Selaginella 'Aurea' going brown

Selaginella 'Aurea' turning brown

I bought 5 beautiful plants that are the perfect match in colour to my Hakonechloa. But now 4 out of 5 of the plants have brown areas, one is almost 1/2 brown. I've contacted the nursery (Ground Effects) to ask what to do but have had no reply so far.
Does anybody know why these plants are going brown? They are supposed to be evergreen so early dying off doesn't seem likely.

 

Maybe too shaded or wet.

 

Re: Selaginella 'Aurea' turning brown

Is this the moss-like or moss....? I have seen it in nurseries but haven't tried it as yet. I suspect like other mosses I have transplanted, there is a transplant shock period but then it regrows... keep it moist and undisturbed.

 

Re: Selaginella 'Aurea' turning brown

Janet,
The plant does look like moss but is a yellow-green colour. I hope you're right. I'll keep it moist and hope for the best.

 

Ron,
The plant tag says part-shade or part-sun which it is. Another person who replied suggested that I keep it moist and hope that the "transplant shock time" will pass. So now I don't know what to do, keep it moist (which I've been doing) or not water it so much.

 

I presume that you have the plants outside?
While Selaginella kraussiana likes it coolish it does not do well in cold areas unless there is some degreee of protection with lows dipping only into the low 50sF.
These plants really enjoy high humidity with moderate temps. Here is a link that might
be helpful.
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week360.shtml

 

Thanks for the info and the thread to the plant info. It looks like it may be too much trouble. I may return it to the Urban Garden and wait until spring to get some Creeping Jenny (which is what I was going to get in the first place.

 

Selaginella "Aurea"

I posted my problems with this lovely yellowish green moss like ground cover in one of the UBC forums - but I can't remember which one it was. Anyway, one reply said to just leave it alone and see what happens. I have done this very thing and the plants are doing very well. Little pieces of the plant come off and seed themselves. so now I have 5 plants that I bought and a bunch of little self seeded plants that are growing closer and closer all the time (even in November).
I wanted to thank the person who gave me this great advice but I can't remember his/her name.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

Barbara,
To find your thead click on your name above and a drop down will appear and you can click on the Find All Posts link to find your prior threads.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

Good -- I have found this also with the yellowish [and very pretty for highlighting shady places] Sedum Makinoi 'Ogon' as well -- both will sit for a while, then start to spread, especially in the wet season. I am so glad -- I think I am the one who recommended it. I have since purchased Selaginella 'Aurea' and used it in a planter with a small golden-tinged Stoneham Gold cedar which goes with it tone-wise very nicely -- and I have planted it around various areas in my townhouse front patch as well. Groundcovers do like to "cover"...

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

janetdoyle,
Thanks so much for your information about this plant. I too have found it spreading an doing just fine. Does yours have little bits of the plant that break off and seed themselves? I have quite a few now. I planted this groundcover to go with my Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' because of the colour similarity. My Hakol (my name for it - whole name too long) has turned a lovely yellow and is about to be cut down for the winter. I plan to divide the Hakol in the Spring as it is so big and overwhelms that section of my garden.
I completely redid my garden (tiny 72 sq.ft) by dividing it into 2 sections with a 1/4 circular path between both sections. The Hakol and the Selaginella are in the smaller section. My plan is to combine dark plants (Heather, Astilbe, etc. that have dark green leaves). I'm planning on dividing the Hakol in 1/2 and then one of the 1/2s into 1/4.
I can't wait till spring to see how it all turns out.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

Your vision sounds rather like mine! I have seen this grass in other landscaped gardens around here, and I think the combination would be lovely. I may use this idea and get some of this Hakol myself, as it has an interesting texture from standing back at road-distance, or driving by, and would suit my place. It is often combined with heathers, here... let's keep in touch on this! My Selaginella 'Aurea' has not been in the ground long enough to start dividing -- but my Sedum makinoi 'Ogon' does.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

I just read somewhere that slugs love this Selaginella 'Aurea' so you may want to use a bait or slug-toxic food around it. They have gotten into another groundcover I have, I think, and I found a garden center-supplied pellet which is not toxic to animals which I have sprinkled, I think with some success... I have a few of the really huge slugs in my garden, plus the usual small ones.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

I have seen no evidence of slug "activity" with my Selag (for short). But I have seen definite slug (or Cutworms) in the larger section of the garden. I caught a Cutworm in the larger section and I think that it or a slug may be the culprit for the holes in my Ligularia. So I'm definitely going to put out some sort of slug bait before my Ligularia starts to grow in Spring. Right now it's just about finished. The big leaves are slowly growing black around the edges and I will need to cut it down soon for the winter.
Yes, I would like to keep in touch too.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

I think, but I am not sure, that cutworms per se are only root-devourers, but I may be wrong. I have seen hard-shelled snails in my garden, and even though I believe these eat leaves because I have seen them on leaves, these delighted me as I am originally from the East Coast and only had small slugs and of course the cutworms in the soil... I too have some holes in leaves of this and that but am not sure what they are from, I think it is a beetle-type thing which the "nematodes" one can add to the soil in the Fall eat, when the beetles are in their own worm phase... I am getting more philosophical about insects because we do share the planet...

Your references to other plants have really got me going, because I check them out via Google and always find them wonderful ideas for MY garden!

