'Perennial' problem

As a keen grower of perennials I am constantly aiming to get the maximum flowering time in the garden but equally constantly frustrated by the problems with with e.g. Lupins/Irises/Paeonies which all take up lots of space for such short flowering periods.
Have tried potting up replacement, later flowering plants but with little success, also get poor results from plants which are close to these larger clump forming types.
Any suggestions/hel would be much appreciated.

 

Hi there Barnaby

Yes, paeonies are particularly unrewarding because you can more or less guarantee that on the one or two days of the year when they might actually look good, we will have heavy rain and they will collapse in an untidy heap. Propping them up with sticks and string just makes things worse.

I find oriental poppies are good because although the flowering period is short, you can chop them hard back after they've bloomed to make space for other things and they won't suffer at all the following year, as they've already made all the growth they need to do (I found this out from one of Christopher Lloyd's books). I've planted a clump of crocosmias amongst mine which have already formed a nice patch of sword-like leaves and will give me lots of colour later on.

I like the hardy cranesbill 'Ann Folkard', which has magenta-purple flowers throughout the summer because it never sets seed. It drapes itself through flower beds and is a good stop-gap when other things are looking dowdy. Although it sends out long runners, it never layers itself so it is very well behaved. It has nice golden-toned foliage, too. Another cranesbill, 'Summer Skies', has double blue and cream flowers over a long period. The only thing I don't like about it is that the flowers don't fall off the plant after they have finished, so I end up picking off the dead blooms. I think most of the cranesbills make nice neat mounds of foliage which look good in the border even when they're not in flower.

 

Like Clare has said, Oriental Poppies are brilliant for underplanting later on - I also have underplanted Dicentra with Crocosmia. This means that as the first dies back, the Crocosmia will emerge.

If you cut Lupins and Delphiniums back after flowering they should give a second flush of flowers later in the year, but you can also fill gaps with annuals like Cosmos.

 

Thanks to you all for the help. I use Crocosmia quite widely as both 'fill in' and structure ( C.Lucifer ) but with Cranesbill I never quite know if or not they will sprawl around especially in the rain, ClaraLou's comments re Paeonies I absolutely concur with. I also try various grasses incl. Miscanthus varieties with some success but as I said the Lupins and Paeonies so far have me beaten (unfortunately my dear lady wife loves the Paeonies otherwise they would have to go..............

 

If you like cranesbills, give Ann Folkard a try. She drapes herself through other plants, rather than forming a symmetrical clump, but never becomes a nuisance or a mess, even in the rain.

I think verbena bonariensis is worth having, too. A nice tall 'see through' plant which doesn't normally need staking and blooms for a long time. It seeds itself around, but it's easy to weed out any plants you don't want.

 

Hi Barnaby.

Like you I have always been keen to have as much colour in the garden as possible. For me there are two approaches. 1) Individual plants that flower for a long period of time, and 2) a plant shift system.

Long flowering. The length of time that a plant is in flower varies considerably. Whilst I have a few short flowering ones for a bit of variety, I like to concentrate on long flowering plants. In the past I have kept a record, once a week, of what is in flower and what is not. One year I had these in full flower for the following number of weeks, and in part flower for even longer.
20 weeks - Salvia microphylla
19 weeks - Astrantia 'Buckland, Cuphea ignea
17 weeks - Circium rivulare, Dahlia 'Arabian Night', Geranium 'Patricia', Geranium 'Rosanne', Osteopermum
16 weeks - Campanula takesmana, Verbena bonariensis
15 weeks - Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail'
14 weeks - Alstromeria 'Ella', Cosmos, Geranium 'Anne Folkard', Helenium 'Moorheim Beauty', Salvia 'Mystic Spires'
The figures change a bit from one year to another, but you always get the same ones at the top, and the same ones at the bottom. There are many other plants that in other years have flowered for more than 14 weeks, such as Centranthus, other Astrantias, Nepeta fasenii, Verbena 'Homestead Purple' etc. If they only flower for a short time, they tend to get chucked out.

Many tender perennials, such as Geraniums, Fuchsias, Argyranthemums, Osteopermums, Dahlias, and a lot of different Salvias flower for a very long period of time - very often more than 14 weeks.

Shift Planting. The other approach I use is to grow biennials in pots and then plant them late in the autumn. Things like Wallflowers, Digitalis, Hesperis, Lychnis coronaria, and I include Lupins in that lot. They all flower early the next year, then I lift them and chuck them away and replace them with some late, long flowering, tender perennials such as Dahlias, many Salvias, Argyranthemums, Geraniums, Osteopermums, and some annuals like Cosmos, Cleome and Tithonia. Around November, I lift and keep the tender perennials and replace them with the next lot of biennials.

 

Usually I refrain from making 'what to plant' suggestions since I know nowt (which is why I learn so much - and make so many notes - from threads such as this): however, I do have one plant which I'd recommend and that's a Linum. Mine is in it's second year, is about 3" in circumference at the base but the stems are just over 30" tall, of course by rights, they should have been beaten down by our recent rain, but they just seem to bounce under the raindrops. It's feathery foliage and compact habit makes it great for inter-planting.

 

Thanks again for the contributions, especially the detail on longevity of flowering from Peter S. I shall certainly try some of those as well as Geranium Anna Folkard.
The previous owners of the house obviously loves Day Lilies/Paeonies and Hostas and had a garden full of Bluebells as well. It's a relatively small garden so not easy to use biennials unless I uproot numbers of my perennials.
My current favourites are Lythrum salicaria 'Robert' and Aster x frikartii Monch which is an absolute gem plus Helenium Moerheim Beauty and some Astrantias (Shaggy/Ruby Wedding/etc).
Much to think about now which is great - thanks again...