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 regal beauty for a border where the stunning flower spikes will be a talking point. Yellow spike flowers. Beautiful and unusual.
Lupin. A clump forming perennial with attractive foliage and spikes of bicoloured pink and white flowers in early and mid-summer. Height 90cm. Spread 75cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy. Harmful if eaten.
Alpine Campion. A dwarf tufted perennial with rosettes of dark green leaves and rounded clusters of purplish pink flowers. Height 15cm. Spread 15cm. Flowers from June to August.
Alpine Campion. Perennial with sticky stems, grass like foliage and dense terminal clusters of tufted, dark pink flowers in late spring. Flowers from June to August. Herbaceous.
Dusty Miller. Rose Campion. An erect perennial with woolly silver-grey leaves and open blood red flowers in late summer. Height 75cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from June to August. Semi-evergreen. Hardy.
A British native wild flower with bluish green leaves and star-shaped pink flowers in late spring and early summer. Height 75cm. Spread 80cm. Flowers from May to June. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Flower of Jove. A dwarf perennial with grey hairy leaves and red flowers from early to late summer. Height 25cm. Spread 20cm. Flowers from June to August. Semi-evergreen. Hardy.
A sterile hybrid between Lychnis flos-jovis and L.coronaria. A long-blooming plant May-Oct, strong pink-red flowers, grey foliage 75cm.
Loosestrife. A bi-annual with grey, crinkle-edged leaves with pale veins and attractive burgundy flowers. Self-seeds. Height 75cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from June to August. Biennial. Hardy.
An improvement on the previous 'Snow Candle' form - this has more white flower spikes on compact, green foliage. Prefers full sun, or partial shade with free-draining soil or compost.
Loosestrife. An attractive perennial with reddish purple leaves and slightly pendent, star-shaped yellow flowers with a small reddish brown centre. Height 90cm. Spread 60cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy.
A mass of small purple leaves and abundant golden yellow, bell-shaped flowers distinguish this groundcover. It is useful on slopes as well as in containers. Full sun or part shade and humusy, moist but well-drained soil. Divide in spring or autumn.
Alexander is a vigorous perennial forming a substantial clump of erect stems with lance-shaped leaves boldly margined with cream and often tinged pink, and bowl-shaped bright yellow flowers 2.5cm wide in the upper leaf axils in mid summer.
Slender spikes or pale pink flowers, which are very popular with bees and butterflies, from midsummer to early autumn. The foliage has good autumn colour.
Pink Loosestrife. A clump-forming erect perennial with tall spikes of bright pink flowers from mid-summer to early autumn. Height 90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from July to September. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Purple Loosestrife. A clump-forming erect perennial with spikes of bright pink flowers from mid-summer to early autumn. Height 40/50cm. Flowers from July to September. Herbaceous.
Velvety, plum-purple flowers with deep purple veins which emerge from distinctive purple flower buds. Biennial or an annual.
Upright, bushy biennial or short-lived, woody perennial with rounded to heart-shaped, lobed, dark green leaves and, from summer into autumn, open, funnel-shaped, lavender flowers with prominent dark purple veins.
Perennial flowering April - June. Swooney jade green bracts with an umbrella like head. The bracts turn an attractive pink and persist until autumn. Good for cutting and drying. 1m high.
Himalayan Blue Poppy. A choice perennial with rosettes of light bluish green hairy leaves. Beautiful saucer-shaped bright blue flowers with yellow stamens in early summer. Height 1.2m. Spread 45cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy. Shelter from cold drying winds.
Meconopsis belong to the poppy family (Papaveraceae), but they are not true poppies (Papaver). Commonly known as Himalayan Poppies, these magnificent and much admired perennials bear breathtaking poppy-like flowers. The short-lived. clump-forming plants are fully hardy and prefer a lime-free soil. Flowers June-August. Height 100cm (40"). Supplied in a 9cm pot. Lingholm - Magnificent sky-blue blooms. Height 100cm (40"); spread 15cm (6"). Back of border variety.
Honey Bush. An architectural plant with deeply cut glaucous blue-grey foliage and brownish crimson to deep brick red flowers. May die down in most winters but shoots again. Height 2-3m. Spread 1-3m. Flowers from May to July. Evergreen. Sheltered site.
Compact, clump-forming perennial to 40cm tall and wide with oval of egg-shaped deeply-veined leaves with scalloped edges. Both the stems and leaves are covered with hairs and are honey scented.
'Beauty of Cobham' is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial to 90cm in height, with aromatic, lance-shaped, purplish-green leaves. Terminal whorls of two-lipped, pale purplish-pink flowers 5cm in length have contrasting purple calyxes.
Compact, Monarda 'Blue Moon' (Bee Balm) is a clump-forming perennial boasting lavender blue flowers, 2 in. across (5 cm), borne in dense, globular terminal heads. Blooming for weeks from mid to late summer, they rest upon a whorl of decorative purple bracts and attract scores of butterflies and hummingbirds. The showy blossoms rise on strong, well-branched stems, clad with aromatic, dark green leaves, which exude a mint fragrance when crushed, and are often used to flavour teas.
Bergamot. An aromatic clump-forming perennial with rich scarlet-red flowers. Height 90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from July to September. Herbaceous. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Bergamot. An aromatic clump-forming perennial with clear rose-pink flowers. Height 60-90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from July to September. Herbaceous. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Distinctive, full-sized, sugar plum purple, Bee Balm flowers are produced on a compact, bushy plant. The exquisite blooms are complemented by the dark green, healthy foliage splendidly. Prefers full sun, or partial shade with free-draining soil or compost.
An aromatic clump-forming perennial with dense, purple flowers. Height 90cm. Spread 45cm. Flower colour Purple. Flowers from August to September. Herbaceous. Foliage colour Green. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Bergamot. An aromatic clump-forming perennial with white flowers. Height 60-90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from June to August. Herbaceous.
An aromatic clump-forming perennial with scarlet or pink flowers with red tinged bracts. Height 90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from July to August. Herbaceous. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Whorlflower. A prickly rosette-forming perennial with whorled stems of white flowers turning pink. Height 90cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from June to August. Evergreen. Hardy.
A prostrate shrub with dark green leaves. Yellow-green flowers followed by glossy black fruit. Height 20cm. Spread 1m. Flowers from June to Septemeber. Fruits from September. Semim-evergreen. Frost hardy. Shelter from cold drying winds.
This hybrid is an amazing combination of dark pink flowers from its Bergenia heritage and jagged leafedges and great fall color from Mukdenia 'Crimson Fans'. A cool and lovely intergeneric cross. The thick, leathery leaves last longer than Mukdenia in the fall before they go down for the winter. Long-lived and good in containers.
Forms a low mound of large, bold maple-shaped leaves, bronze-green in spring, later becoming deep green with stunning crimson tips. Small white bell-shaped flowers appear in spring before the leaves. Must have an evenly moist, rich woodland soil. Deciduous in winter.
Dwarf Cavendish is an evergreen perennial to 3m tall with oblong leaves to 1.2m long, drooping spikes of yellow flowers with purple bracts open sporadically through the year followed by edible yellow fruit.
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