Long flowering perennials

I find they like the hot weather, just can't take damp in my gardens. As a result they've been fantastic this year. They never seem to seed about though :rolleyes:

Wahaj, in my experience snapdragons always go down with rust in their second year, and in order to prevent the disease taking hold I pull them up and burn them every winter. Do you have this problem? If not what's the secret?

 

My snapdragons are still blooming but I plant afresh each year. They like really sharp drainage and do best on crumbling stone walls

 

If mine come back after my attack, I'll offer my seeds ... in the nicest possible way!

 

Lawks LoL! :eek: :D


HB I let them self seed and this does reduce the problem from year to year, unfortunately it also means they don't get flowering till midsummer earliest. I don't have a greenhouse sadly, so propagation is a seriously weak link for me :rolleyes: but I love perennation in whatever guise the plants care to allow so self seeders are a major plus in the gardens in my eyes!

PS thanks for the tip about the drainage; guess that explains their love of rooftops in S.London (no doubt among other places)

 

jazid, what does "lawks" mean?????

 

It's either an old-fashioned exclamation signifying being startled, or some acronym - I'm sure I could work out something for you, LoL! :D

 

'Lawks love a duk'

sounds a lot like a 'My Fair Lady' expression. For some obscure reason it amuses me - hence the shortening.

For Gawd's sake Dendy don't try, I'm frightened enough by the meanings of the martial arts acronyms you have already expanded!

BTW CUl8r

 

That IS the best I can do :D

 

Jazid - what about a cold frame.

In a thread on propagation, TJ said 'In my opinion a coldframe is more important than a greenhouse'. That set me thinking as I don't have a greenhouse. Within the last month I have made a couple of coldframes. The last one made yesterday was just three sides of binbags filled with garden material around a wall and covered with two large sheets of glass from the council tip. Its not beautiful, but it holds a lot of plants. And I won't be sitting in the garden over winter looking at it. The other was a bit more professional - made of wood, but had a cost and took time to make.

 

I guess I should have clarified that I don't really want to propagate at home as I garden all day long, also I am not frequently enough in my clients gardens to water seedlings reliably enough when there so it is a structural as well as motivational problem - but I do regret it somewhat!

As it happens my house doesn't have a lot of garden space either, but what is there is frequently populated with children and dogs so footballs/bouncing spaniel plus friends/ruthless tidying up by better half, etc, all conspire against the sucess of a bin-bag 'n' glass cold frame chez Jazid. I used to have a cold frame in one of my larger gardens out of town. Actually I also had a greenhouse but that blew away one winter. I grew veggies in there, and it was fun. The whole veg patch has since become a formal garden.

 

jazi: i haven't ever tried snapdragons for the second year. from what i understand only some varieties are perennial.....but most are half hardy annuals.

 

Hi Wahaj,

here is my opinion for what its worth:

Half Hardy annual = perennialish if it isn't killed by the cold where you are. Not a very useful or accurate definition and should be purged from gardeners vocab, to be replaced by half hardy (add as necessary: short lived, woody, etc) perennial, or monocarpic (meaning it grows then flowers once then dies - often annual or biennial but not always).

'Annual' has a function still as it describes a short seasonal life pattern. 'Biennial' whilst useful locally does not, and becomes 'Monocarpic' with additional info if required.

 

Jazid. I do agree with you about the irritating habit of describing plants as annual, when what they mean is tender.

But the more I learn about plants the greyer it all becomes. True annuals are generally annual (I think!), but the distinction between biennial and perennial is very grey. Many biennials can be short lived perennials and many plants described as perennial are also only only short lived. Christopher Lloyd wrote that only later in life did he realise that biennial stocks become much more perennial if you cut them back very soon after flowering. If plants die after setting seed - aren't they somewhat monocarpic.

I am pretty sure I have had snapdragons live for more than two years. But it is difficult to tell unless you tag an individual plant.

 

I'd say that if plants die after first setting seed then that's the definition of monocarpic behaviour, though others would add that the plant would have to survive its dormant season as a seed in order to qualify. With regard to Mr Lloyd it seems to me that by preventing the plant fron setting seed one is not stopping it from being a monocarp, just stopping it from behaving in a monocarpic fashion, somewhat indefinitely it would appear...

I think we are singing the same tune here, 'annual' as a word has a use - some plants are obligate annuals (your true annuals I think), others find their strategy determined by the environment, 'biennial' sort of describes some plants life patterns (but definitely does not in other climes), and 'perennial' is self evident!

I FURTHER agree with you ( :D ) that the more one pokes ones nose into this stuff the more indistinct these artificially constructed boundaries become.

I now think I'd better shut up or I'll be accused of being a pompous git (again :rolleyes: )..

 

Not pompous Jazid but fascinating!