Perennially Speaking

With Barman's comment about my perennial gardening hobby, I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned... for him, as well as anyone else who is interested.

I started raising perennials around 1990, mostly because I am lazy. We bought our house and I had this large area to plant, and I didn't want to do all that work every year. That's the nice thing about perennials... if you get plants that grow well in your area, they actually do BETTER if you just let them go.

A friend of mine from work was also getting into perennials at the time, so she and I went shopping together at local greenhouses, shared plants with each other, exchanged catalogs, and wandered in each other's gardens. Gardening together makes it so much more fun! I admit that I lost some of the interest in it since she moved away.

For those of you interested in perennials, the choice is extensive and it can be hard to know where to begin. The first thing I did was buy a couple of books... Taylor's Guide to Bulbs and Taylor's Gude to Perennials. I went with a mix of each because then you get the early spring color from the bulbs and then the perennials can take over the garden.

Daffodils are great to include in any garden. There are a huge number of varieties... the traditional yellow, multicolored varieties ranging from white to orange, and even the "double daffodils" that resemble peonies more than daffodils. Daffodils grow well in most any soil, and they multiply fairly quickly.

Tulips are nice for spring color, but in a few years you'll need to buy more. They tend to die out after a few years. Tiger lilies are also eye-catching bulbs for later summer color. They bloom in early July, adding a brilliant flash of color to a garden. Their main drawback is that they reproduce by small "seeds" that grow along the stems, spreading baby tiger lilies all over the garden. These can be difficult to remove until they are large enough to see, so you'll have small green leaves for a number of years before they are ready to bloom.

Around tree trunks, hostas and irises do well. I have three trees in my perennial garden, and I have at least one or two varieties of irises around each tree. Irises are another of my favorites. They require very little maintenance, only needing to be separated every few years as the center of the clump becomes too crowded and begins to thin out. They can grow in very little soil, and multiply rapidly, filling in areas that are very difficult to grow anything. They come in myriad colors and sizes. Each variety will bloom over at least a week, and every variety varies from others in it's bloom schedule, so by getting a large number of varieties you can have flowers over a month or more.

Daylilies are another versatile flower with many varities and colors and bloom times. They spread easily over the years, forming large clumps that will open new blooms daily until they run out of buds. Like irises, each variety varies slightly in its bloom schedule, allowing you to spread the color out over at least a month, and providing great color in your garden during the slow late-summer times when you're waiting for your chrysanthemums to bloom. Supposedly they require full sun, but I've had good luck with them most anywhere I have put them that gets at least some afternoon sun. I've also read that you should plant daylilies on top of your daffodil bulbs. The bulbs get planted fairly deeply, and daylilies are a surface plant, so they don't interfere with each other. Daffodils will come up and bloom first, then as they die back, the daylilies take over, keeping you from having a large dead spot in your garden. I haven't tried this yet with mine... I read it after my garden was already planted!
Peonies bloom only for a short time, usually right around Memorial Day, but they are so beautiful that I think every garden needs some. The clump will get larger every year and grows well as long as you don't move it. If you dig up a clump to separate it, 2-3 years can pass before it is mature enough to bloom again, so I try to put my peonies in a place where I can just let them go.

The best thing about perennial gardening (other than not having to plant every year) is finding them growing in the spring. I walk through my garden every few days in early spring, seeing new things popping through the ground. It makes spring real... shows you that life is beginning again after a long winter. You don't get that with annuals... you buy them later in the spring and plant them while they are already growing. The little discoveries are the most wonderful part of gardening, so I'd never give up my perennials.

The other real treat with perennial gardening is sharing them. My garden contains irises from my friend John, hostas, sundrops, irises, japanese peonies, and many others from my mother, as well as others from many other friends. The friends may move away but when you walk through your garden and can say, "That's the iris my friend John sent me for my 40th birthday from his garden," it's almost like having the person there again. And if you get them from local friends, you KNOW that you will have plants that do well in your area!

Next spring, I will be taking a start of the sundrops I got from my mother back to her because hers have almost died out. It's all part of the circle of life.