Question for Chris

LynneM · Post by **LynneM** » May 17, 2005 10:33 pm

Chris,

Which of the astilble that you carry do you highly recommend? I have fanal, and never have been impressed, I really like the ones that put on a good show.

Anyone else, please feel free to chime in.

Thanks!
Lynne

Post by **Chris_W** » May 17, 2005 11:17 pm

Hi Lynne,

When I do garden design with astilbes I love to plant them in ascending rows or in drifts of the same variety and like to plant multiple varieties. Makes a really nice display, especially because the bloom time of each individual one can be somewhat short.

I really like the Visions series, with Visions in Red being my favorite of the 3, then Visions, then Visions in Pink. The flowers and foliage hold up a lot better than some of the other astilbe. The only thing is - Visions in Red gets its name from the reddish foliage and stems. The flowers are just a reddish tinted purple, not actually red, which can be a bit confusing...

My next favorites are the miniature astilbes - Astilbe crispa 'Perkeo' and Astilbe crispa 'Lilliput'. The foliage almost looks like miniature ferns and the flowers are just a bonus. Very cute!

For flowers White Gloria, Sister Teresa, and Gloria Purpurea are some of the best. Each of these has really full plumes. Unfortunately we are out of White Gloria for shipping. We mailed out the last from our refrigerator this week and the ones in the nursery are starting to bloom already! I also have to check on some of the other plants. Once the blooms start coming on them I don't like to cut them down for shipping and we don't have many dormant ones left in the fridge right now.

There is a whole new "music" series of astilbes out now, but I haven't really grown them yet. I have Country and Western started but will have to see how they do this summer before I try any of the others in the series.

I would like to know what others think of as their favorites too!

toomanyanimals · Post by **toomanyanimals** » May 19, 2005 7:35 am

Lyne,
I have fanal also. I thought it was just me and where I have them planted. Never have gotten an impressive bloom from them.
Sharon

LynneM · Post by **LynneM** » May 20, 2005 6:17 am

Chris, thanks for the input. Sounds like I'm getting a little too late to be ordering these for this year. Do you ship these again in the fall?

John · Post by **John** » May 20, 2005 12:27 pm

I grow two, 'Sprite', which is an attractive white, and the dwarf Astilbe pumila, which has great purplish flowers. They both have nice foliage and flowers, but then get a bit ratty, probably due to a lack of keeping them moist enough. My shade is dry... I'd grow more of these if they looked decent all season. Same thing with the dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus?)-- astilbe-looking plant, lost it this winter though.

LynneM · Post by **LynneM** » May 21, 2005 7:01 am

John, I tried goatsbeard once, and it didn't make it thru it's first year.