"Spider" wrote

, Martin wrote:
Pam Moore wrote:

What plants do urglers recommend as flowering for the longest time.
So many things I like flower for a week or two and then are over. In
my garden iris sibirica and Patty's Plum are offenders.

Roses encouraged by dead heading.


+ 1, then add Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve'.
I bought this Erysimum for a 90+ friend and neighbour. He'd neither heard
of it nor seen it before; now he can't stop telling me how good it is.
Bees and buttlerflies love it. After a few years (3-4), it gets a bit
straggly and woody, but it's easy to take cuttings and start it off again.
However, young plants are fairly cheap if propagating isn't your thing.

Another favourite of mine is Potentilla fruticosa, also loved by bees. The
soft yellow-flowered type seems to be the most floriferous in my experience
and it goes on for months. I had a 25ft hedge of it years ago and it was
gorgeous - even the neighbours loved it! Indeed, one gent copied it.

I also find hardy Fuchsias have a longish flowering season, but I know they
don't appeal to everyone.

On a smaller scale, Erigeron karvinskianus flowers most of the year and is
a delicate froth of white/pink/carmine flowers.

A useful tip which I use a lot for favourite plants with a shorter
flowering season is to place them around the garden so that each receives
sunshine at a different time of day. Sometimes it's possible to extend the
season by a month or perhaps more.

From my experience all the Erysimums, not just Bowles Mauve, are good value
plants that keep on flowering, just dead head them occasionally and take a
few cuttings for when they get woody or give up.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK