The longest blooming perennial in my garden is hands down the Fernleaf Bleeding Heart - Dicentra x 'Luxuriant'. It started blooming in mid-May and it will go until mid-October, which is when we usually get a hard killing frost.
What is the longest bloomer in your garden?
This message was edited Oct 10, 2005 10:40 AM
Longest blooming perennial?
Marsh Mallow - blooms from early June to well into fall.
Dicentra? Seriously!
I thought there were done by the time the tulips were gone!
I had no idea they keep going. Do you have to cut them back?
Is that unique to the fernleaf ones?
I dont know yet what my longest blooming is- since this is my first "real" year- but I think it is my Salvia's- East Friesland, Blue Hill and Lubeca.
It's fernleaf bleeding heart in my garden too!
This message was edited Aug 27, 2005 9:17 PM
I love my blanket flower. She blooms from late Spring until frost.
'Indian Blanket' Spring 2005
I would have to say my blanket flower, geranium and for the late season... a shady begonia.... I wish I knew the name of it. LOL
I was just about to start a thread similar to this! I'm about tired of plants that bloom for a couple of weeks and then look ratty. The only plant I have that blooms for a long time is the purple ice plant. I'm about to plant a carpet rose and see how it does.
I'll have to add dicentra...they are so interesting and I didn't know that they had such a long bloom season. Good news...
somehow I have to make my Blanket Flowers bloom longer--there must be something wrong--mine are subborn and refuse to make much of a display...they are new this year, though, and maybe will 'leap' next year...
right now my longest bloomer is my rudbeckia hirta 'prairie sun' which makes a nice show, but I don't think it will hold any records against your dicentras!
epatz - The long flowering one is the Fernleaf Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) not the Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) which dies down in August here.
Here's a pic of Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant' in June:
Another exceptionally long bloomer in my garden is Fleeceflower (Persicaria 'Darjeeling Red' which used to be called Polygonum). A spreader, but not invasive here.
I have that dicentra in my woodland garden.
Love the little pink bloomers *tee-hee*
[ sorry for the washed out color on this one]
I've had corydalis lutea for about 5 years and it always blooms like crazy from June to mid-September in a semi-shaded location. But not this year - I guess it's been too dry.
scooterbug - hey you're right, the blooms look like a pair of granny's pink bloomers! Is that granny? Cute.
Tnx , I like that yellow one of yours too ........
I really like this dicentra, the individul blooms last for weeks on end ;-)
The lady is 'Columbine' a 5 inch tall Klaus Wickl Gnome circa 1993 .
She went for a walk-about one morning with her friends and stopped to admire the cute blossoms.
This message was edited Aug 28, 2005 12:40 PM
My yellow columbine(Yellow Swan) started blooming in May and is still blooming..This is the first year I have had this one. None of my others bloom this long.
Karen
It's a toss up fro me between my 'hardy' Cranes Bill geranium and Blanket flower 'Indian Blanket'
I'd have to say my tickseed. It's one of the first to starat blooming and, with deadheading, will bloom well into fall.
Tied with gaura "whirling butterflies", which is a steril gaura.
And, of course roses :-)
Erysimum or Wallflower, Bowles Mauve goes a long long time for me here and I noticed this year that the various phygeliuses have just kept on going like the duracell bunny.
Veronica-Sunny Border Blue blooms from May until frost here.
All my different varieties of Gaillardia keep going and going.
The tall phlox steal the show for months on end in my garden. Definitely the stars of late summer. Some bloom heads I've started to dead head and they were suddenly full of blooms again. In particular 'Sandra' has been blooming since the first of July for me-the first phlox to bloom and still beautiful.
tabasco, beautiful Rudbeckia! I'm not than fond of Rudbeckias, but may have to find a spot for 'Prairie Sun' in my garden. (Editing to say you should add your photo to PF!)
I'd have to agree with RikerBear - Hardy Geraniums - I usually cut some of ours back after their first flush of blooms and they perk right back up and start blooming again several weeks later. Geranium 'Confetti', however, has not needed to be cut back and has been blooming since the first of July, plus the gorgeous variegated foliage in the spring is pretty without the flowers. Also, some of the Heucheras, Heucherellas and Tiarellas. They start blooming in early spring and a few last almost to July!
This message was edited Sep 4, 2005 5:53 AM
rcn--thanks. I'm not too fond of rudbeckias, either, but I like 'prairie sun' because the centers are greenish/yellowish and I like the daisy shape.
also, btw, I have 20 kinds of hardy geraniums (new to our garden last year) but don't seem to have much luck with them. G. 'Rozanne' is supposed to be great and bloom all summer yet I have very few blossoms. I also have Orion and Brookside which so popular and are supposed to be strong bloomers but weak for me...
