What do perennials look like

You can divide perennials when they outgrow a space, or you just want to establish them elsewhere. Exchange them with gardening friends! This is a great way to expand your beds and borders for free. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. Nan Schiller is a writer with deep roots in the soil of southeastern Pennsylvania. Her background includes landscape and floral design, a BS in business from Villanova University, and a Certificate of Merit in floral design from Longwood Gardens. Hi Scott — Thank you!

Ways to minimize perennial garden maintenance are to start with native plants that pretty much take care of themselves once established. In addition, buy mature nursery plants that are ready to fend for themselves soon after the transition to your garden, rather than seeds or seedlings that need a lot of water and care until they are established.

Add mulch to the garden to keep weeds down and retain moisture. Optional chores with perennials include deadheading, pruning, and dividing. You may choose to remove the spent blossoms to encourage more blooming, trim down leggy stems, … Read more ». What is the best month to plant them in New Jersey? All annuals can grow in pots in NJ like canna lilies? Do I have to have self watering pots? Or I can water daily? Thank you. Hi Lorena — You may direct sow annual or perennial seeds after the last average frost date has passed.

This varies in NJ from the third week in April to the first week in May. You may grow canna lily bulbs in containers. They will need to be quite large.

Plants may reach five feet tall and they have deep roots, so choose standard pots with a minimum diameter of 18 to 20 inches. Hi Nan, I found this article really useful, thank you. You talk about different number zones, and I was wondering if you have a zone map or more information about zones on your website? Thanks, Rachel. Great question, Shirley. Yes, there is! You can find it here. Thank you, this blog is informative. I was looking for a long time to plant some flower plants for my home garden.

I will recommend this blog to my neighbors. Hi Nan, I am in Utah with its great clay and difficult rocky soil. Amending with topsoil and some nutrients I can grow some beautiful dandelions. Can you help with some tips on my garden issues? Thank You!

Hi Kim — Organic amendments like aged manure, compost, mulch, and peat moss help to loosen and improve rocky clay soil. Where I live in England, people spend shed loads of cash killing them with RoundUp.

I do not though, I think they are pretty and I love the fluffy seed heads too. Black-Eyed Susan Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia is a native wildflower that does best in full sun and organically-rich soil but tolerates average soil and even drought. Black-Eyed Susan Rudbeckia Seeds via True Leaf Market Try alternating black-eyed Susan with Montauk daisy and coneflower for an interesting grouping of medium-height flora with similar sun and soil requirements.

Blazing Star Blazing star Liatris spicata is a native wildflower that attracts pollinators to the garden. Blazing star adds vertical drama to a garden.

Spikes laden with blossoms of pink, purple, or white may reach 4 feet in height. Blazing star Liatris spicata via Eden Brothers Interplant blazing star at mid-story for unexpected vertical drama, or at the back of beds and border for structural definition.

Sow seed or plants in spring or fall in zones 3 to 8. Bugleweed Bugleweed Ajuga is a fast-growing evergreen ground cover for sunny to partly shady areas with average to moist, well-drained soil. Ajuga and tulips in a spring garden. Chocolate Chip Ajuga via Burpee Sow seeds or plants in early spring in zones 3 to Clematis Clematis is a non-invasive flowering vine that grows in full sun to part shade in moist, organically-rich, well-drained soil. Clematis can be found in almost any color imaginable and with different shaped flowers.

And you can find spring and summer blooming varieties. There are spring and summer bloomers, and some are fragrant. Coneflower Coneflower echinacea is a garden staple in my family. Echinacea Coneflower Seeds via True Leaf Market Sow seeds or plants in zones 3 to 9, in mixed beds, borders, or stand-alone drifts. Cranesbill Geranium Cranesbill geranium, or hardy geranium, is a mounding species that thrives in full sun in average, well-drained soil.

Cranesbill geranium fills the mid-level with a profusion of blooms. Divide as needed in spring or fall. Creeping Thyme Creeping Thyme Thymus Serphyllum is a culinary herb that makes a stunning, color-saturated edible ground cover in full sun and average, well-drained soil.

