Care & Guidance
Whilst you enjoy your perennials for their fantastic foliage or beautiful blooms, it's really the roots you're buying - because the roots allow the plants to come back every year. Use these tips to make sure your perennials get off to the right start.
Container grown perennials are easy to plant and commonly available. Start digging a hole that's a little wider but no deeper than the pot your new perennial came in. Loosen the roots, and spread them out if the plant has become rootbound* (*when roots start to grow in circles around the edge of the pot). Then firm the soil in around the roots and water well.
Planting Tips: water your perennials well after you plant them. Then lay a 2-3 inch deep layer of mulch over the soil around your new plants. The mulch will help the soil hold moisture and prevent weeds from growing. Give taller perennials such as delphiniums, holihocks and peonies support by staking them. Anchor single stems by inserting a rod or sturdy stick into the ground and tying the stem to it. Keep clump forming plants with multiple stems standing, by growing through a hoop. Regularly deadhead and divide your perennials to keep them healthy and looking beautiful.
Deadheading: simply means cutting the faded flowers off your plants. It makes your plants look better and it prevents them from setting seed so you don't have a mass of seedlings popping up in your garden.
Dividing: One of the best things about perennials is that they grow bigger and better each year. But many start to crowd themselves out if they get too big. Keep them performing well by digging them out of the ground and splitting them into smaller chunks every 3 or 4 years. Early spring and autumn are the best times to divide most perennials. A couple of exceptions include bearded iris and hosta: split these perennials in summer.
Watering: There's no one-size fits all rule for watering perennials. Some varieties stand up to drought and others need to be kept moist all the time. Keep your plants healthier and make watering a breeze by grouping plants in acccordance with their watering needs. No matter what perennials you're growing, be sure to keep them all well watered in the first year - that allows them to become well established.
Feeding: If you have rich soil or improve it with garden compost or other forms of organic matter on a regular basis, you probably won't need to feed your plants, But if you're burdened with poor soil, fertilising can be helpful. Take care not to over fertilise - this may make your plants flower less, suffer root injury, or even kill your perennials.
Winter Care: Perennials that are reliably cold hardy in your region shouldn't need any special winter care. But spreading a layer of mulch over them after the soil freezes can help prevent winter damage during an especially cold season. Many gardeners like to leave the dead stems of their perennials standing all winter, providing food for birds. Perennials can help to catch snow, which is one of the best winter mulches.
A very interesting variegated hosta whose leaf colour changes throughout the season, 'Whirlwind' (Plantain Lily) is a lovely addition to shady areas. It forms attractive, dense mounds of ovate to heart-shaped, folded, twisted and pointed, creamy white to lime green leaves with broad dark green margins.
Elegant heart-shaped, yellow-green leaves becoming deeply puckered when mature. Pale lilac flowers in mid to late summer. Height 75cm. Spread 1.2m. Flowers from July to August. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Puckered heart-shaped glaucous green leaves with a bold wide cream margin. Pale lavender-blue flowers in summer. Height 45cm. Spread 1m. Flowers from July to August. Herbaceous. Hardy. Shelter from cold drying winds.
Cupped, green leaves with bright yellow margins, dark green centres and white streaks in between. Margins become apple green in summer and the leaves flatten out. Lavender flowers appear in summer.
A rapidly spreading perennial with pretty variegated leaves with shades of green, pale yellow and red small yellow-green flowers are surrounded by white bracts. Height 15-30cm. Spread Indefinite. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy. Protect with a winter mulch. Can be used as a marginal aquatic plant.
Rose of Sharon. St.John's Wort. An evergreen low-spreading shrub with dark green leaves. Saucer-shaped bright yellow flowers from mid-summer to mid-autumn followed by red berries. Height 30cm. Spread 50cm. Flowers from July to October.
Candytuft. A spreading evergreen subshrub with dark green leaves. Clusters of white flowers occasionally flushed lilac in late spring to early summer. Height 30cm. Spread 40cm. Flowers from May to June. Evergreen.
Spreading sub-shrub with dark green shiny evergreen foliage and mildly scented dense flower heads in late Spring to early Summer. Flat clusters of white flowers with small pink centres.
Candytuft. A mounded evergreen subshrub with dark green leaves. Dense clusters of snow-white flowers in late spring to early summer. Height 25cm. Spread 40cm. Flowers from May to June. Evergreen.
