long lasting flowers

[size=large]which are those long lasting flowers that are cheering you up for weeks and weeks in your garden?[/size]

[size=large]For me it must be the ORANGE CALIFORNAN POPPY and actually, although not n. 1 choice in terms of appearance, are the CROCUS. They happen to be in my garden by chance but I was amazed to see from last year how long they have lasted.[/size]

 

Miraflores. I have for some time been interested in flowers that bloom for a long time. My view is that plants that flower for twice as long give you twice as much colour in the garden. By chance I have been planning to redo some of my beds and as part of the exercise I went through a very good illustrated encyclopedia of perennials that identifies long flowering plants. I extracted this list for myself to work on, but it seems appropriate to share it. In most cases I have just named a genus, within which some individuals are better than others. In a few cases like hardy Geranium, where some are very long flowering and others are very short, I have pulled out some individual plants that were mentioned. There were some others on my list, but I grouped them as not wanted - they were mostly obscure and presumably not so gardenworthy.

In my garden the longest flowering plants vary a bit from year to year, but include Centranthus rubra, several Astrantias, Geranium 'Patricia', Persicaria amplexicalis, Salvia microphylla, Verbena bonariensis and of course many of the very best are the tender perennials such as Geraniums (ie Pelargoniums), Osteopermum, Argyranthemum and several Salvias - though they usually start late.

Hardy

Acanthus
Achillea
Alcea
Allium scenecens
Anchusa - treat as biennial
Anenome japonica
Anthemis
Antirrhinum
Aster fricartii
Astilbe
Astrantia
Bellis perennis
Calamintha nepeta
Campanula burghaltii
Campanula lactiflora
Catanache
Centranthus
Cerastium tomentosum
Chicorium
Cirsium rivulare
Coreopsis
Crepis incana
Eremurus ?
Erigeron
Erodium
Erysimum Bowles Mauve
Gaillardia
Gaura
Geranium Anne Folkard
Geranium maculatum
Geranium x oxonium
Geranium 'Patricia'
Geranium pratense
Geranium psilostemon
Geranium Bill Wallis
Geranium Mavis Simpson
Geranium Russel Pritchard
Geum
Gypsophilia
Helenium Crimson Beauty
Helenium Moerheim Beauty
Helenium Sahin's Early Flowerer
Helianthemum
Helianthus Lemon Queen
Hemerocallis
Heuchera
Iris japonica
Lavatera
Leucanthemum
Linarea purpurea
Linum
Lobelia vedrariensis
Lychnis coronaria
Lychnis flos-jovis
Lysimachia punctata
Lythrum
Malva
Matthiola
Mecanopsis cambrica
Monarda
Nepeta
Oenothera
Origanum
Penstomen
Persicaria amplexicalis
Persicaria bistorta
Phlox
Potentilla
Pulmanaria rubra
Ratibidia
Rudbeckia
Salvia nemorosa
Salvia sclarea - biennial
Sphaeralcea
Stachys byzantina
Stachys macrantha
Teucrium xlucidrys
Tradescantia
Tropaeolum
Verbascum
Verbena bonariensis
Veronica spicata
Veronicastrum
Viola

Not hardy

Anisodentea carpensis
Arctotis
Argyranthemum
Canna
Cosmos astrosanguinea
Cuphea
Dahlia
Diascia
Eucomis
Felicia
Fuschia
Gazania
Geranium maderense
Gerbera
Mirabilis jalapa
Nemesia
Osteopermum
Pelargonium
Rehmania
Salvia coccinea
Salvia greggii
Salvia involucrata
Salvia leucantha
Salvia microphylla
Salvia patens
Tulbaghia
Verbena Homestead Purple

 

Thats a heck of a list Peter! Are you growing all of those this year or just picking some of them to try?

Geranium Patricia is on my hit list after seeing it in a photo of your front garden. I've only grown a handfull of the plants mentioned above such as Verbascums, Rudbeckia & Verbena, gowing achilea this year for the first time.

Steve...

 

Steve - I grow a number of them but certainly not all.