A pink carpet of creeping thyme borders a path. Daylily Daylily Hemerocallis is a clumping root plant with multiple bold, shapely blossoms per stem, each opening for just one day. English Lavender English Lavender Lavandula aufustifolia is a shrubby herb used in medicinal and culinary applications. Siberian Iris Siberian Iris Iris sibirica grows from a root structure called a rhizome, in full sun to part shade.

Giant Allium Giant Allium Allium giganteum is a striking ornamental onion bulb that thrives best in full sun and moist, organically-rich, well-drained soil.

This giant variety provides whimsical pops of color and texture that seem to float on air. Giant Alliums via Burpee Bed bulbs in fall in zones 5 to 8. Excessive moisture or poor drainage may cause rotting. Hellebore Hellebore Helleborus orientalis is an rhizomous evergreen prized for appearing in the garden as early as January and lasting well into spring.

New England Aster New England Aster Symphyotrichum novae-angliae earns it keep in the landscape as a native that attracts pollinators , and a last blast of color in the summer-to-fall transition period. Perennial Tickseed Perennial tickseed Coreopsis lanceolata or lance-leaved coreopsis thrives in the poorest of soil, provided it drains well.

Sow seeds or plants in early spring in zones 4 to 9. Yarrow Yarrow Achillea millefolium is an herb that grows in full sun in sandy, well-drained soil. Sow seeds, rootstock, or plants in zones 3 to 9 in early spring and divide over time as needed.

Golden Yarrow Achillea Garden Seeds via True Leaf Market Well, there you have them — 17 outstanding flowering perennials to beautify your outdoor space. Facebook Twitter Pinterest About Nan Schiller Nan Schiller is a writer with deep roots in the soil of southeastern Pennsylvania.

The feathery plumes of astilbe rise above fernlike foliage for a month or more in late spring and early summer. Available in shades of pink, white, and red, astilbes are some of the best perennials for shady , moist spots.

Plant a swath of these perennial flowers for a memorable display year after year. This native prairie wildflower looks especially beautiful when you plant the 'Magnus' variety, which throws its petals out horizontally, daisy-style. Coneflower tolerates heat and drought, and it blooms all summer long. Plant these tall perennial flowers in the middle or back of the bed. A gorgeous North American native prairie grass, switchgrass offers the garden multi-seasonal texture and easy maintenance.

Most varieties grow feet tall and produce showy seed plumes from mid-summer into fall. Some also have rich red or purple foliage in autumn.

Even if you've never gardened before, you can grow yarrow without much effort. Yarrow is a tough perennial that is hardy throughout most of the United States and can withstand heat , drought, and cold.

This plant features ferny, gray-green or dark green, spicy-scented foliage and showy, flat-topped clusters of flowers in pink, red, white, or yellow appearing from late spring to early fall. Often sweetly fragrant, peony flowers are showstoppers because of their large size and bright hues. Numerous varieties offer a wide range of colors almost every shade except blue with some bicolors, and blooming periods from late spring to early summer.

They make excellent additions to fresh cut bouquets if you can bear to remove them from your garden. Plus, peonies are very long-lived perennial s that don't need a lot of care. Native to North America, you'll find perennial coreopsis also called tickseed in a range of sizes and several colors from yellow and white to pink and red.

Two of the best types for flower gardens are the threadleaf varieties Coreopsis verticillata like 'Moonbeam' and 'Zagreb' shown here and large-flowered varieties Coreopsis grandiflora like 'Early Sunrise'. Both produce small daisy-like flowers all summer long if deadheaded, drawing plenty of pollinators. Like most irises, Siberian iris is a moisture-loving plant, but once established it'll tolerate dry soil.

These plants add color to flower beds in early summer, and vertical accents all summer long. The blooms appear atop leafless stems rising from the grasslike foliage. Colors include white, blue, yellow, and violet, with many bicolors. In addition to brightening the garden, Siberian iris provides a steady supply of cut flowers.

