no such thing as a dud.. per se... too much shade will force a flowering plant into producing greenery only ... but it has to be pretty dark ... if you slaughtered the root system.. it would not surprise me that it was spending energy on regrowing roots .. over flower ... only time will tell if they bloom this year ken

Hi Ellen, My Astilbe 'Seranade' usually began blooming in my Z5-6 Ohio garden around the 25th of July, continuing until about the 12th of August. Definitely the last of MY tall pinks. 'Visions in Pink' was done for me by the end of July. Another chinensis'Pumila' (which is a pinkish color that I can't describe and couldn't wear), bloomed from mid-July until August 20th. Hope this helps and good luck with your astilbes. I just LOVE them! PattiOh

Linnea and Linda....that's exactly what I mean re the Monarda (bloom, fade, mildew and cut back = big open space). It's great that your plants last all season as...mine are great, but short lived. They get a decent amount of sun, but with big trees around, they don't get "full" sun all day long. Rivka...I have Echincea growing in other spaces, so I can dig some up and inter space with the Monarda...sounds good. When you cut your Monarda back, do you literally cut the tops off, or pinch to the lst leaves?? Leslie, I bought 3 late blooming Orientals yesterday, so it will be interesting to see how they do. I've only grown Asiatic lilies, so don't know what to expect. Thanks for the link. Also bought some late blooming Astilbe. Do I need manure, or can I use plant food? I don't usually feed my plants.

A little more about re-blooming. Earlier I said a bulb can bloom as many as three times a year. That is a general statement and how many times a bulb will bloom will depend on the genetic heritage it has. plant guy reports that none of his large-flowered Dutch hybrids has ever bloomed more than once a year. That is usually the case with most modern hybrids. One reason is that they will send up 1, 2 or 3 scapes at a time depending on the size of the bulb. In sending up 3 scapes, for instance, the bulb needs a year to prepare the next scape for blooming. If a medium sized bulb sends up only one scape, in 3-4 months (but sometimes less--it's not a hard and fast rule) a second scape may be ready to go. You may have seen this happen--just as the first scape has finally dried up, a second emerges. Sometimes it's 2 at once then a 3rd later, kind of in an extended blooming period, not so much like well-separated ones. Some years they may do one thing and the next they do another. If it doesn't happen, it's not necessarily anything you did or didn't do--you really can blame it on the bulb! They may lack that particular disposition due to genetic heritage. I wasn't specific enough when I said a Hippeastrum *can* re-bloom, it seems and it sounds like I meant *any* of them can. That's not what I meant you to get from that. Not all of them can re-bloom and should not be expected to. It *can* happen, a second or third blooming--but it depends on the specific bulb. Grow them all as best you can anyway! Cultural handling can vary from year to year and any combination of factors can play into this, as far as known re-bloomers goes. If I had a striatum that *didn't* give me at least one re-blooming after 3-5 months--something is wrong. Striatum is one species that regularly blooms 3 times a year under good conditions. Only one blooming a year--you could do better.....If you get a second blooming, you're doing better, but cultural conditions could still be improved.....3 cycles of bloom--that's the way to do it! Commercial breeders are interested in bulbs that *don't* offset prolifically and will send up multiple scapes all at once, *one time* a year. That is to benefit the cut flower trade as well as the home grower--one big show or one good "crop" of flowers is what it is all about. So many people are happy with a holiday Hippi blooming once--its scary how many people just toss them after that. That's all they want. As far as breeding good multipliers goes--this is counterproductive and the last thing commercial growers are interested in. The offsets pull on the mother bulb and slow it's increase. They are not needed in large commercial ventures: they section or chip the bulbs for rapid increase and do not rely on offset production. So anyway, some modern cultivars *will* re bloom. In my small collection, this year I had a second flush from Rilona, Dancing Queen, Piquant and as I said, H. striatum. Right now I have a third flush on one of my striatums. This is my first season with the three named hybrids, so I don't know how reliably they will re-bloom for me, but I'll be expecting that it is quite possible based on what happened this year. Is it possible that the re-blooming was due to their being newly planted bulbs? Could be...I just couldn't say. Next year will be interesting....... Robert.