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Recommendations for resources for growth per season of plant…

squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
edited May 2021 in Problem solving
One of the challenges of being new to gardening is how to find out the approximate growth of a plant per season (in the UK). RHS gives an approximate timescale but it’s often too broad to be helpful.

For example: I have a small achillea (cerise queen) plant that I bought as a plug last autumn. It’s still small but I don’t know whether to keep it in a pot this year or plant it out because I don’t know how fast it will grow. RHS states it reaches 0.5-1m in 2-5 years… which is too broad to be helpful.

I understand plant growth is vastly conditional but an approximate timeline of growth would really be helpful to newbie gardeners. 
 
Can anyone recommend a useful resource for this?

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    If you look at various online gardening suppliers, many will tell you how big the plant will get and how long to get to maturity. It's often a matter of doing a lot of internet searching to get a sense, if you don't know the plant.

    Burncoose describe it as 'vigorous', which to me suggests it gets to height fairly fast.

    There will be a lot of variation for any plant depending on the conditions its planted in - levels of sunshine, nutrients, night temps., care given, etc. What might shoot up in one garden might be sluggish in others.

    Perhaps there is an element of looking, waiting and learning. Put it in a pot when small, tend it, see what it does, plant it out if it seems sturdy enough to look after itself, see what happens, don't worry too much. If it's in the wrong place, move it.

    You are in the right place here to ask and learn about the habits of particular plants.
    I spend a fair amount of time on Youtube looking things up.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I agree with @Fire. There are so many variables that it is impossible to give more than a general idea. Apart from the size and health of an individual plant there are soil, pest, climate conditions, light, the specific planting area, the attention you give it. Plants that are invasive pests in one garden struggle to survive in another, giant thugs become polite companions. Take the general description of the plant as a guide but use experiment and experience to build your knowledge.
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    As a case in point I bought a hydrangea little lime in 2017 with expectation of it reaching 6ft.
    It is still only around 1ft, it's healthy and flowers but it's not the statement shrub I was hoping for!
    A little research told me this sometimes can happen.
  • WibbleWibble Posts: 89
    A timeline resource would be great, but you could be right that it’s just too variable to be able to do well.

    Regarding your achillea- I have Cerise Queen, bought last year in a 9cm pot. It was about 5cm high and 5cm across. I planted it straight in the ground (in May) and it grew to about 50 cm high and 20 cm across by the end of the season-was very happy with it! It’s just coming back for this season and it looks to be about 30cm across so far.  I am on heavy clay with a lot of stone, and this achillea is in partial shade. Hope that info might help.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I agree, growth rates and ultimate height and spread can only be taken as an approximation, given all the variables mentioned above. A hard lesson to learn as I like to plan but things rarely went to plan. I’ve had perennials grow to two or three times stated sizes, others seem destined to remain smaller since they haven’t reached that after 5 years. Rarely do I get initial spacing right as I have no idea what it’s going to do here, despite the right conditions, care, watering etc. There is always a fair amount of jostling and shuggling around of plants in my borders.

    Achilleas are an interesting example, they need a much richer soil and far more watering to thrive here - far less drought-tolerant than I expected. Other, allegedly fussy water hogs that I took a risk in planting (in theory wrong plant, wrong place) romp away without a care. 
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    In addition to what everyone else has said, keeping your achillea (and other perennials) in pots will tend to restrict their growth. They'll get bigger faster in the ground.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    Wibble said:
    A timeline resource would be great, but you could be right that it’s just too variable to be able to do well.

    Regarding your achillea- I have Cerise Queen, bought last year in a 9cm pot. It was about 5cm high and 5cm across. I planted it straight in the ground (in May) and it grew to about 50 cm high and 20 cm across by the end of the season-was very happy with it! It’s just coming back for this season and it looks to be about 30cm across so far.  I am on heavy clay with a lot of stone, and this achillea is in partial shade. Hope that info might help.

    That’s really helpful. I also have heavy clay and was planning on keeping the achillea in pots because I’d read online they online thrive in ‘well-draining soil’.
  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    Thank you all for your helpful responses and pointers 

  • squirral87k4-WvGwTsquirral87k4-WvGwT Posts: 167
    edited May 2021
    Nollie said:
    I agree, growth rates and ultimate height and spread can only be taken as an approximation, given all the variables mentioned above. A hard lesson to learn as I like to plan but things rarely went to plan. I’ve had perennials grow to two or three times stated sizes, others seem destined to remain smaller since they haven’t reached that after 5 years. Rarely do I get initial spacing right as I have no idea what it’s going to do here, despite the right conditions, care, watering etc. There is always a fair amount of jostling and shuggling around of plants in my borders.

    Achilleas are an interesting example, they need a much richer soil and far more watering to thrive here - far less drought-tolerant than I expected. Other, allegedly fussy water hogs that I took a risk in planting (in theory wrong plant, wrong place) romp away without a care. 

    I’ve had the same experience. I scattered some ammi majus seeds on my heavy clay soil which had not been worked or improved in years. I did this in autumn - thinking they might not survive the cold nor thrive in my soil - but they survived and are now thriving! 
  • ElferElfer Posts: 329
    We moved in to our 1st house with a garden 3 years ago. Its was already planted out by the developers in a generic way however over the next couple of years we noticed that the same plant grew at different rates depending on actual location while some actually died. After a bit of trial and error I have taken a greater interest in the art & science of gardening this year and realise the number of variables at play, type of soil, preparation, compost, weather, nutrition, water requirements, location, amount of sun, diseases, ongoing care and maintenance as well as actual health of plants you buy. Even with my very limited knowledge and experience I know it would be impossible to forecast a growth rate given all the variables at play.

    If you get all these factors right then you can usually expect to see your plants flourish, in some cases almost on a daily basis.

    BTW @K67 Paniculata little lime is one of the smaller varieties reaching a max height of 1.2m or 4ft perhaps you are thinking of his giant brother, limelight which can grow to 7ft or more. Still 1ft is not a lot for a 4 yr old little lime, there might be something that is affecting its growth, light or nutrition ..... I have just planted a couple of skyfall paniculatas which should reach 1.2m ie similar size to little lime. They came in 2L pots and are very small but hope they be a lot bigger than yours in 4 years.

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