This native perennial produces attractive spikes of tubular perennial flowers in pink, blue, lavender, white, or shades of red from late spring to early summer. Some varieties also offer colorful foliage, such as 'Husker Red' developed by the University of Nebraska, which combines white flowers and reddish-purple leaves and stems.

Penstemon works best in the middle or back of the bed, but make sure it can get plenty of sunshine. One of the longest-blooming perennials for your garden is pincushion flower Scabiosa.

It produces dainty purplish blue flowers from spring into fall with deadheading. Each bloom sits atop a long, wiry stem, which seem to dance in a breeze. The ferny foliage stays lower to the ground, so you can place them toward the front of your flower bed or border.

Perfect for rock gardens , alongside paved areas, the front of raised perennial gardens, or as a groundcover on a slope, moss phlox Phlox subulata forms a dense, creeping mat up to 6 inches high and 2 feet wide.

The small leaves are slightly prickly, and the entire plant is covered with fragrant white, pink, blue, lavender, or red flowers in spring. The foliage of this native plant is semi-evergreen in the North and evergreen in the South. Truly an American icon, black-eyed Susan blooms from midsummer until frost; its orange or golden yellow blooms just keep coming. Heat, humidity, or drought don't slow it down.

Plus, pollinators and birds love the flowers and seeds. The variety 'Goldsturm', shown here, tops out at about 2 feet, making it perfect for the middle or back of the bed. The fleshy leaves and spectacular flowers make tall sedum also called stonecrop a popular perennial.

Read more about getting your perennials ready for winter. I have a huge bed of black eyed susans that desperately needs to be thinned out. Is it ok to do this in the fall? There are some other perennials in this flower bed but the black eyed susans have sort of taken over the garden. I'd like to find the others that are hiding in there. Black-eyed Susans can spread via seeds and underground rhizomes. To prevent spreading, deadhead the flowers before they set seed.

As to controlling the spreading of rhizomes, that is more difficult. If you like BES s, this virtually ensures that you will always have some. Here are suggestions from the Purdue Cooperative Extension as to how to combat this problem: 1 Provide a large area of mulch around the mother plant.

Keep up with digging up any rhizomes that spread from that mother plant several times each growing season. Check periodically to make sure rhizomes do not escape the container. Every year or two, prune the roots to keep the plant confined in its container, or repot as needed. In the meantime, use a garden fork to expose current rhizomes and then gently remove them from the soil.

I like Stokes Aster that thrives in my full sunny garden. If I miss a day of watering, it is forgiving and continues to bloom lilac-blue flowers. I have some Fox glove flowers also a bunch of different kinds of Lillies. Stargazers and such.

After they bloom what do I do before winter comes do I completely cut the flower down or do I just let it die off as I keep watering it? I have a Rosemary plant in a large pot that I have had for years.

It has spent winters facing north and now, facing south. Last year we had a horribly cold, freezing now and ice winter. My Rosemary has never been damaged.

It is about 4 feet long in the pot and covered with flowers. I planted one in the ground right beside it last spring and same goes for it! Very healthy! The one in pit gets water when I happen to think about it.

I just planted several perennial mum's and am not wanting them to die what should I do about the frost and the winter time? If not, water will freeze to ice around the roots and kill the plants.

After a couple of frosts cut the stems back to 3 to 4 inches. Add mulch around the plants after the ground is frozen. Leaves or straw work well. Hi, I have a question or two.

I have Roses that were ordered and sent. I left them in the package and put them in the fridge because the package said perishable. But I want to know when I can plant them.

I heard that it is good to plant them after the full or new moon. The Full moon was on May 4th and the New moon is May 18th. Please help. Is it too late for me to plant them? I also want to know about my tomato plants which I have planted in pots. I think one is drowning. I think it should go into the ground, it is about 10 in.

I don't want it to die. The other two are doing O. I think they should be planted in the ground too.