Tips for a Perennial Garden

Common Orange Daylily, Buddleia 'Black Knight', Pink Coneflower, Verbena bonariensis

I was reading an article this week about patience in the garden.  The author was saying that a gardener requires this attribute because a garden takes time to fill in and come together.  I completely agree.  My current garden has been growing for ten plus years now and it has taken a long time for the plants to fill in.  Through trial and error though I have some tips that might help speed your garden along if you have just recently caught the gardening bug. 

TIP #1:  There are two types of plants to buy - those in large quantities for impact and single plants that will be your statement plants.  Buy plants in large quantities in odd numbers (3, 5, 7, etc.).  In my garden daylilies, bee balm, sedum, and shasta daisies make the grade for large quantity impact plants because they tend to spread out a little more each year, but still stay in their respective areas.  Your statement plants are going to be a single plant purchased that may have something unusual about the form (color/variagation, leaf size/shape, flower shape or size).  I like having a few statement plants (like the Buddleia 'Black Knight') because it allows your eye to stop and really take the plants form and color in before continuing to view the waves of color that the quantity/impact plants give to the garden. When I first started in this garden I made the mistake of buying one or two of everything I set my eyes on.  My garden was a visual mess! It's so hard to focus when you go into a garden center and most gardeners want to try just about everything!  Which leads me to TIP#2

TIP #2:  Make a list of of what you want to purchase and where you want to put it before you leave your house for the garden center.  It's too easy to lose focus when you are face to face with hundreds of potential plants to take home. A list will help direct you to what you really need and have space for in your garden.  Use books, magazines and websites to help you build your list. 

TIP #3:  Buy large containers of plants.  When I go in to the garden center I look at the prices (YIKES!) and then head to the small quart size perennials.  Experience takes hold of me after a minute and I go back to the larger containers.  Why go big?   Larger plants get established much faster in the garden because their root systems are larger.  Those quart size perennials can not handle the droughts and heat of Southeast Virginia come July because they have small roots.  Additionally, the color impact is better with the larger size perennials.  As much as it hurts your wallet to go big, in the end you won't have so many plants fail to thrive in the heat of the summer.

Scientists and artists are typically polar opposites.  In the case of the gardener to really have an exceptional garden, I think you have to be both.  Science for determining the soil, water and light conditions.  Art for being able to put together color and pattern in a way that is visually pleasing to the eye.  I know a gardener that has the science part down perfectly.  His plants are lush and large.  He took care to have good soil and install a drip line for his plants.  However, he has not mastered the art of color combination.  Lavenders with neon pinks are not eye candy!  TIP #4:  Before purchasing a plant consider the neighboring plants and how they will visually work together.  If the color or pattern combo is not going to work then don't buy it!  Some of my favorite combinations are pinks and lavenders in the spring moving in to more oranges, golds and purples in the summer.