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I'm leaning toward trying these.
I haven't read anything that would make me NOT get them. But thought I'd ask the experts before I pull the trig ger
-- Balloon Flower
-- English Mallow
-- Japanese Mount Fuji Dragonhead
Invasive? Easy care? Finicky?
Balloon flower -- you mean Platycodon? No, they're not invasive. They are beautiful. You need to deadhead them, which can be a little time consuming, but I love them.
English mallow:Malva sylvestris? Beautiful, very hardy and the last thing to stop blooming late in the season. Can be hit with leafminers, but a very easy care plant. They self-sow and come up everywhere the following season, usually confined to where themother plants were. I pull some and transplant others.
Mount Fuji Dragonhead: I'm not familiar with this one, but boy, I sure plan to check it out! It's beautiful.
Tina asked for the specific plant names. There are so many plants that share "common names" and some catalogs add to the confusion by also using their own made up names. I've been burned so many times when answering questions about a plant only to find out the person asking meant another plant entirely with completely different needs.
The most common "balloon flower" is the Platycodon. I've grown them for years and love them. They rarely self seed (especially if you dead head them). Word to the wise, make sure you put in a permanent marker for where they are located since they come up far later than most other plants in the spring and stepping on an emerging stem can be the kiss of death for the plant at times. I had the misfortune of losing at least 3 or 4 that way when we had a lawn service that insisted on "cleaning" the flower beds when I told them to leave my perennials alone. I love them, and have them in 3 colors, but some people do not like them after they've had them for a year because 1) they don't take well to transplanting if you change your mind about their location 2) they ooze a sticky white sap when deadheading 3) they are slow to emerge with other plants and leave a temporary bare spot.
Mallow can seem invasive in some gardens especially if you don't weed regularly since they re-seed well but they do not meet the invasive criteria of plants that take over and overwhelm everything around them. Mine always behaved well mixed in the middle of my perennial garden. The sunnier the garden the better they bloom and they are one of few plants that do about the same in all soil types making them great for beginner gardeners.
Like Tina I've never had the Dragonhead plant mentioned but I had (for a while) a relative, the Siberian Dragonhead PlantFiles: Detailed information on Northern Dragonhead, Siberian Dragon's Head Dracocephalum ruyschiana and one that I can't think of the name of that was very pale blue. I don't have it in my current garden because it would be too hot without some sun protection here. While the plant tags said full sun both needed protection from afternoon sun even my old garden but otherwise were pretty easy to grow. Neither bloomed as long as the literature says but their blue really stood out in the garden. I'm not sure if the one you are interested in has any major differences since the general growing directions are pretty close.
I've never been quite clear on "deadheading." (and don't tend to do it, if I even understand what it is.)
I tend to like plants that just slowly get larger as they grow where they are, but they don't 'spread' or pop up all over the place. (Like a daylily, or sedum, or shrub. It gets bigger in its spot as it grows, but it won't just start springing up all over, and certainly isn't invasive)
I usually do NOT snip off any flowers or dead flower heads. I let dead flowers stay in place through winter. for example I just recently cut back all the dead stuff from last summer/fall.
(IF you want to see pictures, these plants happen to be sold by Roberta's (on its website or QVC). That's the only place I've seen the Japanese Dragonhead.)
J&Em - now I'm confused about the mallow I like the look of it. But now I'm fretting is it invasive of not. It reminds me of a hardy hibiscus. I have one of those already (in a container) The new one would go in the ground at my mom's house (Phila/Zone7) , but at least I'm already familiar with it and its growth habit.
Deadheading is simply removing the spent blooms, down to the next leaf node, usually. With some things, like impatiens or alyssum, you can just take a scissors and shear. With something like Platycodon, it's more of a job, doing each stem one by one. You do this for a couple of reasons. First, it looks better. Secondly, it encourages faster rebloming and makes for a less leggy and scraggly plant.
The science behind that is simple. Flowers are the plant's reproduction method. They are meant to produce seed, and that requires a lot of the plant's energy. By removing the spent bloom before it sets seeds, the plant, in its mission to reproduce, makes more blooms. The plant doesn't really care how pretty its blooms are, but the color, scent and shape of the blooms is designed by Nature to attract pollinators.
What would you say it the difference between "self-sowing and coming up everywhere the following season" -- and being invasive?
That's invasive!
However, there is invasive, and then there are the thugs. Thugs are things like trumpet vine/creeper, which self sows but also grows like wildfire and spreads underground and I swear, it can actually come up across the street. It is a nightmare to get rid of. And those cute Chinese Lantern plants with the orange balloon type blooms -- they'll spread and come up all over your lawn if you let them. Creeping Jenny is another one that's beautiful, but very hard to contain. I can live with something that self sows and is manageable, but when I see trumpet creeper at plant sales, I have words with the manager of the sale.
Jacob's Ladder! Thank you. I had been trying to think of that because I used to have it and loved it. Can't remember much about it now except that I loved it.
Platycodon, I loved too. I had a shade garden that got dappled sun and that was one of the plants that thrived there. I had white ones and purples ones and they got tall and would look pretty waving in the breeze. I think they had sort of a rosette of leaves that disappeared over the winter but would reappear in spring. It's been a long time since I had that shade garden. I live in Massachusetts and neither of these was invasive here.
in_newengland from what you recall, did your balloon flower spread, pop up all over. Would you call it invasive?
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