Perennials

Perennials For Gardens are the #1 Garden Staple

 Whether you're planning a flower garden for the very first time or you're an old hand expanding into a new area, it's probably crossed your mind at least once whether to put your efforts into growing annuals or perennials. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. During the flowering season, annual flowers tend to bloom for longer periods of time, but when their season is over, that's the end of them, and they must be replaced. Perennial flowers and plants, on the other hand, if cared for properly, can last for years upon years, but their bloom times are significantly shorter. What to do?

Advantages of Perennial Planting

 While annuals will add beautiful bursts of color to any flower garden, most seasoned gardeners prefer to install a variety of perennial plants. There are several arguments in their favor. 

Perennial Plants Come in a Huge Assortment

 Who wouldn't fall in love with a border wall of ginormous blue and white flowering hydrangea bushes? Or a formal garden trellis covered with gorgeous climbing roses? One can plant a perennial garden that blooms early with tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and other spring bulbs. A wide variety of iris may show a little later in the spring, followed by an assortment of lilies and then chrysanthemums in the fall. From formal, shade-loving hostas with lush foliage to wild and free windflowers, when properly planned and sequenced, anyone can create a beautiful perennial garden with an abundance of color from early spring to the first frost. 

Perennials Are Easier to Maintain

 Unlike the woody perennial variety, herbaceous perennial plants will die back at the end of the flowering season, but they should return the next. As a result, you won't have to pull up dead plants, and no annual composting or mulching is required. About the only work you'll want to do is to deadhead the spent blooms as this will encourage additional flowers. 

They Add Benefit to Other Plants in Your Garden

 Perennial plants often grow from bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or tubers, and these deeper root systems help to aerate the soil to the benefit of other plants in your garden. These root systems not only pull water and valuable nutrients like nitrogen to the soil's surface, but they also help aerate the soil allowing in more oxygen. Additionally, many perennials, such as creeping forget-me-nots, provide a ground cover that protects the soil in two ways, first by mitigating erosion and second by holding in moisture. 

They Are Easy to Propagate

 Perennial plants don't last forever, but the beauty is that you can either divide them in the fall or take root cuttings in the spring or fall and plant them elsewhere in your garden. Basically, once you have a few, with proper care, you can have free plants for yourself and your gardening friends for years. 

Plant a Perennial Garden!

 The possibilities are endless when you plant a garden with easy-to-care-for perennial shrubs, flowers, and trees. Just be patient with your perennial flowers, as they tend to be slower to mature than annuals and may take a year or two to bloom. With a little effort, you'll soon have a garden that's the envy of your neighborhood!