The more you pick, the more they flower
(Filed: 02/06/2001)
Don't be put off by the time it takes them to flower. When they do, biennials are real performers, says Sarah Raven
BIENNIALS - plants that form roots and leaves in the first year, but flower, set seed and die in the second - aren't grown nearly enough.
People are put off by the hassle of growing from seed and then having to wait a year before they see any flowers. People tell me over and over again that biennials are boring because you don't get instant results.
Eryngium
They will give you a blank space in the garden for several months, and then, like annuals, they're only short-lived and you have to start the whole thing again.
Don't be discouraged. These are some of the best performance plants you can get. They don't leave blank spaces - biennials have foliage above ground all winter.
Like annuals, they are cut-and-come-again flowers. The more you pick, the more they flower until they collapse exhausted towards the end of summer. They also have long flowering seasons, if you keep them well-picked.
Many outdo perennials for the number of months they can take centre stage. Like perennials, they have a scale and stature which gives a garden a feeling of maturity in less than a year. If you have a brand-new garden, a newly created border, or a patch devoted to cut flowers and you feel the lack of substance and decent-size verticals necessary for a balanced design, go for these plants. The garden will soon look like it has been there for years.
Campanula
That's not all. Most of them self-sow, but not so promiscuously that you curse the moment that you introduced them. I've banned forget-me-nots from my garden for this reason. Some years, I've weeded out more forget-me-not than chickweed, but you don't have to worry about this with the beinnials I recommend.
There will be a scattering of offspring all around the old parent plant, but not willy-nilly all over the garden.You can leave the seedlings where they are, thinning them out to give them enough room to thrive or transplant them.
They're invaluable in their season of flowering, too. In the cutting garden and ornamental garden, late May can be a momentary blip in the colour bonanza. Tulips are over and the bulk of perennials, roses and annuals haven't yet got going.
Biennials plug this gap, flowering prolifically from the middle of May. The demonstration gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show are always stacked with biennials because they can be guaranteed to flower in that crucial third week of May.
My favourite is the Iceland poppy, Papaver nudicaule `Meadow Pastels'. No one should be without this plant. It's the best cut flower on my seed list. If you sear the stems in boiling water for 30 seconds they will last a week. You can pick it in full flower or in tight bud and it will open as it stands in the vase.
Don't just think of it as a cut flower. I love it in the rest of the garden too. It's already covered in huge, saucer-size blooms in my garden with 10 or 15 flowers to each plant.
They're like crumpled bits of fine silk lining, a full palmful of them on the end of a stem. I love the colours in this mix - pink, white, cream, primrose and orange - bright and pale together and each one is scented like a tazetta narcissi. If you don't want mixed colours, go for `Red Sail'. This is a single colour orange, but lacks the scent.
Drifts of both these look good now, and will still be looking
good in the middle of August if you keep picking the
flowers, rather than dead-heading, not allowing any to run
to seed.
-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001