by Sammy Stein

Created on: May 17, 2009

A perennial garden can provide interest all year round as well as providing low maintenance planting and lots of colour and foliar interest. You need to think about perennial to include and plan your garden well.

Woody perennials live and flower for more than two seasons. They may die down in winter or remain just above ground and will be semi-permanent members of the garden. They will last for several years and are important in long term planning.

WHen choosing perennials think about their form, size and shape - are they clump forming, are they invasive, straggling, are they glorious for short time (like iris) or do they flower for long periods? Think also about how they spread (seed, rhizomes, tubers, stolons or offsets).

Plan you maintenance - many will need division, collecting seed, dead heading and staking and consider their flowering time.

Consider their form and uses other than flowers. For example, some make wonderful architectural plants which can reflect shapes in the property or site like Echinops ritro for or sea holly. In some the seed heads are interesting to provide additional seasonal interest in winter. These include the seed heads and spiky leaves of eryingium and mahonia.

When you plan a perennial garden, consider height for effect. For example lupins and delphiniums for height and campanula for ground cover.

Many perennials also provide background colour and texture and form. For example, grasses and bamboos provide privacy and can be used to create foils against which to show features and other plants as well as providing interesting rustles and wind protection.

Perennials can be used to plan island beds, mixed borders, woodland borders, ground cover and informal cottage gardens. You can use structural plants like shrubs and trees to provide the framework and then choose perennials to provide form, shape and colour.

Choose some stunning focal plants like tamerisk and some architectural ones like those with spiky leaves and then plant for colour, scent and form.

For a more naturalistic feel, try planting in drifts - this is the New Wave Perennial method which was first used by Karl Foerster (german) in the1930s). The perennials chosen must be suited to the site and conditions and they include for grasses, natural plants like Geranium pratensis, Alchemilla mollis and others.

Choose colors carefully - go for blocks or punctuated blocks, drifts or intermingled colours based around a theme (pale, hot, yellow, red etc)

Perennials

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