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

I don't know what made the holes in my Ligularia or completely destroyed by Ballerinia (a kind of Geranium apparently). I have had problems with slugs and Petunias but I could always see the tell-tale slime trail with them. I have not seen any slime trails around the plants that something has eaten; so I'm just guessing that it's Cutworms. I found a Cutworm destroyer that I may buy next spring. I've been told that if you had lawn grass in the same place where the garden is now Cutworms will be a problem. The entire garden area was grass with moss galore and very hard to grow which is why I replaced it with the garden.
I'm just about to cut down my Hakol for the year. It's really turning brown now. Boo, Hoo! I love that plant.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

What kind of aspect, geographically, does your garden have, Barbara? I mean -- which direction does the formerly mossy area face, North, South, East or West? My small front garden is on the northwest side of my townhouse, has poor soil being rocky and clay-ish with years of added good soil here and there [one still digs up clots of shiny grey clay], and it receives very little or no morning light owing to the townhouse shadow and a stand of tall evergreens to the East; the garden receives a few rays of morning sun in certain spots, and a lot of western sun during the afternoon from 1:30 pm or 2 pm on, so it has an odd combination of shade and dampness for more than half of the day, very conducive to moss, followed by a period of hot sun and can dry out at mid-summer in the afternoons. Potted plants and small bedding plants need water every day then. Mostly partial-shade enjoying plants grow well there, such as the groundcovers, rhododendrons, azaleas, heather does "quite" well and could do better, a couple of shrub-like blood-red peony plants I did not put in but which I haven't had the heart to remove do well, and various small conifers, plus several flowering ornamental shrubs such as fairly recently-planted (small-for-now) weigelia, spirea nipponica "Snowmound", and abelia and a few firm-leaved exotics like myrtle and osmanthus burkwoodii seem to like the area, roses would if the deer would leave them alone so I only have one. I have a Kanzan cherry standing guard in the middle of it all which has grown much too large and we are wondering what to do with it in future. I have planted groundcovers in and around the root areas of the tree along with actually cultivating the mosses and adding more of them, plus groundcovers in shady and sunny spots in front of pieris shrubbery to one side, and at the sunnier edges amongst some of the small conifers, a couple of thriving yellow potentilla, and various experimental ornamentals like the myrtle and osmanthus. The heather receives the afternoon sun but is not as thriving as I would like, or not all varieties of it anyway.

 

Re: Selaginella "Aurea"

My townhouse "garden" sounds very much like yours with the poor drainage, etc. but I face the East which would be great if we didn't have a rather large slatted (can't get the spell check to work) fence that makes the garden area shady in the morning. In the summer my garden area often needs extra water too (our atuomatic sprinklers only go off 3 times a week) if we have had a dry spell.Certain plants I've had great luck with like my Hakol. Ivy grows very easily. I have transpalnted some Varigated Ivy at the end of the garden because we have huge, ugly tree roots sticking up from the garden bed and the Ivy covers them up great. It will grown in thick and I can trim it along the fence. Should be very nice by the end of next Summer. I have other "old" plants that I've had for years like my Baloon flowers. I transplanted them again (it says that they don't like to be transplanted one extablished so we'll see). I only got one baloon flower off 3 plants last summer, so who knows. The Strata corp has trimmed the huge Birch tree (that has the ugly roots) quite a bit which opens up the garden area to the sun. This should be a very good change. I have had Astilbes (2 kinds) for years and some kind of bush that I don't know the name of. Virtually indestrubtable (sp?). I've had that bush is so many different shapes over the years and nothing phases it.
I have added all sorts of new plants after I got permission from my Strata to replace the lawn with a garden that i'm just learning about. FUN!!!

 

(merged threads)

 

I don't know what "merged threads" means.

 

I combined the September discussion with the November/December discussion so that all the information is in one place.

 

Daniel,
Right now my Selaginella 'Aurea' is buried under a foot of snow and of course I'm very concerned what I'm going to find when (and if) the bloody snow finally melts. I'm encouraged by the other moss (the bad stuff) I have in my porch planters - it has survived the big snow storms great. My little ferns have also survived very well (I didn't plant them they just turned up in my porch window boxes.
I was happy to feel the 'gardening bug' come alive this morning as I was doing the most simple task of cutting down all the dead plants that haven't survived our super cold spell.
I replanted my entire garden last Fall and can't wait for the gardening season to come again.

 

I am coming in here -- although I am a transplanted East Coaster as of only a few years ago, I have learned that the groundcovers are growing away happily under all that snow -- don't despair. See, your planters did fine! It's the temperature that's the killer, and I don't think it hurts the plants to have a few days here and there below -3 or -4... mostly our West Coast weather disasters have been just snow-falls, not temperature falls. I am looking forward to rescuing a few UNPLANTED plants which are shivering away in my garden on Vancouver Island [Saanich], as we are having a cold day...

 

Janet,
Good to hear from you. I don't know about Saanich but it bloo-- snowing here in Vancouver again!!! and I'm bloo-- SICK OF IT!!! since I can't get to any of my garden plants I bought a beautiful indoor plant to make me feel better.

 

We got a little extra too, here. I have just put up a large window box under a second-storey window, sort of "Craftsman"/"Japanese" style, if there are any Japanese style window-boxes [has large rustic under-brackets] and am going to look for some bright-foliaged plants and berry-bearing plants for it until I can place more moderate-weather plants in there!