only one shrub and it's not entirely in full sun, the show is over in 3-4 weeks for me. Yes, each bud/bloom lasts a day and so it continues until there are no more buds to open. But whatever the bud set is in the beginning of the season, that's how many blooms you will get, correct? It doesn't continue to produce more and more blooms as you deadhead it, right? You get a long bloom period because you have room for multiple varieties with differing bloom periods, is that right?

As for the dead blooms, in the location I have mine, which is not in the front or in the busiest part of my garden, sometimes I won't pass the shrub for 3 to 4 days and then there are a lot of ugly brown dead blooms over it. I feel you have to keep up with it every day to pull the dead blooms off especially when there are many blooms open on the plant on the same day and if you have multiple plants. That is clearly not an issue for you and I always enjoy the photos you post of your Hibiscus. And I particularly love the effect of the blooming Hibiscus with blooming late Hydrangea paniculatas.

For late summer bloom, I've been doing Sunflowers and Buddleia, and this year I had a heavy crop of Cosmos and Honey Bee Blue Agastaches that are still blooming. The buddleia blooms have been very small this year and last and I'm looking for something new with a larger bloom. I added one of the short Hydrangeas last season and that is really working out well, so I'm considering adding a few more with a couple of Hibiscus for the late summer. That bed is full sun and I'm usually out there every day, but I'm still thinking about whether I will keep up with the deadheading.

prairiemoon - correct, I don’t seem to trigger any new buds by deadheading so the long bloom time comes from the range of varieties grown. You can see some faded flowers in the picture I posted earlier above. The most unattractive faded ones are on the deep pink hibiscuses on the far right of the picture. (I have no idea what those are - they were supposed to be a red variety...!) Most of my hibiscuses are easily reached from the paths in and around the beds so the faded flowers are easily pulled off - but most fall off quickly on their own. While there are other plants blooming in the garden during ‘hibiscus season’, none of them have the same visual impact as the hibiscuses do. The neighbours love them too and frequently comment of them. I think they’d be disappointed if we ever removed them :-)

I have never grown the mocheutos types - they arrived on the scene when I was over my first hibiscus fad...and the flowers are just...too..big for the wispy, grassy, meadowy thing I am aiming for. I honestly couldn't place them anywhere unless in my home garden...but that's already crammed and tiny so no more shrubby things allowed (although I do have a couple of malvaviscus (and not sure where they should be placed), My preference has always been for many smaller flowers rather than a couple of large extravagant ones...so even the paeonies are being edited in favour of singles.

Cosmos was completely rubbish for me this year - so bad I had to pull the few which germinated and grew cos they looked so ridiculous in groups of one.

Woody, I agree with your neighbors, what a disappointment that would be! [g]. My neighbors all will be disappointed if I stop growing the sunflowers, but, I think something new might provide as you point out, a more visual impact and a longer bloom time. The sunflowers look great for a week and then the seeds start to fill in and the head bows over and I always leave them for the birds, so for awhile, they're not very attractive. I wish I had a place for them in the backyard.

The variety of Hydrangea I bought last fall, was Hydrangea paniculate 'Little Lime' Which is supposed to top off at 3-5ft. Right now it's looking very good, despite all the heat we've had this summer. The stems are upright and sturdy, which was a priority for me, and the blooms started out white and now have just a tinge of pink on them. I also didn't want anything too tall for that front bed.

I think all I can handle will be two Hardy Hibiscus in that bed. - I was thinking of the 'Blue Chiffon' shrub for another area. I think I might go for the red and a white hibiscus. I had a Plum Crazy, which was really nice, but I forget what happened to it. I might look for that again and I'm trying to find an all white one.

Does anyone know if Hummingbirds use Hibiscus?

Campanula - I bought a six pack of dwarf cosmos as a novelty three years ago and they've reseeded into my bed. We were having our street repaved this summer, so I made a lot of different choices in my front bed. I let the Cosmos come up where it wanted to and I was really surprised at how much territory it covered from the few plants I had for the past two years. And, of course, you never know what you are going to get from a hybrid when it reseeds. There's only a handful of plants I'd even bother to collect seed from and most of them, grew huge, taller than my Butterfly Bush. The really odd thing though, was that at least a good third of them grew bushy and didn't produce one flower bud. And that was without fertilizing them.

