A Few of My Favorite Perennials
Over the years I've grown many, many different plants in my gardens. Here are some of my favorites. In order for me to recommend a perennial it must meet several requirements; easy to grow, return reliably year after year, not be a garden diva, and require minimal resource inputs.
Christmas rose and Lenten rose (Hellebores): These will be the first perennials to bloom in your garden, often right through the frozen ground and often will still be blooming 4 months later as summer begins. Its palmate foliage is evergreen and forms a handsome clump a foot high and a couple of feet wide. It thrives in part shade to shade. It bears large, three-inch-wide, bell-shaped flowers in shades of pink to deep-rosy-red to purple. Use near entrance ways where early blooms can be appreciated during late winter.
Prominent characteristics: blooms in winter, handsome evergreen foliage, shade-lover, long bloom period
Foamflower (Tiarella)
These delightful native plants thrive in shade and part-shade. It blooms profusely in spring with hundreds of white bottlebrush for a long period. The foliage is very attractive often with burgundy veining in the center. Plant in moist organic soil. Use for edging or broad-based ground cover in shade.
Prominent characteristics: shade-lover, native, long bloom period, evergreen and attractive foliage
Purple coneflower (Echinacea)
Perhaps the poster child for native flowers, this iconic flower has big, bright flowers that appear in late June and keep coming into September. Plants thrive in average soils or hot, dry conditions, shrug off cold, and are equally at home in full sun or partial shade. Blooms last well as cut or dried flowers, and the large cone at the heart of the flower head turns black as the seeds mature, adding further interest and providing nourishment for goldfinches. A white flowered form, “White Swan’ boasts the same size, vigor, and large flowers as the more common pink forms, but in white. Plant them together, in good big clumps, for a sensational summer display.
Ligularia 'The Rocket'
For summer bloom in the shade garden, my favorite perennial is Ligularia, a perennial for the darkest corner of the garden. Its heart-shaped foliage is deeply cut along the edges and forms a two-foot-tall mound. Four to five-foot-tall spikes of yellow flowers held on deep-purple stems rise through the foliage and bloom in midsummer. It's an amazing plant that grows where other plants won't. Don’t let it dry out.
Prominent characteristics: shade-lover, attractive foliage, spikes of striking yellow flowers
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
An amazing, long-blooming hardy Geranium and selected as the Perennial Plant of the year in 2008. Blooms from June until frost if provided sun in the fall. Seems to spread rapidly but is not at all thuggish - grows and creeps low to the ground around other plants. The best part is the beautiful shade of lavender blooms. Very stunning!
Use as filler between more structural plants. The more sun it gets the more blooms you get.
Bugbane Atropurpurea Group ‘Brunette’
Adds architectural height and late summer bloom to a shaded part of the border or shade garden. Typically grows to 3-4’ tall has and has long fluffy flower spires in September just when you thought the shade bed was finished. Flowers are strongly fragrant in long fluffy spires (typically 1-1.5’ long) rising well above the foliage on upright, wiry stems. Also effective in woodland gardens, cottage gardens and naturalized areas. Best in groups, although single plants have good specimen value once established. White flower spires are generally more demonstrative in front of darker backgrounds. Bronze, ferny foliage provides excellent texture and color to the landscape throughout the growing season.
