On my character now I'm nearly pushing 500 hours of game time and I collect every mat I come across. Sometimes on farm sessions I will spend a few hours opening 100s of barrels, crates and sacks for ingredients. I've spent probably 10+ hours fishing which nets a lot of nirnroot and water hyacinth HOWEVER!
I've just got a friend into the game and I told him not to bother collecting ingredients because I have 100s of each and he can have however many he wants so I look in my crafting bag and the numbers just don't seem right. I get 40 ingredients a day and yet most of my stacks don't even break 100. Columbine as well, I've got about 100 but I picked 10 up yesterday alone and I've never used them, I don't do writs or make my own potions. It's like I pick stuff up and they just disappear.