The list is just an extract from an encyclopedia of plants, as I am trying to be scientific about this :D. I am going to re-do one or more of my beds in time, and the above list is the short list of all the plants who have applied for a post. If they aren't long flowering they are not qualified and don't get short listed. That's not quite true I do have some other plants, but they have to have a very good reason for being there.

Having got a short list. I will interview each candidate in turn, and many will be turned away. For instance Acanthus is nice but too invasive - its out. Achillea is nice, but tends not to like my wet clay in winter - its borderline, but probably in. Alcea get rust badly, and is currently on probation etc. However Aster fricatii 'Monch', Astilbe (especially chinensis) and Astrantia are all very long flowering and reliable and certainly in.

There is still plenty of work to do.

 

I like your style Peter, interviuewing candidates and putting the slackers on probation!!

Steve...

 

[size=large]Very German approach...not rushed but efficient![/size]

[size=large]Myself at the moment I just throw the seeds and, if they grow, cool! [/size]

[size=large]I will not always be like that, fellow gardeners, promise!

[/size]

 

Now thats what I call a good answer

Spruce

 

This is a very useful post .As PeterS said , I also expect every plant in my garden to earn its place. If it is not performning it gets its redundancy notice !
This year I am hoping to plant more perennials - and long flowering ones ,as this thread states. I have copied Peters list into my gardening Excel sheet for future reference - thanks Pete But so I dont spend all year chosing some plants from the list , could you possibly list your "top ten" long flowering perennials ? I can then base my shopping list on this.

TIA

 

Harry, so pleased that this list might be of help. For several years I recorded the number of weeks that plants were in flower. Each Monday I would record if it was in bud, part flower (ie just a bit) or full flower. I then copied this all to a spreadsheet which I could sort in various ways.

I am attaching an extract from one of those sheets below. I do apologise for the formatting (or lack of it). The list (based on the last number) is from 2007 and shows in descending order the plant and the number of weeks that it was in full flower. Plants were often in part flower for a few more weeks. The last figure is for 2007, and the previouse figures for 2006, 2005 and 2004. Some plants I didn't grow in all of those years. Note that the figures vary - Centranthus varies from 27 to 11 - perhaps because my standards differed or perhaps because of the weather. There are a lot more plants on the spreadsheet, but its quite clear that some are always near the top and others always near the bottom. You also have the dubious benefit of some comments I made. You will note that there are a lot of tender perennials in the list, which supports my comment earlier that tender perennials are amongst the longest flowerers.

You, or anyone else, are very welcome to a copy of the complete spreadsheet, but I must warn its big, messy and complicated - I have removed most parts to show it here.

Cuphea ignea 19 26 from seed - will grow into sizeable palnt
Astrantia buckland 18 20 19 24 white - bigger flowers than others
Bacopa 23
Geranium ann folkhard 22 18 14 23 weaves through other plants.
Argyranthemum machio (pink) 15 20 22 wonderful in a pot - not hardy
Astrantia hadspen blood 22 16 9 20 split earlier in year - not yet settled
Salvia xfarinacea mystic spires 14 20 brilliant - grown from a plug. 3 in a pot
Verbena bonariensis purple top 17 18 16 19 always good - butterflies love it
Pelargonium unique bolero 18
Campanula porscharskyana 12 19 8 17 not nearly as good as last year - too dry early?
Geranium russell pritchard 17
Persicaria amplexicaula firetail 16 15 17 loves it in wet shade
Salvia leucantha white 16
Salvia patens dark blue 9 16 from seed into quite a bush - fairley low key
Verbena homestead purple 16
Verbena rigida purple 19 14 12 16 good deep colour - could be hardy
Geranium patricia 24 17 15 fabulous - covered in flower at times
Pelagonium unique patens 12 16 13 15 quite different from zonals
Salvia microphylla var wislizenii 20 15 shruby - just keeps going
Dahlia arabian night 15 17 14 lovely dark colour
Diascia little dancer 14
Salvia involucra 14
Salvia leucantha purple 14
Geranium joy 13
Linaria purpurea 7 8 5 13 this is a follower not a leader
Lobelia erinus 13
Salvia hormium dark blue 13
Viola martin dark blue 13
Aster fricatii wunder von staffa 16 15 13 12 longest flowering of any Aster
Cuphea purpurea 12
Verbena aztec wild rose 12
Astrantia roma 14 15 9 11 split earlier in year - not yet settled
Centranthus ruber 27 17 13 11 grows in a dry area where nothing else will
Cirsium rivulare 21 28 17 11 bit thin but just keeps going
Dahlia jura 16 10 11 nice - but haven't enough room for more Dahlias
Dahlia purple 11
Salvia bletharophylla painted lady 5 11 new plant - unproven
Salvia sclarea 0 11 from seed - this is big and smelly - great hopes for next year
Viola vila purple pink 11
Achillea salmon beauty 10 7 9 10 insipid - doesn't do well
Geranium rozanne 23 17 10 being blue - not quite the inpact of Patricia
Helenium moorheim beauty 18 16 14 10 really solid plant - great chunk of colour
Salvia ambigens blue enigma 8 10 excellent - better than Black and Blue
Salvia splendens purple 10 10 quite a restrained colour for S. splendens
Tradescantia x andesoniana perrines pink 10