A perennial with basal. divided dark green leaves and tubular. trumpet-shaped deep rose-pink flowers produced in early to mid-summer. Height 60cm. Spread 30cm. Flower colour Pink. Protect from winter wet.
Robust perennial with dark green leaves softly hairy beneath. Bright golden yellow daisy-like flowers in late summer. Height 1.8m. Spread 1m. Flowers from August to September. Herbaceous.
Dark blue, ruffled flowers. Height 20m. Flowers from May to June. Requires sunny spot.
A pretty iris with narrow ribbed bright green and white variegated leaves and stems of purple or red-purple flowers in mid-summer. Height 90cm. Flowers from July to August. Herbaceous. Hardy. Harmful if eaten. Can be grown in wet positions.
Reblooming, tall bearded iris which typically grows to 36" tall and slowly spreads by rhizomes. Standards are light yellow and falls are medium yellow with greenish-tan tinge. Yellow beard. Ruffled. Slight fragrance.
Lots of sword like leaves and masses of red and orange flowers in May and June. Height 70cm. Harmful if eaten.
Bearded Iris. Orange and Pink flowers in May to June and can be planted from January to December. Height 60 cm and above. Partial sun to Full sun.
Rhizomatous perennial to 1m tall, with fans of sword-shaped, greyish-green foliage. The highly ruffled flowers, produced in mid-to-late spring, have primrose-yellow standards and blue-violet falls, with orange beards.
Orris Root. Large flowers with dark amber orange falls (lower petals) and soft yellow standards (upper petals). Sword-like leaves are deciduous, pale green. Flowers appear usually from mid May on sturdy, about 60 cm tall stems.
A bearded iris with sword-like narrow green leaves and stems of purest white flowers in May and June. Repeat flowering later in the summer. Height 80cm. Spread 45cm. Semi-evergreen.
Rich red petals range from bright and light to deep wine red, and the bloom is centred by bright orange stamen and yellow-orange beards.
Fragrant yellow creamy standards and dark purple falls. Full sun or partial shade and fertile moist soil.
Clear rose pink standards over violet purple falls edged rose pink. Beard is red-orange. This is in a class by itself. Blooms are ruffly and large and stalks are well branched. Has fertile pollen.
'Butter and Sugar' is a clump-forming perennial with narrow, leaves and stems to 80cm, bearing 2 white flowers, the standards with a yellow sheen, the falls flushed lemon yellow towards the centre.
Vigorous clumps of grassy leaves with tall stems of delicate rich blue flowers with white veining on the falls from early to mid-summer. Height 90cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy. Harmful if eaten.
Blue flowers with yellow centre. Height 60cm.
A clump-forming perennial with pretty tubular pale yellow flowers. Flowers August - September. Height 60-120 cm. Spread 75 cm. Herbaceous. Shelter from cold winds.
Field Scabious. A clump-forming perennial with dull green leaves and bluish lilac or pink pincushion flowerheads. Height 90cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from July to September. Semi-evergreen. Hardy.
Clump forming perennial with spikes of pale yellow flowers from bronze stems and arching leaves in July to September. Height 1m. Spread 60cm.
A relatively tall plant, to 140cm, with clean coloured upright to arching foliage and rather long, narrowish flower heads. Floriferous, with an unusual flower habit as only the very lowest of the peachy orange florets with dark orange stripes fade at maturity, to pale apricot cream. Flower stems darkish.
Red Hot Poker. A clump-forming perennial with narrow grass-like arching leaves. Flower spikes of coral red. Height 60cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from August to September. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Massive foliage plant with very large (wide and long) keelless greyish leaves (keeled when young) and stumpy coral and cream pokers April - June, 1.3m x 1m, evergreen.
This late-flowering South African red hot poker rooperi boasts a broad, squatty head. Each flower head is exquisitely patterned yellow at the bottom and bright orange all the way to the top.
Red Hot Poker. A clump-forming perennial with narrow. V-shaped leaves and flower spikes of red buds opening to orange then fading to yellow. Height 1.2m. Spread 60cm. Flowers from September to October. Evergreen. Hardy.
Lovely heads of bronzy-green, aging to golden yellow. August-September. [3'+] 91cm.
A clump-forming perennial with green leaves. heavily veined. produces pinkish purple flowers from late spring to summer. Height 45cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from April to August. Herbaceous. Hardy.
A dense mat-forming perennial with silver leaves narrowly margined with green and clear pink flowers in summer. Height 20cm. Spread 1m. Flowers from June to August. Semi-evergreen. Hardy.
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