I feel sorry for you for the summer you've had. We're having a 97 degree F. day today and it feels more like 105, but it should be breaking after tomorrow. It's been hot here this summer, but with enough breaks to be fairly tolerable. Every year it seems to keep going more and more in that direction with the heat and drought.

I change what I'm growing fairly frequently. I do love a meadow look, but don't really have the property for it. But I like a lot of other things too. The front bed is what changes the most from year to year. I get tired of one grouping of plants and add new ones and move them around just about every year. Which is easy to do in a 20ft x 20ft bed, which is what I have to work with in the front. The one hard and fast rule I stick with is to go for something being in bloom as much of the growing season as possible.

'I get tired of one grouping of plants and add new ones and move them around just about every year.'

Ain't it the truth? Tbf, I do potentially have more space but it is 60 miles away and petrol is spendy in the UK...so always in a limbo of indecision...plus deer, rabbits, voles were a massive shock for this urban townie. So yeah, the last 4 years have mainly been characterised by dithering and being my own worst garden role model. Plus I cannot bring myself to actually spend money on any of my gardens cos I am presently clueless about where I should be concentrating my efforts. It really is a lifelong process of learning (but I felt sure I shouda been a bit clearer by now!).

Annuals are always good value...and even though the summer was insane, it was all pretty decent until the end of May - cornflowers, iberis, gyp, lychnis, nicotiana and ursinia did their cheap and easy thing, even despite the freezy spring...and the tulips hung about in the nippy weather too...so you know, it's never all bad.

I am undecided about the something in bloom for as long as possible too - being undecided as to whether to just go for the full on show for less time...or stretch it all out and put up with the inevitable less than stellar gaps of gone over plants. Its a tricky one which I solved by having separate areas ar=t the allotment...but it isn't possible in the tiny garden at home (although I shuffle pots in and out of view like a madwoman).

I have to say, one last mad push to get the bulbs and bare roots, cuttings, divisions and transplants sorted...then a peaceful few months of knitting and reading on the sofa.

Lavender Chiffon wasn't very stable -around half of it reverted to a single lilac bloom with a reddish centre.

prairiemoon - hummingbirds don't seem to be interested in the hibiscuses. The two plants here that most attract hummingbirds are the Clematis stans (? that's what it is supposed to be at least....) and the Heptacodium tree that bees and monarch butterflies go nuts over too. Here is one of DH's pictures of a hummingbird feeding on the clematis:

and here is a link to his flickr post of my favorite picture he took ofa hummingbird feeding on the Heptacodium tree

The front garden here is where all the colorful flowers are (the backyard is mainly green and white). I aim to have color all season - but what is showy varies from month to month as very few things bloom for more than a few weeks at most. Early spring is small bulbs; May is wisteria month - if the winter has been kind to us!, plus plus magnolias and serviceberry trees; June is peony month; July is clematises, plus the early hydrangeas and, by the end of the month, the early hardy hibiscuses; August is dominated by the hardy hibiscuses; September has Heptacodium as the star (plus the monarch butterflies in good monarch years!) I don't have good fall foliage in the front garden, but there are some nice 'mums plus the Ash and red oak trees are visible above the roof when their color changes. The longest-blooming plants in the garden are the Pink Beauty potentilla shrubs which are late to leaf out in spring but bloom quickly with nice pink-slightly-peachy flowers that bleach out to almost white in the heat of the summer and then go back to peachy-pink when temperatures cool down again in late summer. There are other plants in bloom during the season but they don't stand out as much at the ones that highlight the various months.

Campanula - I am still in an urban environment and I do find I have a lot fewer critters to deal with than those on GW who are more rural. I think trying to resolve critter issues must be very draining. The few times I've had to deal with them in anything more than a minor way, it took away some of the fun of gardening. But then again, dealing with heat and drought is no better. This is the first summer out of the last four, that I didn't have to drag the hose over every square inch of my small property on a regular basis. I appreciated it very much.

