Garden flowering log - one to go!

Today is decidedly fall, cool, sunny, breezy, beautiful.  The garden flowering is just about done, in fact there is exactly one species left to go, the monk's hood.  When that finally flowers, and the buds are just about ready, the gardening log will be at 292 plants that flowered in our gardens this year.  This is not exactly a species list because some distinct varieties have very different flowering seasons, but generally different varieties that flower in the same season don't count.  Annuals don't count.  Tropical plants outside for the summer don't count. Ferns and gymnosperms don't flower, and so don't appear on the list even if they cone, but they are quite a list too.  Of course some plants were new to the garden, or new to flower, but then there are others that didn't flower this year at all.  TPP has not yet checked this list against past years' lists so something might have gotten missed, but doubtful the 300 plants in flower barrier will be broken.  Perhaps with all the new woodland plants added this year the total will make it in 2014. This years season was pretty long having started on February 21st (witch hazel) and here we are 8 months later waiting for monk's hood.  Wow! Only 4 months until it starts all over again!  2013 is the longest flowering season since the record keeping began.

Interesting flowering data

Data from our garden flowering log shows some interesting patterns.  Here's one.  So far 2013 has been above average wet and below average in temperature, and in general flowering has lagged behind and seemed late, especially last month.  However, the 200th different plant to flower event occurred this year on June 2nd.  Looking back to 2010 and 2011, the same event occurred on June 1st and June 2nd.  Everything sort of averaged out to provide a sort of benchmark of flowering consistency, and this includes various DNFs (did not flower), a few new additions, and some cancellations (deaths).  No surprise deaths and new additions tend to balance our; when something dies you replace it either in kind or with some new magnolia.  Not much of a choice really.  However, you probably noticed that 2012 was not mentioned.  Last year the 200th flowering event occurred on May 10th!  That's three weeks earlier.  Amazing.  This means that just about two-thirds of our flowering events happen by Memorial Day.  That's a shady perennial garden for you.  So that garden tour scheduled for June 16th can expect shade and not much else.  TPP will make them a list of what they've missed.  So why schedule a garden tour for June?  Well, those petunia and impatiens gardeners have to get their little annuals planted.  What kind of garden is that?  You can bet those gardens don't even have a magnolia. 

Garden Flowering Log - 2011

Data collection on the 2011 flowering of perennials in the Phactors garden is complete. There were losses and additions, a few things died or failed to flower, some plants flowered for the first time, so the total is still somewhat in question and will require some more analysis as it appears a couple of flowering plants were missed in 2010. However the most interesting finding so far is that the average flowering date for 2011 was 9 days later than for 2010. Your first reaction is why were they so late? But perhaps you should ask why was 2010 so early? Two years of data does not generate a trend. 2011 did have a cold wet spring, but April flowering only differed from 2010 by an insignificant 0.75 days. While August and September were hot and dry, June and July were reasonably nice, but the late summer flowering dates averaged 11 and 12 days later than the year before. Clearly more data is needed. It gives you something to look forward to that first data point of spring!

Garden Flowering Log - August 2010

Summers always end the same way in Lincolnland, hot and dry. Although a quite a few things begin flowering during this time period on the prairies, not many of them are part of my gardens (too shady). Several plants began flowering during the first 8 days of August, but since we observers were out east, no one knows the order or precise day. Only 9 new plants began flowering in August, which brings the year's garden total to 261, quite respectable, but not the 300 Mrs. Phactor had hoped for.
August 1-8: Fragrant hostas, Waxbells, Ligularia (2 var.), Pink Obediant Plant (Physostegia), Wingstem (a native - Verbesina alternifolia)
August 21: Bottle Gentian (actually it's hard to know when this plant is in flower because the corolla lobes never really open after the buds reach full size, but since it is receptive to pollen and can disperse pollen, it's technically "in flower" even if the flower doesn't open. Bumblebees have to force their way in.).
August 22: Late small-leafed hostas.
August 27: Wood aster.
August 29: Lily turf.

