{"id":447,"date":"2008-08-17T16:39:33","date_gmt":"2008-08-17T23:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.remarc.com\/craig\/?p=447"},"modified":"2008-08-17T16:50:44","modified_gmt":"2008-08-17T23:50:44","slug":"going-for-the-gold-tall-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/?p=447","title":{"rendered":"Going for the gold: Tall plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of the Olympics and county fair season, Mary Ann Newcomer at Idaho Gardener has organized a kind of online Gardening Olympiad with real prizes. (See Olympic Medal Event: Gardeners face off for Gold-Silver-Bronze!<\/a>. Hurry. Deadline of entries is midnight tonight.)<\/p>\n

I’m not much into competitive gardening — earliest tomato, biggest pumpkin and the like. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the skill and drive of some gardeners to excel. It’s just that the only prize I’d win is weediest garden or worst color combo.<\/p>\n

So I wasn’t sure what to enter. I’ve got a lot of pretty stuff that I share here on a regular basis. But I really don’t like to put aesthetics into competition. I cringe at the gymnastic judging at the Olympics. Sure. A stumble here or awkward landing there might make someone think that one performance should be judged better than another. But I think they’re all beautiful in their own way.<\/p>\n

So, maybe it’s a guy thing. But if we’re going to actually have a contest, it should be something that can be objectively measured — like in the pool or on the track. With that in mind, below are my three entries for Tallest Herbaceous Perennial, Zone 5.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, we aren’t in the tropics here. Last frost is late May or early June. Falls have been long and warm into October the last few years. But some years I’ve had frost before Labor Day.<\/p>\n

Note the 4-foot-tall bronze marker<\/strong> (used to measure snow depth usually) at the base of each. Click images for larger view.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bronze:<\/strong> Ironweed (Vernonia<\/em>, V. noveboracensis<\/em>, I think). It’s topped out between 7 and 8 feet. I’ve had it grow slightly taller in years past. Can’t wait for the purple flowers to open. Most years, Eupatorium purpureum<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcJoe White\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/a>would have easily gotten the bronze here. But I divided it this spring and it’s topping out around 7 feet while it recovers this year. I’d expect it to top 8 feet most years.<\/p>\n

\"tall<\/a><\/p>\n

Silver:<\/strong> Inula<\/em> (not sure of species, I. helenium<\/em> maybe?) This plant easily broke 8 feet this year in part shade. Another patch in full sun is almost as tall. Yeah, those leaves at the base are more than 4 feet long.<\/p>\n

\"tall<\/a><\/p>\n

Gold:<\/strong> This year and every year, it goes to Miscanthus floridulus<\/em> (Giant Chinese Silver Grass aka Miscanthus<\/em> ‘Giganteus’ and Miscanthus japonicus<\/em>). It doesn’t really start growing until the soil starts warming up in June. But it’s up to 10 feet now and will probably go another couple of feed and start putting out seedheads if the weather stays warm. Makes a nice screen from the road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"tall<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, there’s some tired ‘reach for the sky’ or ‘the sky’s the limit’ Olympic-spirit closing line that would sinch me a medal like sticking the landing. But I won’t go there.<\/p>\n

Thanks for a fun idea, Mary Ann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of the Olympics and county fair season, Mary Ann Newcomer at Idaho Gardener has organized a kind of online Gardening Olympiad with real prizes. (See Olympic Medal Event: Gardeners face off for Gold-Silver-Bronze!. Hurry. Deadline of entries is midnight tonight.) I’m not much into competitive gardening — earliest tomato, biggest pumpkin and the … Continue reading “Going for the gold: Tall plants”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}