Let me introduce you to one of my
absolute favourite plants, Sanguinaria canadensis f. multiplex
'Plena'. Despite its complicated and cumbersome name, this has to be
one of the most charming and exquisite of all of my plants, although
it's also the most infuriating. Sanguinarias are gently souls, and
their flowers are easily destroyed by a gust of strong wind or a
heavy shower. Add the fact that their delicate blooms only last for a
few days anyway and you realise that to see even one pristine bloom
each spring is a treat! Suddenly the lottery we play each spring with
frost and Magnolias pales into insignificance compared with the heartache of growing
this little treasure.
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| Charmingly ephemeral Sanguinaria canadensis 'Plena' |
Spending time appreciating this special
little flower got me wondering; is modern plant breeding robbing us
of one of gardening's most exciting things? Is the drive for ever
longer flowering seasons making our gardens more beautiful, or are we
missing out on the excitement and anticipation of rarer events, such
as the brief but spectacular flowering of Magnolias and
Rhododendrons?
If everything in our gardens flowered
perpetually from early summer until the first frosts I think we'd end
up with absolutely mind-numbingly boring gardens. What's the
difference between a garden filled entirely with never-changing
evergreens and a garden filled with never-changing herbaceous plants?
Sure, some plants like Geranium 'Rozanne' have become staples of the
British garden because they flower well for several months, but do we
really want all of our plants to be like that?
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| Geranium 'Rozanne' flowers well, but where's the anticipation? |
Yes there's also sadness when a plant
finishes flowering, but a short flowering season surely makes you
treasure each flower more? If a plant reliably flowers for months and
months it becomes a little predictable and ceases to be quite as
special. Certainly for me a succession of plants with a shorter
flowering season is much better- keep that excitement coming!
To be a boring fence-sitter, I say both! I agree with you about the anticipation of awaiting the brief flowering of some of my favourite plants, particularly in Spring. The anticipation of the first snowdrop, crocus, anemones, fritillary, bluebell is a delight I wouldn't want to miss. And from summer, alliums, colchiums etc. Lately I've been checking the garden each morning for my first fritillaria meleagris flower, and I always get excited to see the first, then the second, then enjoying the couple of weeks they are out before they die back and it's the next plant I'm looking for.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do like some long flowering plants too, such as Heleniums, cosmos, sunflowers. In fact if I think of it, it tends to be the mid-summer onwards plants that I like that have long flowering period. Maybe this is because by this point my vegetables are demanding daily, some even twice daily, attention, and so I need to use my limited energy focussing on these rather than the ornamentals. And when I do focus on ornamentals during this period, it's to take cuttings for the house or friends, and long frlowering plants are good for this.
To me a good mix of both is what I like in my garden. I totally agree that you don't want to leave out the short-lived flowers, Spring in particular would be a sad time without such plants, but there is a delight, as well as practical reasons, why some of us like long flowerers too. So, to be Switzerland - I cheer for both :)