Garden Flowering Log - July 2010

As you would expect flowering is slowing down in terms of the number of new species, but many of these summer perennials flower over a considerable period providing long displays. July has had a lot of hot and steamy weather, more than usual, and the trend has carried on into August, sadly. This isn't just summer weather, but really oppressive heat and humidity, the kind that melts your sneakers into the blacktop, the kind that is only pierced by the shrill calling of cicadas, the kind that tropical plants love, but that cook plants from cooler climates. For this reason a small conifer, Siberian cypress (Microbiota decussata), while hardy to zone 2, it suffers in this kind of summer heat. But plants at the northern end of their ranges, like the Magnolia virginia, seem quite happy. Having missed the last bit of July and the first bit of August, one or two flowering events might be mis-logged, but those things happen. For absolute certain another 19 species flowered in July bringing the year's plant flowering total to 252. Mrs. Phactor thought we might hit 300, but that seems a bit high. Her perennial bed is big, and you count on them for summer color, but there's also considerable redundancy. So far the champion in terms of longevity remains the Sinocalycanthus, which is still in flower having started on May 1.
July 2 - Purple prairie clover
July 4 - Bottle brush buckeye
July 6 - Globe Thistle
July 7 - Leadwort, Bouncing Bet (soapwort)
July 8 - Culver's root
July 10 - Gladiolas, Sacred Lotus, Black-eyed Susan
July 13 - Phlox, Sneezeweed, Chaste tree (Vitex)
July 14 - Summer sweet (Clethra alnifolia)
July 17 - Cardinal flower, Prairie Beebalm (Mondarda fistulosa)
July 18 - Hydrangeas - several varieties
July 20 - Joe Pyeweed
July 21 - Magic "lily" Amaryllis
July 22 - Summer sedums

Garden flowering log – April

OK, someone did comment that keeping a garden flowering log seemed like a lot of work, and the Phactor chided them for a lack of commitment. To be honest, who knew how big of a project this would be, and the log data has been kept to the minimum by only recording the 1st date of flowering. So the results for the month of April were a bit of a surprise. To recap, 17 different plants flowered in our gardens during March; 113 plants flowered during April! Not every variety was counted as a different plant especially if they co-flowered, so at the variety level the total would be much greater. Here’s the list by date:
April 1 – a species tulip (no fooling!), late daffodils
Apr. 2 – Korean azalea, Nanking cherry, star magnolia
Apr. 3 – spring beauty, celandine poppy, species tulip(2nd), marsh marigold, Labrador violet, common violet, grape hyacinth, variegated sedge
Apr. 4 – rue anemone, Dutchman’s breeches, yellow upright ginger (Saruma henryi), Japanese maples
Apr. 5 – anise magnolia (M. salicifolia), Brunnera, bellwort, white trout lily
Apr. 6 - rhododendron (“PJM”), prairie trillium, sugar maple, hackberry, flowering quince, tulip magnolia, creeping Charlie
Apr. 7 – bleeding heart, red bud, june berry
Apr. 8 – Mukdenia, golden corydalis
Apr. 9 – red barrenwort, nodding trillium (T. flexipes)
Apr. 10 – species tulip (3d), wild ginger
Apr. 11 – apples, red trillium (T. erectum), blue cohosh, rhododendron “Ramapo”, Burkwood viburnum, saucer magnolia, Ohio buckeye, yellow archangel (deadnettle)
Apr. 13 – fothergilla, fragrant sumac, Carolina silver bells, flowering crabapples, Mazus reptans, species tulip (4th), giant bugle (Ajuga reptans), Siberian bush pea
Apr. 14 – blueberry, pin & burr oaks, lilac, yellow barrenwort, magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis), red buckeye
Apr. 15 – jack in the pulpit, Solomon’s seal, orange-flowered avens, prairie smoke, strawberry, small bugle, late tulips, spicy lights & blue gem rhododendron, lily of the valley
Apr. 16 – Flowering dogwood, fern-leafed peony, Herbert rhododendron
Apr. 17 – dwarf Iris
Apr. 18 - bird’s foot violet
Apr. 19 - crested Iris
Apr. 20 – Jacob’s ladder, star of Bethlehem, wild Geranium, tree peonies (white & diverse shades of pink)
Apr. 21 – wild columbine, large-flowered speedwell, American holly, cult. columbine, red choke berry
Apr. 22 – spring cult. anemone, wild hyacinth
Apr. 24 – miterwort, mulberry
Apr. 25 – large white trillium, soapwort, may apple, early deutzia, poet’s narcissus
Apr. 27 – smoke bush, bridal wreath spirea, golden lights & rosebud rhododendrons
Apr. 29 – false Solomon’s seal
Apr. 30 – yellow tree peony, large-leafed rhododendrons, sun rose (Helianthemum), black walnut, pussytoes, cat mint, ragwort, Carolina spicebush, sweet cicely, black raspberry, cult. geraniums, Tartarian honeysuckle, euonymus