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.
Flowering perennial with intense yellow flowers, it has a very uniform upright habit and flowering time. A great subject for the border or containers.
White flowers that have a pink blush with elegant, slender stems that branch out above mid green foliage. Vigorous but with a compact habit. Prefers full sun or partial shade in free draining soil or compost.
Dwarf compact form. Bushy clump-forming perennial with slender stems. Produces star-shaped white flowers. Flowers from June to October. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Wand flower. Upright, bushy, freely-branching perennial with tall slender stems with lance shaped leaves. Wand like panicles of white flowers. Flowers from June to September. Height 90cm. Spread 60cm. Attracts bees, butterflies and other pollinators.
A tufted plant with glossy green leaves, the flowers are funnel-bell-shaped and deep blue in colour. Hardy.
Upright perennial with dark-green, ovate leaves. From mid-summer to early autumn, it has clusters of electric-blue flowers atop its leafy stems. Plant in moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade.
Cranesbill. A sprawling perennial with deeply divided yellowish green leaves. Flowers magenta-pink with a dark centres. Height 60cm. Spread 1m. Flowers from July to October. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Remarkable radiant gold-tinted foliage. Large vibrant dark magenta flowers with dark eye-zone. Easy care perennials.
Large, blue saucer-like flowers with white centres are produced across a slender carpet of pretty, deeply divided mid-green leaves. Similar to 'Rozanne', but much lower growing making it ideal for parts of the garden. Height 20 cm x 45 cm
'Black Beauty' is a compact, clump-forming perennial with dark purple to black foliage and large, blue flowers in summer.
Young leaves in spring are bright yellow, and continue yellow tinged into early summer. Mid-size blue flowers.
Saucers of pink flowers (on the blue side of pink) continuously for many months. These sit just above dense mound of small, round, mid-green leaves.
Hardy geranium. Striking pewtered bronze leaves. Rose pink flowers with white eye. 12" height. Prolific flowering from early summer to autumn.
'Biokovo' is an evergreen, clump-forming perennial that has green, aromatic foliage that takes on red and yellow colours in autumn with nodding white flowers that are flushed pink from late spring to late summer.
Cranesbill. An evergreen geranium with aromatic shiny leaves and flowers held well above the leaves. Height 15cm. Spread 20-30cm. Flowers from May to June. Evergreen. Hardy.
This hybrid geranium is a spreading. rhizomatous plant typically growing 6-10'' high. Forms compact mats of foliage free flowering. pink flowers
Cranesbill. A very attractive plant with tufts of grey-green leaves and delicate cup-shaped, purplish-pink flowers darkly veined from a dark central zone. Height 15-20cm. Spread 20-30cm. Flowers from May to July. Evergreen. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Cranesbill. An elegant spreading plant with deeply and narrowly cut leaves with large deep violet-purple flowers, veined lilac-pink. Height 45cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from May to August. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Large clump forming variety. Its flowers are white with purple veins. Leaves are hairy, broad and mottled in colour.
Cup-shaped blooms with deep purple veining. Low-growing mounds of dark green leaves topped with colourful blooms.
Cranesbill. A mat of almost evergreen deeply cut and pointed light green leaves. Bright pink, funnel-shaped flowers. Height 45cm. Spread 60-90cm. Flowers from May to September. Evergreen. Hardy.
Rich blue blooms above low mounds of hardy blue green foliage. Care Instructions: Cut plant back to 1' after blooming to encourage growth of fresh new foliage. 30-45cm.
Blooms in spring with soft lavender-blue flowers. Attractive leaves, deeply dissected, and have a dark red/brown colour. Height 30cm. Spread 30cm. Plant in sun or part shade. Requires a well-drained soil.
Large, mid-blue saucer-like flowers are perched above a spreading mound of deeply divided leaves. Resembles Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' but much shorter. Height 25x 60cm.
A small, very compact form of Geranium psilostemon with large, black-eyed, carmine-pink flowers covering deeply divided, mid-green leaves.
Large lilac-pink saucer shaped flowers held above lightly marbled foliage. It has the same growth habit as Rozanne and members of the wallichianum species so provides excellent ground cover as it will scramble its way through other shrubs and plants in the border.
Cranesbill. A spreading mat-forming perennial with light green aromatic evergreen leaves. Abundant clusters of pretty soft pink flowers. Height 30-45cm. Spread 60-90cm. Flowers from June to July. Evergreen.
Good ground cover for difficult areas. Large trumpet shaped flowers. Deep rosy pink with network of darker veins.
Cranesbill. A tall plant with very large handsome leaves and large reddish purple flowers with a dark. star-shaped eye. Height 75cm. Spread 30cm. Flowers from June to September. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Cranesbill. An elegant perennial with blue-grey softly hairy leaves. Attractive large bluish purple flowers with strong dark veins. Height 35cm. Spread 40cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy.
Months of saucer-shaped blooms of bright magenta purple. It is a low growing plant that produces mounds of foliage making it ideal for mass planting groundcover, edging a border or for planting in containers.
Cranesbill. A geranium with deeply divided leaves and pretty double white flowers. Height 60-90cm. Spread 45cm. Flowers from June to July. Herbaceous. Hardy.
A vigorous, mound-forming, herbaceous perennial. Deeply lobed, toothed, mid-green leaves and upright stems. Double, violet-marked, white flowers in late spring and early summer.
Young leaves in spring are bright yellow, and continue yellow tinged into early summer. Mid-size blue flowers.
Compact form with deeply divided mid-green foliage and clear white flowers. It is similar to G. pratense var. pratense f. albiflorum but the flowers are larger.
A spectacular cranesbill. Deep cut foliage turning flame-red in Autumn. Masses of magenta flowers with black centres. A long and wonderful display. Height 120 inch. Width 60cm.
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