I am attracted to many of the old-fashioned flowers that don't bloom for long periods and I think there is room for both types. Sure long bloomers are wonderful but without the green foliage of the others they wouldn't show as well IMO. One does have to be careful with placement because of those that die back however to make sure that something else fills in.

I love the foliage of my peonies and the short bloom time makes them more valued IMO. Not a plant one can take for granted. I missed the blooms one year as we were away and felt sorry on our return when I realized that.

I found with my new roses this year the anticipation of waiting to see if they'd bloom (or rebloom) was fun. Being the first year I had no idea what to expect and thought they'd be stressed by planting and wouldn't bloom well. However, because I bot them in pots they didn't seem to miss a beat and bloomed and rebloomed right past frosts. The common old Jacob's Ladders I planted with them don't have as impressive blooms but the foliage more than makes up for it.

It will be interesting to see when my new lavender plants bloom as my old one blooms late in the summer, not when it's *supposed* to. Probably because of our late spring but I'm sure it used to bloom earlier than August. I love their foliage even when not in bloom and it's a good accent for annuals or more impressive bloomers.

I like to remember that some of these old-style plants go back many hundreds of years pretty much the same as they are today. The new hybrids may be pretty faces but they don't have history!

Once bloomers? Why not!!!
As long as you have something to interest and exhilarate you each season, it's great! For example, a rambling rose, Lady Banks rose - they can be some of the most beautiful. Sure they won't be blooming in July, but in the spring they can be breathtaking. Same with camellias here in the south or bulbs, or mums or asters. To each a season, and that is glorious!

As a New Englander- or a four season inhabitant- I think of the once a year arrival of spring, the first red of autumn leaves, and the first snow.

It seems to me critics of once a year bloomers are missing a an important point about people who love a garden and people who have a garden: it is not about looking at something, it's about a emotional relationship. And we welcome harbingers of seasons and "short bloomers" as do a someone we love returning to us.

Marie

I'm with you L-L:
I love all my once-blooming flowers and plants.. What is a Cottage Garden without them? Just a flowerbed.

Hey L-L, send me an email with your mailing address again so I can send you that OGR I rooted for you and some starts of the wild Blue phlox I promised you. Your address is here somewhere, but I may NEVER find it!
I haven't forgotten. I will mail them to you.

There is a reason why so many flowers from grandmas garden are still around- they're tough! I have a small yard, but that just means I'll grow one of everything instead of 10.

The once-blooming old roses have a lot of history behind them. For example, if you are growing an apothecary's rose (aka red rose of Lancaster), think how many medieval (and older) gardens that rose grew in, and what ancient secrets that rose must know... In those times, the garden was one of the few places you could go to be alone with someone and pass along information you didn't want others to know.

I agree about the anticipation, too. Each perennial that I grow becomes a friend who grows more beautiful and treasured every year. Except for the few that turn out to be duds, which I remove, LOL.

My garden is full of once bloomers, the anticipation of seeing that flush of color or delectable scent filling the air from the ones I have far outweighs the fact they are here but for fleeting moment (or so it seems). When one is winding down another is just starting in my garden.

Annette

My garden is so full of once bloomers too. Lots of things that repeat in other climates do not here. Or at least they don't in my garden :)

"...who wants to have a plant that only blooms for a few weeks?"

I don't mean to get all sentimental but there's a connection between those of us growing gardens now with those who came before us. For me, that's a connection to my mom, dad & brother whose hands tilled the soil, picked the rocks & planted things before me. My brother planted a row of double pink peonies that produce dozens of blooms each year. My dad planted the 80 ft. row of blueberry bushes where the foxes lived last summer. Mom planted the mock orange, lilac, rhododendron, the 40 ft. long row of white hydrangea on my southern boundary and the four mature dogwoods nearby. Every year their blooms make me feel close to those whose hands are now still.

I've added some once bloomers myself including new peonies, clematis, Japanese & Siberian iris, globeflower and baptisia among others. Each brings something unique to the garden. The challenge for me is to combine them with others that carry the show on until the end of the season. I'm getting there at my own pace but sometimes the journey itself is more rewarding than reaching a destination.

I'm so glad you all feel this way! I can't figure out if the people writing these articles are not gardeners themselves, are just pushing the 'new' flower releases, or both :)

Annie- I will e-mail you my address...thank you!

