I have a pink hyacinth that a friend dug from his great-grandmother's house in the NC mts. Nobody has lived in that area for well over 100 years, so I guess that is my oldest plant! I am constantly amazed at the miracles one sees in nature.

The ones I have are not particularly old but I have heard that peonies could give those orange daylilies a run for their money longevity-wise.

Mere

I have some tulips/gladiolus that have been coming up since I was about 8-10 years old. I'm 25 now. As for a general rule about long-lived perennials...I would say the Peonies the perennials known most for their longevity.

specifically, in my 15 yr old garden that i planted new from a bought or seed grown plant (not bush or shrub), i guess platycodon aka balloon flowers. amsonia would be a close second. there's a red darwin type tulip in my woods that comes up and blooms each year. i didn't plant it, and who knows how long it's been there, but it's like old faithful. there were also some wildish, small flowered daffs in the back that have probably been here forever. i love them- they are quite fragrant. i do have lots of things that live in perpetuity because of reseeding, but i don't think that's what you're asking.

as for something with a life before my 15 yr old garden, i have some lily of the valley that i dug from the back of my parent's place that was an old homestead 100 yrs before and is woods now, so that's pretty long lived. and some pheasant's eye narcissi, but those were never really happy down here for some reason- too hot, i guess. that's also where i got the vinca minor that i transplanted here, and that's too happy. there were also old daylilies back there, although i never bothered with them, since there's a whole slew in my backyard already. i also have a lot of old iris and daylily varieties that i got from my mentor that have been passalongs, some for more than 100 yrs.

i'd have to agree about peonies, though- my gram had planted some in the 20' or 30's and they were gorgeous when we lived there in the late 80's, before the new owners destroyed them. (argh!) wish i'd gotten some before i moved to have the line continued, but we moved to an apartment. my mom still has the big old fashioned bleeding heart of my gram's (and her mom before her) going, and i'm planning on getting a piece when she lifts it when she moves.

Cousin Miriam's (grandmother's generation) pale yellow daylilies - transported three times. I guess they aren't the original because of the way they spread and get divided, but this bunch has been going for seventy years or more I'd say.

Cousin Miriam's (grandmother's generation) pale yellow daylilies - transported three times. I guess they aren't the original because of the way they spread and get divided, but this bunch has been going for seventy years or more I'd say.

Peonies and bulbs like daffodils were the first thing I planted here 10 years ago that are still going. I also have torch lilies and some oriental lilies still going from about then. I expect them to keep going barring some misfortune. I also have irises that I've brought with me from my first garden over 20 years ago. -Ais.

That's good to hear about the platycodon -- I tried those one year and the darned cutworms got them.

When my sister lived in Rhinebeck NY, she asked my help in re-making a flower bed where there was a thriving patch of weeds, with a few struggling daylilies and daffodil bulbs. In the lawn in front of the area, there were several patches of lamb's ears and yarrow leaves. Because they had been mowed for the last 10 years or more, the leaves were teeny, no more than an inch long. I dug some of both, planted them into the garden, and they took off. I took some of the lamb's ears to San Francisco, where they grew, and then brought some here to SC, where they are very happy. Because they also re-seed and creep along from runners, I don't know if you can call it the same plant(s), but the ones in my sister's lawn never flowered, so.... While the daylilies and daffs had survived neglect for at least 10-20 years, I take my hat off to the lamb's ears, and to the yarrow.

Going through the woods here, you can find patches of daffodils, where there had once been a house - all signs of the house are long gone, but the bulbs remain. Of course, it helps that the deer don't like them!

Historically, I think peonies are seen as the longest lived, but the orange "ditch" daylilies are tenacious!

I bought an old garbage dump( what I could afford) most of my money has gone into clean up and many yard of top soil...longest lived pland of 15 years is a Baptista australis--also known as false indigo--fabulous--

Trouble with long lifespan plants is you plant them in what you think are perfect conditions and locations and then 10 years later find they are flagging because the trees around them grew to shade them.
As I get older I plan for more permanent plant locations because trees grow and shade and shrubs you wanted for shade die unexpectedly and your shady plants scald.
(ain't one thing it's another)
Those peonies I bought in '06 and forgot to plant decided to root out(huge,thick roots) through the plastic tubs and they are the most reliable bloomers in one big bed of perennials not happy with the soggy soil in mostly shade.
The perennial ageratum and rudbeckias originated as plant seed from the house I was born in and they were there when my parents bought the house in maybe 1945.

I have a potted Lemon Vine (Pereskia aculeata) that was given to us almost 40 years ago. It has been in the same pot and soil forever. It has lost all of its leaves (it is a cactus with leaves) several times from neglect, but always leafs back out as good as new whenever it is happy. I never knew what it was until last summer when we had a variety with variegated leaves in the Trial Gardens at the arboretum (JCRA).