‘First year sleeps, second year creeps, and third year leaps.’ It sounds rather like something you would expect a second grader to say isn’t it? It is in fact an old adage that the English have for describing Perennials, and a better description you’ll not find anywhere else.
Latin, for the word ‘perpetual’, Perennials are to a great extent just that. Perpetual, long lasting, forever. Well, not quite forever, but close enough for the enthusiastic gardener to not mind grammar distinctions.
Perennials are hardy plants and truly will survive up to 10-12 years with care and attention. Most flowers will be in bloom for at least one part of any given season, so if you plan ahead you can take full advantage of this fact, and have blooming flowers throughout the whole year.
Foxglove, Columbine, Asters, Daylilies, and Hostas are but a few of the abundance of Perennials you can find. The varieties are too numerous to list here, but be assured that there’ll always be some new Perennial to catch your eye, and enhance your garden.
When buying Perennials seeds are one of your options. Planting your Perennials from seed is a cheap and easy way to start your garden. Unfortunately the plants will more likely sleep for two years instead of the usual one since it takes perennials a little bit of time to actually get ‘off the ground’!
Other options include a trip to the nursery, and nursery catalogs. Both are more expensive than the seed option, but will give you the pleasure of actually holding your plant in your hands from the beginning. Whether it’s a catalog or nursery is a matter of choice, and depends entirely upon your personal preferences.
Having now bought your perennials, it’s time to plant them, and hopefully you checked the full height that your matured perennials will grow to. As an obvious design element the higher plants should go to the back leaving the more ground hugging varieties in the front. This way you’ll get to enjoy all your perennials, and won’t need to uproot them at a later date.
Taking care of your Perennials isn’t hard, but uprooting mature plants is a sure fire way of upsetting the nice stable balance they’ve achieved through the years, and will most likely lead to a fast decline of your gorgeous plants.
Most mature Perennials will start to die off from the center outward like a doughnut shape, when this happens it’s time to divide and replant your Perennials. Prune dead flower heads to encourage more blooms, and stake the taller plants to avoid damaged stalks.
Perennials are a lovely way to maintain a green, and flowering garden throughout the year. You can also be guaranteed many admiring looks from envious friends who didn’t have the forethought to plan their own garden so meticulously and delightfully. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and accept all that deserving praise! After all, you earned it.
