Changing garden fashions

Hi all, looking back over some years (as one does at my age) fashions, for want of a better word, have changed considerably.
Some plant varieties seem to have vanished altogether from gardens, others reduced considerably.
How about the following:-

LOST?
London Pride (Saxifraga X Urbicum)
Mignonette (Reseda)
Candytuft. (Iberis)
Heliotrope

Vanishing gradually?
Nasturtiums
Escholtzia
Chrysanthemums (still going strong in florists)

Quite a few others seem to be less common than they used to be, what do you find difficult to locate?

 

Hi Mike,I had some London pride in the bungalow where I used to live,but can't remember whether we left it there when we moved or bought some with us.It was a picture every year when in flower.

If Candytuft is white then I think we have some here,does it have white flowers?

I have some seed I think of Escholtzia,is that what they call Californian poppy?I grew some Iceland Poppies the other year ,though they turned out to be annuals never to be seen again,though I wish the nurseries would point that out when they are selling them...

 

Hi Kandy, Candytuft can be white or shades of pink from memory, maybe pale purple as well, so long since I saw any.

 

Two of the ones you questioned about perhaps being lost are still going strong over here Mike. London Pride and Heliotrope can be bought every year and are favourites. We have a lot of pink London Pride, just now past it's best. Used to have some in red (looked super!) but it has disappeared.

We also have the Candytuft, seeds brought over from my Auntie and Uncle's garden in England years ago. In three or four colours, they seem to change from year to year, but always a lovely show. Sometimes lots of dark purple, other times a lighter purple, pale purple, pale pink, a stronger pink and white.

Reseda is a very old fashioned plant, think it is way out here too now, or possibly only found in old cottage gardens.

Nastrutiums, a favourite of mine, and they must be in here as you can buy the seeds, in regular and minis, every year. I have minis this year.

 

Good subject Mike, it's got me thinking, all I have out of the flowers you mention are Nasturtiums, I grow them from seed straight into a large pot as they are so easy to grow.

The ones that springs to my mind are snapdragons?! My Nan grew loads of them and did that funny thing with the heads!!!I do like them but don't grow them nor do I see many growing locally.

 

I know pelargoniums are still grown, but I can remember when they were nearly always red, some times pink and if you had a white one you were a specialist. :D
French marigolds everywhere, with asters for late summer.

 

pete is pelargoniums the correct name for snapdragons?

 

@ Stingo, snap dragons are antirhinums, I think they fell from favour to some extent because they are/were so prone to rust.
Pelargoniums are usually incorrectly called geraniums

Pelargonium here

Kandyfloss posted some good Geranium pics in her thread on June 4th, (page 8 ) the first 3 purple flower pics.

 

pelargoniums are more like geraniums
for baskets and tubs.
snapdragons are from the antirrhinum family
nice in cottage gardens,hope that helps a bit

 

sorry we all answered at the same time

 

I think I am very lucky with pelargoniums, most years they overwinter outdoors with no other protection than being close to the house. This winter just gone the thermometer outside the back window did not go below -0.1C.
We are probably about a mile and a half from the sea which must help keep temperatures from extremes.
Woodlandfairyrouble with Delphiniums for some reason, they get a strong second flush of bloom late September/October from which they don't seem to recover.
Fropm what I recall, candytuft self sets almost too much, I had a big problem getting rid of rampant allyssum here, so have not taken a chance with any of the similarly invasive types, probably not much room for anything else now either.

 

I have all the above in my garden except reseda - When I was a young girl in london everyone had the same pattern in hteir borders of white allysum blue lobelia right along the edges with red salvias behind; for the queens coronation.

In my district it sort of stuck like that till the sixties.
Golden rod is a plant I dont see much and it was very popular then it has a semicircular yellow blossom also antirrhinum dont get seen much.

 

Golden rod seems to be out of fashion over here too lapod and I wonder if it might be because a lot of people are allergic to it. We still have some although we had to get rid of most of it several years ago as it was taking over a very large area.

 

I just Googled for Mignonette, and Fothergills list the seeds at �£1.05 for 500 seeds, don't think I would need that many in my postage stamp plot.
Also Googled "London Pride" and got loads of references to breweries, races, and other things but no mention of a floral one in the first half dozen pages, no results at all under Saxifraga x Urbicum.