if you think of flowering.. as sexual maturity ...

and maturity .... as a function of root mass .. enabling a plant to put out the flowers ...

then all one can say .. is that they will achieve maximum flowering .. when they are fully 'established' ...

and how all that works with your babes .. in your garden .. well .. you can only wait and see ...

all that said ... and w/o knowing what plants we are talking about .. i suppose we could say .. generally ... that they should start performing this year ... all other things being proper.. like water.. sun.. soil.. mulch.. etc ...

now .. will fertilizer quicken maturity ... i doubt it ... feeding the kids vitamins .. isnt going to speed the maturity process .. its genetic ...

but then some vitamins .. arent going to hurt .. and a little of this or that fertilizer .. should not hurt either ... but i doubt it will quicken the process ...

in other words.. its not a food issue .... its a maturity issue ...

hows that for insight ..

ken

OK thanks Ken, so it sounds like they will bloom this year but it may be later on. My puny foxglove bloomed last year but it wasn't as flashy as the bigger ones.

The ones I am potting for sale are columbines and foxgloves (biennial but 2nd year).

I will pot up some of the bigger ones as well and maybe that will stagger their bloom times.

I have painted daisy, canterbury bells (another biennial 2nd year) and verbascum that I have grown for cut flowers.

well if they flowered late last year.. though puny.. one would think.. they should be all set to go for it this season ...

and probably for sure on the true biennials ...

ken

So many factors that goes into play when you play something. As an example, stuff I planted the first year died because I planted them in the wrong spot. Generally, the plants are in the right place, their roots will grow and they will be bigger next year. The best example of this is the butterfly weed and woodland poppy that I planted. Both were tiny and didn't even flower the first year. The second year, the leaves and the plants were larger. If they are not coming back bigger, there may be an issue (root competition, soil defficiency, etc).

Paul