Why hasn't my honesty flowered?

[KnobwithaK]

Just wondering if anyone has an explanation.. planted honesty seeds last year (seeds had been collected by my mum from her garden). Plants have grown well.. now pretty big with big leaves but NO flowers or even flower buds surely they should be flowering by now?

Any ideas?

Thanks

They are biennial so will flower in their second year.

You have just given me happy memories of DGM who had them in her garden

@Unravellingslowly I planted them last summer so they should surely flower this year? No?

Sorry, when I say planted I mean sowed..

As said, won’t flower till next year. I love Honesty, it hops around my garden and pops up in unexpected places, but always in a good way with companion plants.

@Beebumble2 my understanding was that if I sowed last summer it should flower this year.. or am I totally wrong?

www.sarahraven.com/articles/sowing-biennials-for-next-year.htm

No it’s what’s called a bi annual, which means it will flower in the second year of sowing.

@Beebumble2 Sorry to be like a dog with a bone - the Sarah Raven website says July is the time to sow your biennial flowers for wonderful displays in your garden next year. So surely it should be flowering now? (Not saying you're wrong, I'm just still confused!)

Biennial * it does read like it should flower this year, but mine always produce a plant and then flower the next year. You might find yours flower later in the year. I have seen plants for sale in the garden centres flowering end of May/ beginning of June.

Ah OK, thanks.. I'm relieved to hear that it happens to other people too! I will leave them in then and hope for flowers later or next year..

I’m posting two photos. The first are this years seedings, growing in the corner of my courtyard. ( I must remove the ivy! )
The second one is last years seeding flowering this year. Hope it helps.

That's a really beautiful mix!

The leaves on mine are really quite big - quite a lot bigger than the leaves on your flowering ones I think..

Maybe go to confession? It’s not good to have a semi-functional honesty.

The leaves look quite different, as does the way they come off the stem.
If it is Honesty then it may be a hybrid, or it could be something else?!

I don't know of any Honesty hybrids, but could be something else. Could also be large and healthy because of good soil but not growing quite long enough to be going into flowering mode.

A biennial plant spends the first year growing, photosynthesising and producing food which it stores in its roots. Then the second year it uses the food from the roots to push up a flowering shoot. So if for any reason it didn't feel it got a good enough root last year, logic would say that it might have another year growing before flowering.

Maybe go to confession? It’s not good to have a semi-functional honesty

No priest wants to open that can of worms.. semi functional honesty is the least of my problems 🙄

Thanks all.. I spoke to my mum, and hers (where the seed came from) seems to be flowering fine. I think I'm going to leave at least some of it in and see what happens.. it'll be an experiment if nothing else..

Can't give you a reason as mine are in the same situation - large leaves no flowers - seeds sown summer last year - can't understand it !! sorry my friend no help hear.

Can't help but can only sympathize as I have the same problem - seeds sown last summer - strong plants produced - planted out in spring - have produced large strong leaves - no sign of flower - it's now early June!! Sorry my friend can't help .

It's still quite early in the year in gardening terms, plus the awful May hasn't helped. Everything in my garden is easily a month later than usual.

Are there any signs of the beginnings of flowers down amongst the leaves?

A lot of things are really slow to get going this year because of the weather. I am not worrying too much about things which would usually be further on by this point.

I think mine do a true 2 year cycle. I've got some flowering now, but also some non flowering smaller plants in various places. Maybe it depends on location - perhaps if they flower and set seed early then the plants get big enough to flower the following year, but if they flower and set seed rather later it takes 2?

...wiki seems to concur that biennials can be variable!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biennial_plant

Some of mine flowered this year and some haven't, my mum said they do sometimes have a extra year and then flower the following spring.

Come to think there must be some variability in mine as they all started from some seedlings given me by a friend and have self seeded from then on. They definitely don't all do a yearly cycle but there must be some one (or three) years else I'd only get flowers every other year in perpetuity. Mine naturally shed their seed more towards the back end.