I wonder what I am doing wrong?...I have them in sunny spots, decent irrigation...I wonder if the soil is too rich or acidic? Do they have strong preferences that way, I wonder...
Sorry, I think I'm getting off the point with my geranium issues...
Happy gardening. t.
My salvia coccinea, Coral Nymph, was blooming when we got our once in a life time Christmas snow (in South Texas) and is still blooming! I used to deadhead it with a pruning shears but this time I borrowed my friend's electric hedge trimmers to shear it. It's beginning to bloom again!
tabasco WOW! Outstanding job on the garden, please name the different plants used. Also have geraniums new this year, one is still blooming, not 'Midnight Reiter', its tall and spindly, maybe too much sun?? Talked into this by grower at HD, disappointing, maybe next year!
Hey, guys,
I have 'Rozanne' and it has bloomed since May for me here in Oregon. It is likes some shade in the late afternoon tho, I have found out.
Carol
rcn 48, I'm interested in geranium confetti. It sounds great but I can't find it anywhere. Do you remember where you got it?
Thanks,
Dave
Wow, I looked all through here and didn't see what I am going to boast on.
I'm not sure about it's hardiness, but I received this Turks Cap in February at the Central Florida Round Up. It started blooming late April and hasn't quit yet. Doesn't look like it's going to quit anytime soon either.
Shoot, this thing bloomed right through the hurricane.
Molly
:^)))
Molly, Wow that sure is a keeper!
I agree! My Turks Cap is one of mine, and my hummers favorite! That, and my Flame Acanthus! Non-stop blooms. This has been a good year for my Gaura too... it has bloomed and rebloomed about 6 times all summer! Really full of little "dancing butterflies".
Oh yes, I forgot about my "Whirling Butterflies" gaura. They are great too.
Molly
:^)))
MollyMC
don't you just love the way that bees make the whirling butterflies dance. Even the slightest breeze, that plant is a pure delight.
(Well, except in the cooler summers we had the last 2 years in SE Michigan where aphids were a problem :( )
Marie,
Yes, I do love that and we have certainly had plenty of breezes here this year.
My annoying pests here this year are scale. It broke my heart after the hurricane to see all the scale in my butterfly garden. I had to treat it drastically with some stinky stuff. It stayed on long enough to do the job, then we had a hard rain and it washed the residue off. I was so worried about the bees and butterflies.
Someone told me today that the dropping of the barometric pressure has a tendancy to shock some plants into blooming. After Katrina ran by here I noticed about a half dozen of my plants suddenly blooming and 2 of my orchids that normally bloom once a year, were doing it again.
Molly
No-one else seems at all wild about this plant; but it blooms from whenever it gets cooking -- mayish -- until October. centranthus ruber. comes in this pinky colour, my favourite, and also white and a bluer shade of pink that needs careful placing.
I like it with hydrangeas and with campanula lactiflora, but it is also great in full sun with euphorbia.
Molly,
We are indeed at the mercy of the weather. Your new blooms are probably the only good t ocome from Katrina!
hortensia, great ideas! I really like that photo.
hortensia, that centranthus is awsome! I've been eye-ing it in the catalogs for a few years now, but have never seen it grown around here. Have any of you in zone 6 or colder grown it? I believe the sources say it should be hardy, but they often don't tell you if a plant can tolerate hot summers. Does it require anything special?
Thanks, Neal.
hortensia:
Do you pinch back your centranthus? Mine gets floppy -- also I have the pink kind that doesn't go with anything!
In my gardens it is also the Fernleaf Bleeding Heart ( Dicentra formosa ) ...LOVE it !!!...still going strong,
Brigitte
Hi Neal, I'll save it for someone else to answer the heat question definitively, but I have grown centranthus ruber in a south facing rock wall (full sun) and it thrived. If I wasn't certain, I would try it in a more sheltered (from the sun) place first and then get more daring.
Crockney, yes, I do cut them back , if I get around to it, in July or August and then the plants are more compact. I do like what I call the "sadder" pink too, though It is really nice with those funny blue phloxes that are kind of a hard colour -- I'm thinking of Blue Boy, I think, but here is Blue Paradise http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/61630/
and with echinacea laevigata http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/55244/
and then contrasted with a really sour lemon lime grass. sigh.
STOP that woman....
:>)