Since I grow virtually nothing intentionally from seed (see my comments in the 'Germinating this Week' thread), I have nothing personal to contribute re: seed growing and length of time to flowering :-) But some plants are notoriously slow to produce flowers, for example seed grown wisteria (up to 20 years!). Also climbing hydrangeas and Cornus kousa grown from seed need multiple years of establishment before they will flower (5-7 or more). And the giant Himalayan lily, Cardiocrinum giganteum, has to be about 7 years old before it flowers. And then it dies!!

plumeria from seed, 9 yrs. still waiting on some naked lady bulbs. I have read they may never flower b/c of their full sun location. Don't feel energized enough to move them just yet.

5 years is nothing to me (trilliums, bluebells, martagon lilies, tulipa, dierama - 7 years is a stretch (just started cardiocrinums) but mainly, as long as I can get the seedlings to a state of independence (in the ground) after 3 years or so, I am not really bothered by the waiting. Currently sowing a lot of tree seeds, many of which will be reaching maturity long after I have been turned into (hopefully helpful) compost.

I have no patience for that, I'd rather just buy the plant and enjoy it. I do grow annuals, vegetables, and herbs from seeds, but usually not perennials -- like I said, no patience.

Well, it took 2 yrs for clematis texensis to germinate, three years more to get to near blooming size and produce flowers...which the rabbit sheared off just before flowers opened. I never saw teh flower, I moved and it probably died due to lawnmower abuse.

I waited at least five years for hymenocallis liriosome to produce it's flowers, and it was SO worth it!

Yes, I am also doing that endless wait for clems to germinate - this spring had better see some action.

30 years for a belladonna lily. I gave up waiting and tossed it.

I waited 7 years for a Glory lilac to bloom, and it turned out to be the wrong one.

Brunsvigia grandiflora. 14 years and still waiting. The plant is healthy though, and is slowly sizing up. I don't want to fertilize it because I think that could reduce its hardiness. It was slower to appear than usual after the cold winters of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, but it did appear. It is possible that it is so confused with the climate here, that it will never bloom. This problem seems to bedeviled certain other South African geophytes - but by no means all of them. For example, Dieramas have sometimes survived 10 years for me, sized up well, and never bloomed. The cold winters killed most of them, anyhow. In the case of those I think it's a lack of cool night vernalization in mid summer. With the Brunsivigia, which should be able to bloom in spring or fall, I think it's just confused by the rainfall patterns and cold winters. It "expects" to have a dry, mild winter; our normally wet ones encourage it to become winter growing, however we are too cold in winter for it to be very successful with that. So it tends to flip back and forth every couple years. A drier winter, wetter summer will cause it to flip to summer growing; dry summers cause it to flip to winter growing!

wanton, just spotted your reply.

I would have thought that Amaryllis belladonna could do well in your area. Was it just one that was a dud? Do you see them in other gardens? I'm trying a few again, after trying one years ago and having it (I think) rot away in summer. They are definitely a long shot this far north but I was hoping maybe they can adapt to their vegetative growth being in spring instead of winter.

The Brunsvigia I talk about of course is closely related and hybrids between the two have been created. It has much better foliar hardiness than A. belladonna. The leaves remain turgid down to about 10F, while A. belladonna foliage seems to die around 20F and turn to dark mush.

got in a similar mess with species gladioli, David...easy to germinate and grow but absolute nightmares to get a bloom without endless faffing, in and out of plunge beds, covers on, covers off... and yep, a sniff of moisture at the wrong time and whoosh, tons of hopeful leaf growth with no chance of flowers. So NOT the sort of conscientious nurture to ever issue forth from my careless hands.Gave up on the glads but still hopeful for freesias - a massive clump pf some white species is growing in the greenhouse.

It's interesting you mention glads though, because my 2nd longest wait was probably a glad from Silverhill Seeds I sowed around the same time as the Brunsivigia. It took roughly 8 years to bloom! Again, I did not fertilize it, not even once, for fear the growth would soften and it would lose hardiness. When it finally did bloom I'd lost track of what species it was supposed to be. It wasn't quite as spectacular as I'd hoped, but still pretty nice. It looks like this: http://www.ecoman.co.za/nursery/gallery/gallery_images/g_dalenii.html

The clump is now expanding and it blooms pretty reliably, albeit briefly in early summer. (I finally gave it a sip of fertilizer a couple years ago) This year I want to try to freeze some of the pollen and cross it with the even more finicky G. saundersii, which blooms in late summer - if it's in a really good mood. Spotted red X spotted orange could lead to some nice looking progeny.

oh, don't be tempting me again....the only species glads I now have are the pale yellow tristis and my pride and joy, a terrific papillio hybrid which has deep crimson hooded blooms...and the little g.communis subsp byzantinus which has naturalised all over the allotment.

David, The 8 Belladonna lily bulbs were large and healthy and multiplied and never ever bloomed. No , I do not see them in gardens blooming much but I have seen them a long time ago but not lately.

Campanula, per the other thread of mine here, that red papilio hybrid is one I got from Far Reaches Farm, after reading about it on a UK website quite a few years ago.

wanton, well, that is a mystery. IIRC, your summers (in "Centex") are slightly wetter than your winters, but no season is truly very moist for a prolonged period. Maybe it is somewhat flummoxed by that. OTOH, I've seen them blooming their heads off at Isola Madre, where the climate is quite non-Mediterranean as well. (65 inches of a rain a year, all seasons with no peak, cool but never cold winters, summers warmer than England, but much milder than the greater CONUS) Actually writing that gives me a thought, you have some warm spells every winter right? Getting up to maybe 80F? Maybe those confuse it as well. I think when the Cape (of SA) cools off, it stays that way.

I didn't realize Austin had the somewhat rare "two peaks" of rainfall pattern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas#Climate

I wonder if that could be the problem. The odd growth of my Brunsvigia has shown that these Amaryllids from regions with very stable climate patterns can be sensitive to small shifts in rainfall.

"And the giant Himalayan lily, Cardiocrinum giganteum, has to be about 7 years old before it flowers. And then it dies!!''

Ahhh but the pups it produces before it does die bloom in 3 to 4 years, in fact I had one that bloomed in two years :).

Annette