 

PeterS , cheers this list it is exactly what I needed to select perennials for actual flowering weeks . Thanks for the offer, but I don't need the full Excel sheet otherwise I will never come to a decision ! Tomorrow afternoon , I am going to get a nice cold beer and spend a pleasant hour or two selecting my short list from yours.

 

I hope it works out Harry :thumb:

Just a small point. I mentioned Aster fricatii, which I would always include in a garden. I had two cultivars 'Wunder von Staffa' and 'Monch' both from Bob Brown, who is a very knowledgeable and respected plantsman. I found no difference between them. I mention 'Wunder von Staffa' in the list above - but I doubt that you will find that anywhere. Go for 'Monch' which should be available and I think tends to be used to describe them both.

 

Brilliant list - will most definitely be studying that!!

I have a FRINGED BLEEDING HEART (DICENTRA EXIMIA) and it has had a bit of a hard life, as the first year I planted it in what I thought was an empty flower bed, only for it to be lost inside huge towering perennials. Then I nearly threw it away when I re-planned the garden last year and found it on the rubbish heap sprouting.

I rescued it and gave it a dedicated spot in my new bed, and it flowered all spring and all summer!!!

I would recommend it to anyone - I will be buying some more this year as they more than earn their keep!!!!

 

Peter, this is a fantastically useful post with your incredibly detailed listing. I am in the process of restocking various beds with perennials and stumbled across this post. Any chance of a copy of the spreadsheet to which you refer?
I have made a start over the last 2-3 years with some Rudbeckias, Penstemon, Erysimum and Campanula but your list is wondeful, thanks.

 

Here is a quick list from my access database ... this is info as taken off the internet, so it needs to be double checked .... these are a few that flower for 4 months a year or longer ...

I have only included one of each species, so there will be others with different colours ... the end columns (months) are the months that they bloom, so it will help you with planning colour during the year

it's a lot neater on my database, but I cannot coppy the lines that seperate the columns and rows


Abutilon megapotamicumcrawlerred and yellow... june july aug sept oct

Alstroemeria Garden Hybrids Mixed - Peruvian Lilyperennialwhite with pink purple yellow ... june july aug sept

Anemone coronaria Lord Lieutenantbulbspurple.... feb march april may

Anthemis tinctoria E.C. Buxton (Golden Marguerite)perennialyellow .... june july aug sept

Antirrhinum Madame Butterfly F1
pink yellow white mixed ....june july aug sept oct

Astrantia Moulin Rouge
red with purple ... may june july aug

Bacopa Copa Doubles Mixed
purple and white ... june july aug sept oct

Begonia Apple Blossomtubers pots basketspink orange peach ... july aug sept oct

Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) - Pinkcontainers potspink ... july aug sept oct

Busy Lizzie 'Blue Sky'™annual bedding containers potspurple ... june july aug sept oct

Cannas - Dwarf - Luciferbeddingred yellow ... july aug sept oct

Cape Fuchsia Funfare Coralperennial bedding containers potspink ... june july aug sept oct