I feel the same way as so many of you. I look forward to each and every 'friend' in the garden, and when they don't have a good season, I know I'll have to wait until next year to see them again. The good news--it's been snowing a lot, so the lilacs should be beautiful, this spring!!!

I also wonder about a gardener who doesn't appreciate once bloomers. All the comments above hold true for me as well.
Gardening, for me, is a connection to nature with all its variety of size, shape, foliage, and bloom.

I supect that any true gardener would feel that the once bloomers are an important part of the garden. Without the ebb and flow of the seasons changes, both good and bad, how would we appreciate each moment, each bloom for the gift that it is?

I love the once-bloomers. They keep my garden always changing, always something to look forward to. I enjoy things that have long bloom seasons, as in the annuals, but I love the feeling of expectation as each thing comes and goes in its season, to be replaced by a whole new look in a few weeks!

I enjoy once bloomers much more than predictable annuals that bloom all summer.

Every spring I wait to see how things have survived the winter. Will Grandma's peony and iris put on a good show this year? Did the voles get to the double bloodroot? Did the deer eat the azalea buds? Will the frost get the Magnolia blossoms? Etc....The anticipation is amazing and exciting. Even if a once bloomer does not do well one year there is always hope for the next year. And sometimes there is the death of a special plant, shrub or tree after a particularly hard winter where I've actually mourned over the loss. But then the tree peonies come into bloom and all is right with the world again.

I even have high anticipation for some once bloomers that still haven't bloomed! I have a climbing hydrangea that has to be about 20' tall now and 9 years old and still has not put out one single flower. I just keep waiting and saying to myself "when she comes into her glory she will be such a sight to enjoy year after year."

The once bloomers are so worth it.

LL, you make me homesick when you talk of your lilacs, so beautiful, and the scent is heaven.

Unfortunately here in Texas they just don't grow (at least for me, I've tried!), but we do have our "Southern Lilacs", our crepe myrtles. I have a baby, about 3 years old and it's the lilac color without the scent, but will grow to about 20' tall, LOVES the heat, and the bark is so interesting. When mature it will actually be a tree of sorts.

I have lots of once bloomers but must admit when it comes to the roses I've gone towards the repeat bloomers with the exception of my Lady Banks, but plan to remedy this soon.

Thanks for the good memories!

My sister-in-law lives in San Francisco and places ice around her lilac in the spring to get it to bloom. Her lilac blooms every spring. Wonder if that would work in TX?

What a thought provoking question! My flowerbeds also contain many once blooming varieties and I have even wondered if some were "pulling their weight" - even my all-time favorite bearded iris when they turn yellow and icky through the summer.

Your question caused me to ask myself why these plants really are so dear to me. First, I don't garden in order to put on a show for passersby. My house and gardens cannot be seen from the road. In fact, my place is surrounded by a fence with a locked gate. My gardens are for me and a very few people who spend time in them. Curb appeal has nothing to do with it so it really doesn't matter for that reason if there are times when it is less than spectacular.

I have to look within to figure out why the often old fashioned, short blooming plants have so much space here. I think it has to do with one of the ways gardening itself serves a purpose in my life. In spite of physical limitations, health concerns, financial insecurity, personal heartaches, disappointments, and worries, gardening is one of my strongest links to hope. You cannot garden without hope. And I have only to think of how looking forward to the lovely fall aster show (short as it may be) carries me through the dreadfully hot days of late summer to know that I could not bear to give them up. The iris may look disheveled for much of the year but I long for their gorgeous display and fragrance after long gray winter. Would it even BE spring without the cheerful yellows of dwarf coreopsis and yellow alyssum? What would my shade garden path be without daphne in winter and mock orange in spring?

These plants, because they are not always "on" allow me to look forward past momentary disappointments (no blooms on the hydrangeas this year!?) and uninspiring sameness (scrub oak in the background looks about the same except in winter) with hope that good things are still ahead. Like a solo stands out in a choral performance, these brief shows serve as highlights that I would not want to miss.

Yikes, who said that! My garden if full of once bloomers, but then my garden is also called a succession garden. I'm sure we all do this where one flower dies off while another plant it sbout to bloom.

Silly articles! I find many topics are 'articificially' chosen.. meaning they (the heads of the industry jointly come together and start making decisions on what should be trendy this year)..It's much in the same way the decorating people decide on what is the IT colour of the year!

Ianna