Last few plants I miss

This is the last of my "plants I miss" posts, but it starts out with one of the first perennials I grew, 'Sweet Dreams' Coreopsis.

I grew this in 2004 for certain, but I tried it a few more years too -- not sure if 2004 was the first or not.

***

I loved (and still do) the red eyes on the white blooms. When in full flower, this was a stunner!

They say that you should cut back Coreopsis after it blooms and it will bloom again, but I remember deadheading each spent bloom individually, which kept the plant blooming all summer long.

That was back when my garden was smaller so I could dedicate way too much time to a single plant.

The problem was, this plant was not reliably cold-hardy for me. Some winters it would not come back at all, and others it came back as a spindly, weak shadow of its former self. I believe it was the heavy soil I have, even though I planted it in raised beds that should have been well-draining. There is an all-red version of this called 'Limerock Ruby' which I grew one year that was stunning, but that one is an annual here for sure.

Maybe I'll give 'Sweet Dreams' another try.


The next plant I found in the photo archives that I'm missing is this one:

I'm pretty sure this was Helianthus maximiliana, and it put on a fantastic late-season show when I had it.

There were two problems with it though. First, the woodchucks loved it. (I don't know if deer do, as deer were less frequent in my yard back then.) Secondly, I planted it in an area that really gets churned up by moles, and it flopped over quite a bit.

Now that I think about it, I'm really surprised this isn't in my garden still, as it would reseed every year. I'm willing to give this one another try. I wonder if I saved any seeds?


Finally, sweet potato vines. I'm missing not the plants themselves, but the way I used them. I grow them every year, but I haven't put them into these raised beds recently:

I really need to again, as they look fantastic cascading over the walls of the box! I do remember having problems with deer and woodchucks with these though: they love, love, love eating the leaves.

I think planting one closest to the stream is fine, as deer can't get there. The woodchuck is better over rough terrain so could reach it, but he'd have to be pretty desperate to venture this close to my house (especially when he seems to be happy figuring out ways to get into my neighbor's veggie garden).

So I'm going to plant one of these here again this year for sure.

That ends my posts about plants I miss. Although I sometimes cringe looking back at the garden of five or more years ago, I do love rediscovering plants that I once loved!

.