Carnation Can Canbedding containers potsred ... june july aug sept oct

Cleome F1 Odysee Mixedbedding containersmixed purple pink white ... may june july aug sept

Coneflower Coconut Lime / Echinacea Coconut Limeperennial borderswhite with light green ... june july aug sept

Coral Drops (Bessera elegans)bulbs borders containersorange with cream ... july aug sept oct

Coreopsis Limboperennial borderswhite ... june july aug sept oct

Cosmos Chocamocha (Dwarf)Borders, Containers, Patiosred ... july aug sept oct

Dahlia - Dinner Plate Giant - Babylon Bronzetubers beddingorange ... july aug sept oct

Daylily Blueberry Sundaebeddingwhite with maroon ... june july aug sept

Delphinium Pacific Giantsperennial bordersyesmixed pink lilac purple blue ... june july aug sept oct

Dianthus Can Can / Carnation Can Canborders containersred ... june july aug sept oct

Eremurus - Yellow Foxtail Lilybordersyellow ... june july aug sept

Eryngium alpinum - Sea Hollyborderspurple with black ... july aug sept oct

Erysimum Apricot TwistBorders, Containersmixed yellow and peach ... feb march april may june


Fuchsia Army NurseBedding, Containers, Tubsred with purple ... may june july aug sept

Gaura RosyJaneperennial borders containerswhite with red ... july aug sept oct

Gazania Tiger MixBorders, Containers annualyellow with white and maroon ... june july aug sept

Geranium [Hardy] Birch's Doublebordersdark pink ... may june july aug sept

Helenium Chelseybordersdark orange with black ... july aug sept oct

Hellebores - Exclusive Washfield Doubles Mixedbordersmixed purple white pink ... jan feb march april

Hibiscus NEWBiscus Pinkperennial borderspink with dark pink ... june july aug sept oct


Hydrangea Romanceborders containersyespink ... june july aug sept oct

Iris - Bearded Iris Wintry Skybordersyesblue with white ... may june and aug sept oct

Sweet Pea Antique Bouquetborders creepersyespurple white orange yellow mixed ... june july aug sept

Laurentia Avant-Garde™ F1 Mixedborders containers annualyespurple and white mixed .. july aug sept oct

Lavender Hidcotebordersyespurple ... may june july aug

Lily Scarlet Delightborders containersyesred with green ... may june july aug

Mandevilla Super Trouperborders creeperyespink ... june july aug sept oct

Astrantia Ruby Weddingbordersyesred ... june july aug sept

Penstemon Amelia Jaynebordersyesred with white ... june july aug sept oct nov

Phlox - Giant Hardy - Baby Facebordersyespink with dark pink ... june july aug sept

Prairie Mallow Brilliant / Sidalceabordersyesred ... june july aug sept oct

Primrose Fruelo Mixedbordersyesmixed blue yellow white pink ... jan feb march april may

Rudbeckia Cherry Brandybordersyesred with black ... july aug sept oct

Sarcococca confusa - christmas boxbordersyeswhite ... dec jan feb march

Scabiosa Burgundy Bonnetsbordersyespink with black ... june july aug sept

Prairie Mallow Brilliantbordersyesred ... june july aug sept oct

Sweet William Messengerbordersyesmixed purple white pink ... april may june july aug sept

Thunbergia Mixedbordersyesmixed orange or yellow with black centre ... june july aug sept

Tropaeolum speciosum - The Flame Flowerborders trellis fence creeperyesdark red ... june july aug sept oct

Verbena Pink Parfaitbordersyesdark pink with light pink ... june july aug sept oct

Kniphofia hirsuta Traffic Lightshardy perennialyesred pokers ... june july aug sept

 

justracing - no problem - I have sent you a PM.

Thanks for your list Dim. I still think this is a key, but much under estimated aspect of gardening. I note your list mentions Sidalcea at 5 months. Its a beautiful plant, but with me I can never get more than about 2 weeks.

Whilst they weren't on my list (being more recent) my record was with Salvia splendens (the species - not the dumpy hybrids) and Salvia coccinea. I have had both of these in continuous flower for 12 months. As they are both tender part of this period was inside the house.