 Bacopa
'Flower Power'
The catchy phrase 'flower power' is often used in advertising
to draw attention either to products which improve the flowering
of plants or to plants which produce spectacular blooms or large
numbers of flowers. A good example of a plant producing large
numbers of flowers is Bacopa, especially the small-flowered
varieties. We thought it would be interesting to carry out a
very simple trial to see just how many flowers Bacopa can produce
in a normal southern UK growing season.
A Bacopa 'Snowflake' plug was planted in
a plastic pot, 19 cm (7.5 inches) diameter x 15 cm (6 inches)
deep, using a branded multi-purpose compost mixed with a controlled-release
fertiliser. The plant was kept on a bench in good light in
an unheated greenhouse throughout the spring, summer and autumn
(of 2007) and watered as required. Soluble fertiliser was
added in one watering in late July.
The small white flowers were removed and
counted as they appeared.
[At this stage you might like to take a
guess at the number of flowers you think can be produced between
April and end October by a single Bacopa Snowflake grown under
these conditions]
So just how many flowers did a single Bacopa
Snowflake produce? To find out the end-of-month TOTAL flower
counts just move your mouse over the pictures below
Total number of flowers removed to end of:
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