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.
Spreading perennial to 60cm tall with neat dense lobed foliage and bowl-shaped flowers from early summer to early autumn. Flowers are pink, shading to purple with dark veining and a white centre.
Producing an abundance of eye-catching magenta pink flowers with dark wine-red veining. This Geranium will provide a 50cm sprawl of pronged foliage.Flowers May to June. Height 20-30cm. Spread 50cm.
Vigorous, spreading, deciduous perennial with lobed, dark green leaves. From early summer into autumn, it has veined, bowl-shaped, violet-blue flowers with white eyes.
Large, bright pink flowers have white centres and are carried on a spreading mound of mid-green leaves that turns red in autumn.
Compact, herbaceous perennial. Mound-forming, dark green, deeply lobed leaves. Pale pink, cup-shaped flowers with dark veins are borne on short, branching stems. Flowers late spring to early autumn. Height 40cm. Plant in full sun or part shade.
This ground hugging perennial forms a carpet of bronze-flushed foliage that is covered in masses of small vibrant pink flowers throughout the summer. It is ideal for the front of the border, rockeries, pots and the top of retaining walls where it will gently cascade over.
An outstanding dwarf Cranesbill selection, this is ideal for edging, rock gardens and walls or growing in mixed containers. It forms a low trailing mound of deeply cut bronze-green leaves, bearing a long display of small star-shaped deep pink flowers that age to streaky soft pink, giving the impression of two colours on the plant. Said to be one of the best varieties for summer-long blooming. Evergreen in mild winter regions.
Cranesbill. A low spreading geranium. Grey-green leaves and magenta-pink flowers. Height 30cm, Spread 1m. Flowers from May to October. Herbaceous. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
Perfect for any garden situation, this vivid plant produces up to 100 large, candy red flowers with an attractive yellow eye on glossy, green upright foliage.
Double, scarlet-red blooms, much bigger than more run-of-the-mill Geums, and they keep on coming from April to September on relatively tall felted green foliage. Prefers full sun, or partial shade with moist but free-draining soil or compost.
A tough, hardy, sunny and cheerful Geum that produces bright yellow double blooms borne on slender stems from clumps of vibrant green foliage from late spring, right through summer into autumn, making a prolific, airy display every year. Prefers full sun, or partial shade with moist but free-draining soil or compost.
Makes slowly spreading clumps of rich green, roundish, hairy leaves. The single flowers are an unusual shade of rich orange-red very vivid against the bold foliage. Early, and sometimes late summer. Height 40cm.
Dense clumps broad, leaves make good ground cover. Brilliantly coloured flowers on long wiry stems June/Aug. Sunny moist well drained position.
Semi-double, peach flowers in abundance cover this fresh, easy to grow perennial. Amazingly green leaves with a compact habit.
A prolific flowering plant with masses of single salmon pink flowers carried on tall, well-branched stems way above a dense mound of large, hairy, mid-green leaves. 75cm high x 50cm wide.
Early bloomer produces a plethora of orange flowers on short, dark stems. This easy to grow plant has a long bloom time allowing pollinators to enjoy this gem for months.
Early bloomer produces a plethora of dark, rose-pink flowers on short, dark stems. This easy to grow plant has a long bloom time allowing pollinators to enjoy this gem for months.
A prolific flowering plant with masses of single rich orange flowers carried on tall, well-branched stems way above a dense mound of large, hairy, mid-green leaves. 75cm high x 50cm wide.
A clump-forming perennial with hairy leaves and upright stems of semi-double rich yellow flowers. Height 40-60cm. Spread 60cm. Flowers from June to August. Herbaceous. Hardy. Great in moist positions.
Dwarf growing gypsophila for borders or pots. Height 30cm. Flowers white from July to August. Semi-evergreen. Hardy. Protect from winter wet.
A loose mat-forming perennial producing small bright white flowers over blue-green foliage.
Red Ginger Lily. An erect perennial with narrow mid-green leaves and scented flower spike of orange. Tubular flowers with red stamens followed by red fruits. Height 1.5m. Spread 1m. Flowers August to September.
Moerheim Beauty requires full sun and well drained soil. It is drought tolerant once established. Brown-red flowers.
Tight heads of rich dusky pink flowers with maroon middles remain the same colours as they mature Jul-Sep, shortish 85cm.
Copper red daisy flowers with a high domed central boss that is a rich brown and gold. Height 60-90cm. Spread 30-60cm. Flowers July - September. They thrive in a sunny site in rich soil.
Widely spaced deep burgundy ray florets, which are often quilled at their outer edge, gradually turn to coppery-red. They surround large blackish-red centres that produce small yellow disc florets. Bushy and compact in habit, they are an ideal choice for pots and containers.
Sneezeweed. An exceptionally long and prolific bloomer, award-winner. Daisy like flowers, with copper red petals surrounding a prominent chocolate brown centre disk June to October. Height 120cm. Spread 60cm. Full sun in moist soils. Attracts butterflies and other pollinators.
Compact, clump-forming perennial. Lance-shaped leaves. Height 45cm. Spread 60cm. Flowers borne from midsummer into early autumn. Dark brown central cone surrounded by orange to golden-yellow rays.
Sunflower. A tall perennial with conspicuously veined, dark green leaves. Pale yellow flowers with a slightly darker centre open in late summer to mid-autumn. Height 1.6m. Spread 1.2m. Flowers from August to October. Herbaceous. Hardy.
A compact, branching annual to 60cm tall with dark green oval leaves. Golden-yellow flowerheads 8-10cm across with a deep reddish-brown ring surrounding the dark central eye are borne in profusion over a long season, this sterile cultivar does not produce seed.
Sunshine Daydream has fully rounded, dahlia-like blooms on deep black stems that are smaller in diameter, but much more numerous in quantity and a deeper yellow color than other selections.
Free flowering perennial with bicoloured blooms appearing from the first year onwards. Almost-black foliage gives the flowers a vivid glowing appearance. Height 90-120cm. Spread 30-45cm. Likes sunny position. Magnificent in mixed beds and borders.
Robust perennial, bearing deep green leaves from which masses of pale yellow, sunflower-like blooms appear in late summer to autumn. Well-drained soil in full sun. Reinvigorate congested colonies by dividing them in February or March.
This is the first red flowering hellebore with marbled foliage. It produces masses of flowers from late winter, each of them larger than average. Happiest in partial shade, it looks sublime under-planted with spring flowering bulbs.
Has creamy pink flower clusters which are borne nicely erect above the leaves. When the flowers have finished blooming, they fade to a chocolate colour. From the first year, the plants will already produce over 20 blooms. New ones are constantly formed, with a striking contrast emerging between the fading and new blooms.
Low mound of leathery, evergreen, dark green leaves. Pink buds appear in early spring opening to large, outfacing, creamy-white flowers that are streaked rose and cinnamon. Petals are dark cinnamon rose on the reverse.
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