I find I've expanded my interests to include more than gardening alone. I was so intensely invested in gardening for so many years, that I found I was burned out to some degree. I believe I will never have any pursuit that will replace the number one position that gardening holds for me, but my expectations have changed quite a bit from when I first began. You have to take the "should" out of it. And having other interests, keeps gardening in balance for me. My expectations are not nearly as dependent on outcome now. It's a process and you may as well get the most out of where ever you are in the process and enjoy it. I think we are saying the same thing. It's lifelong.

As for the long season of bloom. I have only that front bed that I have that expectation of. The rest of the property has to be about what is the best fit for the conditions. I have a lot of fun, tinkering with just that one bed to see how much I can fit in there to keep the interest going. And it's not too large, that a change from year to year is a monumental load of work to accomplish. And it started out with a loose plan of how to accomplish that but since then it's become the most spontaneous decisions I make in the garden. I love annuals when I can start them from seed, otherwise, it's too expensive to use them in numbers that make much difference.

Cool fall weather will get the same enthusiasm from me that spring does. I love to get out there when it's comfortable and try to get a jump on spring. This year though, indoor projects are competing for my attention. So maybe a mad dash next spring instead. I am planning to get some bulbs in though. If I ever get an order made.

Woody - Oh, wow, I’m going to have to look up that Clematis - I’ve not seen it before. And that photo of the hummingbird hovering below the blossoms on your tree, is unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hummingbird in that position. [g]. Do you also put up feeders? Your husband takes some beautiful photos! I think you have to have a lot of patience to take photos of birds. The photo of the cardinal 'out of the shadows' is breathtaking! That could win an award. They're all gorgeous, crisp and clear. 'Playing with feathers' is another one I just love. The detail is phenomenal. How far does he travel to take these? Where did he get a photo of a Scarlet Tanager?

Our properties are similar that way - my backyard is more shade/part shade and the only full sun is in the front. I think your property is larger than mine though, so more sun. I guess most suburban/urban gardens are similar with houses and mature trees so close together.

Yes, if you have one main player with a supporting cast for each month you are doing well. Part of my planning began with that concept of which plant I wanted to dominate each month. I will have to dig that out, I haven’t looked at it in years. :-)

prairiemoon - That clematis goes back many years now - I sort of found it by accident when visiting a nursery I hadn't been to before - I saw the sign and stopped to see what they had.... I didn't recognize it as a clematis! There were several in a display bed in full sun and quite dry conditions! It's a non-climbing, shrubby sort that blooms very late. Here is a picture of if from this morning:

Here is a picture of one of my long-blooming Pink Beauty potentilla shrubs; this one paired with Paprika rose. The rose will soon be developing its peachy-orange hips. The potentilla has been blooming since late May and is just starting to recover some color from its faded-to-white state in the heat of the summer:

Woody - It really doesn’t look like a Clematis. [g] It reminds me of something, but I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe the flower reminds me of a Phlomis? It looks healthy and that’s a nice soft blue. Something that tolerates hot dry beds is a find as well. How long does it bloom? Bloom time is the later part of August and into September too?

I’ve only had hummingbird visitors the past two years. I planted a Cuphea in a container last year and was surprised when crouched down next to it to weed, I looked up and there was a hummingbird hovering over my head. [g]. So this year, in addition to the Cuphea again, I added some Salvias, Agastaches and Cleome in the front and Scarlet Runner Bean in the veggie garden and I’ve seen just this one solitary hummingbird pretty regularly. I put out a feeder, but I noticed it was visiting the Cleome a foot away from the feeder and never used the feeder once that I could determine.

In the left of your photo, is that a big pink plastic pretend flower on the feeder? That’s a great idea putting the Hibiscus close to the Ninebark to borrow some color, since Ninebarks are in bloom for such a short time. I have one in the back that I really enjoy. This year it’s a little crispy around the edges from the heat and a water ban we had this summer. That color Hibiscus really does look great with the Ninebark.

