Sweet William Help Please

Last autumn I planted 12 sweet william and although all are growing well only 3 have flowered . Anyone know why ? I live in Essex and the bed is west facing . Would be grateful for any advise .

 

I have the same problem! Maybe it was the winter?

 

Hi Doug and welcome to the forum. I am growing them for the first time myself, but I really don't know the answer.

I understand they are biennials - ie will die after flowering. I grow a few tender biennials myself, and we have had some discussion elsewhere about them. Things like Echiums and Geranium maderense are both biennials in Madeira where they come from. But when they grow in this country instead of two years they may take three or even four years to flower - and then they die. The reason being that they will only flower when they are big enough and mature enough. It could be that if yours were very small last autumn they aren't big enough yet to flower, but will do so next year. Or perhaps they were held back by the dry period we had earlier in the year.

 

I have been growing quite a few for many years, and I've had the same problem.

The bed planted in 2010 with around 80 sweet williams last year has only had about a dozen flowers on the plants.

Of those planted a year before (approx. same amount) in 2009, about 50% died over winter and they've only had a few blooms.

Another two beds planted in 2008, which should have had their 3rd and final year of flowering this year, were in such a state that I rotavated through them in the spring.

But I got an absolute mass of new plants coming on (because I saved a load of seeds last year).

 

Scrungee - how biennial are they? You talk of "had their 3rd and final year of flowering".

I grow Hesperis, which seems to be reliably biennial. It always flowers in the second year. Then I pull it out, so I don't know if some will go on a bit later. But Lychnis coronaria, which always flowers in the second year for me, will sometimes go on for another year or so.

 

They are perennials, but deteriorate + get weeds amongst the thickly planted beds I plant, so are replaced every few years. I plant them out late summer in year 1 for 1st flowering in year 2, get a 2nd flowering in year 3, and as soon as the 3rd lot of flowers finish in year 4 I rotavate through them as they're worn out and I sow/plant some new ones every year.

 

Thanks Scrungee - thats very useful to know. So three years of flowering, which is pretty good.

 

If I can jump in on this biennial thread . I planted some Campanula Pyramidalis last year , they are now 5ft tall and about to flower - they are looking very impressive . Now they are described on various sites as biennial and/or perennial ( ref T and M who are never wrong :WINK1: ) . Will they die after this year, or can I expect a few years from these ?

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Harry - I don't know - never grown C. pyramidalis. Wilkipedia says short lived perennial. However in general, I find biennial (rather like hardy) is a rather grey area. Many so called biennials can sometimes be short lived perennials. And I think it also gets muddled up with monocarpic (ie dying after flowering - or should that be after setting seed ?).

Christopher Lloyd wrote that it was only halfway through his career that he realised that biennials could be made much more perennial if you prevent them going to seed. So are some biennials nothing more than monocarpic plants? And do monocarpic plants die after flowering or after seeding? And what is really the meaning of life.

I was going to ask you Scrungee - do you deadhead Sweet William?

 

Well sort of, as I grow them for cut flowers, and generally every single flower gets removed, but if I want to save some seeds towards the end of the flowering season when I'm proabably getting a bit fed up with them I'll let one flower of each colour go to seed.

I don't think I made it clear above that I only grow them for cutting, so I don't mind the beds lasting a few years until the plants are worn out, but if I was to be growing for bedding display I'd change them every year.

 

Scrungee. It could be that your act of cutting/dead heading is what makes them last for as many years as they do.

 

We have some Sweet William here at home that are in their second flowering year, 3rd year planted. We did not cut them last year and they did run to seed. There are half as many as last year now, and I've forgotten to sow them again this year...

Steve...

 

I've made sure I've sown enough to replace everything this year. Twenty five 24x cell trays, each cell with 3 - 4 plants in, so over 2,000 plants. They will be planted close so as to smother out weeds for the few years they'll be in the ground:



Looks like I might get a second bunch from this bed I planted last year consisting of 80 cells with 3 -4 plants in each cell, so only two bunches of flower from approx. 280 plants!



The new plants are 50:50 single bloomed/doubled bloomed sweet williams, as the double always come later and that extends the flowering period.

 

Scrungee - thats amazing. Can I ask - is it that you like them - and do you have a lot of rooms in your house that you put cut flowers in?