Long flowering perennials

I have just been looking through my records to find that some plants flower for much longer than others. My longest this year are :-

Salvia microphylla 20 weeks in full flower (24 weeks in full and partial flower)
Argyranthemum pink 20(23)
Astrantia Buckland 19(20)
Cuphea ignea 19(19) - now indoors and still in flower
Cirsium rivulare 17(26)
Geranium Patricia 17(24
Geranium Rozanne 17(23)
Osteopermum 17(19)
Verbena bonariensis 16(17)

any other contenders out there?
If anyone is interested I have the whole list on a spreadsheet.

 

Hi Wiseoldowl. I will e-mail you a copy of the spreadsheet. I just have to clean it up a bit. Junk tends to accumulate.

The answer to your question is that in general yes the same plants are at the top of the list each year. In a way this is reassuring, it confirms that the plants are reliably good. I have the previous years figures on the spreadsheet, and it is noticeable how the very hot dry spell early on hit some plants that would have flowered a lot longer in a cooler wetter year.

I also try new plants each year, and this year I have been really pleased with Salvia microphylla, Salvia patens, Salvia coccinea and Cuphea ignea. All new to me and flowering for 10 weeks or more, and all really nice plants. In a small garden, if you want new plants you have to let some others go. The poor performers get a verbal warning and if they don't buck up they are given their mulching orders. :D

 

Hi PeterS, can I beg a copy too please? I have never been organized enough to do the same, but it is an excellent idea- it might just get me in the habit!

 

Love it Peter! Are you sure you don't do the wise-cracks for those gardening sundries - gardening angel, weeder's digest, etc, etc?? :D

Like Jazid - I'm not organised enough to have done it, but this might well jolt me into doing it... so can you count me in too, please?

 

WOW!! :eek: Spreadsheets!! :eek: I don't even know what seeds I've planted I have soooo much to learn :rolleyes:
Great info though PeterS. I've added those Salvias to my wish list (or should I say, wish file!) :D

 

Yes, PeterS. You have inspired me to draw up a spreadsheet of my plants and I only hope I've got the self discipline to monitor their flowering throughout the year. I have started it for December 2006 and then month by month for next year. Startled to find that I have listed 280 different species of plants!

 

Thanks for your interest Jazid, Dendrobium, Windy Miller and Hornbeam. If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet just e-mail me, my e-mail comes direct, and I will send a reply with a copy of the spreadsheet.

Thats an awful lot of plants Hornbeam. If you then add the plants that you have grown in the past as well, it adds up to a lot of informaton, that you don't want to lose. Whilst my spreadsheet holds info on current plants (I try to identify sun and soil preferances etc as well) it also has info on many past plants. But it starts to make it a bit cumbersome. I haven't found a good way of keeping all that back data yet.

I would really like a plant database that I can completely control. ie get rid of all the fields and entries that don't interest me and add extra entries and fields that do. But nobody would let you have that amount of control over their program. Thats one reason why I use a spreadsheet - you are in complete control - if you can remember to enter the data!

 

Thanks very much Peter. I've sent you an e-mail.

 

Me too!

 

Hi PeterS, Microsoft Works Database allows you to create and name all your own fields - I am sure there must be similar programs.
Try SourceForge.net

I have downloaded a number of very good programs from them, including an acrobat creator, diary/planner, and a couple of games, and have had no problems at all.

 

I use an Excel spreadsheet which gives me complete control of field names etc. I couldn't go back to cover plants that I used to grow, but will hopefully log those that die on me from now on.

It's ok at present with just a dozen or so plants in flower, but the whole thing could give me brain strain come June!

 

even though neither are perrenials, the 2 flowers that worked really hard for me this year were snap dragons and petunias.

i had the short, bushey variety of snap dragons....and they flowered from may....and some are still flowering. so what...about 30 weeks?

and this year i had the very strongly scented blue petunias. a very lovely spicey smell that carried a long distance. especially strong in the evenings. it stopped flowering end of october. and even though they're annuals....they have self seeded everywhere! and the seedlings start flowering after the 4 leaf stage...which is in a couple of weeks normally lol.

 

That Petunia sounds wonderful, wahaj, but I never have much luck with them, even here!

However, snap dragons bloom almost non-stop with me and only recently when I dug up a corner of the garden where I want to put some new things, I dug up the roots of ones I did from seeds three years ago! They were the deep red velvet looking ones but the self-seeded ones from it came out deep orange as well as the red. I do hope they come back after my re-arranging!

 

Blackthorn - that looks a really good site - needs a long look. The silly thing is that I have and use Delphi 7, which is a very powerful programing language. My version came with a magazine and cost nothing. Unfortunately the version that includes a database costs several hundreds of pounds. The reason is that programmers use this version to develop and sell commercial programs, and as a consequence are expected to be rakeing it in.

Wahaj, technically both are perennial. Snapdragons quite often survive the winter with me. I do have them both in my garden but there a few plants, that I regard as tempory or not really planned, that never make it to my list. With all that hot dry weather earlier on - I don't think it was the best year for Petunias. But you are right they are always good value.