Paprika is a landscape rose? Do you use the hips at all?

I only have one H syriacus, Red Heart. It blooms at a time when there's a dearth of flowering shrubbery and I find the dead blooms just drop off. They don't hang on the tree. Perhaps that's a trait of the doubles, which I dislike. Since it's growing over paving I just sweep the dead flowers into the flower bed. Even if I could grow H moscheutus I wouldn't. Their blooms are too garish and outsized for an English garden imo. If I lived in a hot climate I'd probably go for them.

prairiemoon - The clematis starts blooming in late July and peaks in August - most of the pictures I have of it on file are from Aug 20-30 in various years. I can't remember how late into September it blooms - I don't have any pictures dated September but it's obviously not quite finished by the end of August! I'll pay attention this year to see when it stops blooming :-)

Yes, the pink plastic flower thing is the hummingbird feeder. The Baltimore orioles that nest in a tree across the road like it too! You can see the feeder - and an oriole on it - in this picture on DH's flicker photostream

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'landscape rose' - 'Paprika' is an Oso Easy rose. I also have the 'Peachy Cream' from that series too. They are very hardy and have never had any disease or pest issues. The leaves look a lot like the ones on the seed-grown China roses I have in the same bed - that's what attracted me to the Oso Easy ones.... I assume they must share some common ancestry. But the Oso Easy ones have thicker, shinier leaves and larger hips We don't do anything with the hips. The small hips on our seed-grown roses are popular with robins in the spring. I haven't seen birds eating the larger hips on the other roses but perhaps we just haven't noticed.... This is one of my favorite pictures from DH's photos -I consider it a portrait of us :-) The robin represents DH (since he's a 'birder') and the roses represent me (the gardener!)

floral_uk - LOL I don't consider our hibiscuses in the front garden as being garish - just very showy :-)

Woody - If I come across that Clematis in my travels, I’d love to try it for the hummingbirds. Now, I’ll be looking for it. Orioles are beautiful too. I’ve had a couple fly through the yard on their way somewhere, but I rarely see them more than a couple of times in a season. And some seasons not at all. You seem to be in an area with a lot of bird activity. If I remember right you’re not too far from a lake, which must make a difference. Perfect for your husband. :-)

Landscape roses, to me, are usually easy care roses that as you report, have very little disease or pest issues. Often they are small flowers produced in abundance over a long bloom period and are not usually associated with fragrance. Paprika looks like a pretty one. I haven’t tried the Oso Easy roses yet.

The hips have a lot of Vitamin C in them. I’ve been drinking rose hip tea lately for that reason. It’s probably easy enough to use the hips from the garden with more nutrition and no cost.

Campanula - we’ve gotten a little off topic, and I just wanted to add, that I agree, that choosing plants based on a photo is always hit or miss for me too.

In the spring I was considering a Halesia tree to add to the garden, and I went to a nursery looking for one and it was after it had bloomed when I went. To my surprise, it had pods hanging all over it, which I never knew it produced. I’d been looking at Halesia photos in bloom for years and thought they were so pretty, but no mention of the pods.

The question of scale is always an issue for me. The photos will show a gorgeous flower and then when you see it in person, it’s tiny on the plant and barely noticeable without a magnifying glass. [g]

I am such a dope (sucker, duped idiot, whatever name you wish, I will claim it!), that I have fallen for pictures so often that I have learned to check it out on Google images, trying my darndest to find the actual plant in a location that shows it in relation to another plant (also good for finding combos), then hit Missouri botanical website (same latitude as my home, so very similar results for bloom time and hardiness is accurately described there), and last, any other place I can find it. Once I'm convinced, I'll bother to try on GardenWeb. Most of the time, gardners agree, but every once in awhile, I'll find out the skeletons in a plant's closet here. Once it passes muster, then I grow it. Even so, I have still gotten duds. At that point, I assume it's my lack of knowledge or wrong growing conditions.

Another explanation, is that too many of the new hybrids don't live up to their expectations.