Perennial Gardening Nursery Landscaping Guide

Perennial Gardening To Increase Blooming Flowers

By Suzzie T Franklin

Perennial gardening is ideal for borders along a fence or property line, or against a background such as wall, shrubs or evergreens. Perennial gardening is doomed to failure if some of the plants like frequent watering and moist soil while their next door neighbors like dry soil and infrequent watering.

Choose the right plants. Evaluate your garden site, noting sun exposure and soil type, and choose plants based on these assessments. Choose a planting of Heavenly Bamboo for a fiery accent to the fall garden. Try Forsythia for a luminous yellow bush that lights up the late winter landscape. Choose a really calm day for this, and do it when the grass is between 4 and 8 inches tall.

Buying Perennials From A Nursery

When you purchase plants from the nursery, plant descriptions usually include an approximate bloom time, such as "early summer" or "autumn.". A few will describe certain plants as continuous bloomers, but even these usually have a period of peak bloom. At first, this may seem like a drawback, since each plant won’t flower all summer.

Planting in pots is similar to planting in a garden. Use slightly damp soil when sowing seeds or setting transplants. Plants should not only thrive well in your landscape but complement it as well. It also helps to choose perennials that suit your overall purpose or gardening scheme.

False Reasons To Dislike Perennials

Are you one of those gardeners who loves planting beds of annuals each year for that burst of color, but shies away from the perennials? You’re not alone. Many enthusiastic gardeners believe perennial gardening is only for the experts, requiring too much maintenance, yields a short season of bloom and looks purely unattractive in winter.

All of these reasons to discount perennial gardening are false! Let’s take a look at how you can use perennials to create dramatic year-round effects that last many years, with far less effort than your annuals. Perennial gardening does require a bit more planning, but careful choices, planted in the right location can add masses of color that put those annuals to shame!

Cheery Marigolds For A Summer Pathway

Let’s say you have a spot where you always plant those cheery marigolds to brighten the summer pathway to your front entry. Yes, it looks great in summer, but what about the other three seasons?

Try lining the pathway with an evergreen spring bloomer to add interest and color to the pathway while waiting for those marigolds? Winter crocuses can be planted in the same bed. By the time their glory is spent, your marigolds will fill out and cover the dormant bulbs.

Drifts Of Mixed Perennials With Overlapping Bloom Times

Perennial gardening allows for drifts of mixed perennials with overlapping bloom times, giving you a spectacular all-summer display. There are perennial varieties with long blooming seasons. Plant large drifts of such varieties interspersed with short bloomers for an ever-changing display of color.

Many perennials naturalize, spreading in clumps over a period of years. Creeping phlox spreads to form a thick, lush carpet of springtime color in the woodland garden. Other perennials, like agapanthas and daylilies need division every few years. For this effort, you gain new plants at no additional expense.

Heavenly Bamboo For The Fall Garden

Perennial gardening offers colorful possibilities for every season. Choose a planting of Heavenly Bamboo for a fiery accent to the fall garden. Try Forsythia for a luminous yellow bush that lights up the late winter landscape.

Rock cottonwood is an evergreen that looks handsome in all seasons, adding a bright note to your perennial landscaping with its bright red winter berries. A bed of cyclamens offer white, pink and magenta blooms during the dreariest winter days. Ornamental grasses, strategically placed amongst summer blooming plants can show their stuff to dramatic advantage in the winter months.

Find Out About The Best Perennials In Your Area

If you’ve hesitated with perennial gardening plans, visit your nursery or go online. Your local nursery worker can advise you of which perennials do well in your area and specific garden conditions.

Online, you’ll find plenty of articles full of particulars on the many virtues of perennial gardening to get you started. You’ll soon wonder how you managed to restrain yourself to those lovely but fleeting annuals!

Once you decide on the plants that will give you the landscape, with a variety of blooming colour all year round, then you can look at purchasing those flowers from your favourite nursery. You can confirm with the nursery staff, which flowers bloom best in your area, and the flowers that work well in proximity to each other.

Collecting Information For Best Perennials For Your Area

By discussing with the nursery staff and looking for gardening ideas from local gardeners, you can ensure successful growth by learning what plants grow best in your area. Perennial gardening is more like creating a forest or meadow.

You garden is destined not to succeed in case a few plants prefer regular watering unlike their close neighbors that prefer arid soil and occasional watering. So you need to ensure you have plants that compliment each other and grow well in similar conditions.

If you are careful with your garden you can ensure success with perennial gardening.

About the Author:
Suzzie T Franklin has written a number of articles on gardening and landscaping including White Flowers, Fruit Trees, Tole Painting, Lady Slipper Flower, Plastic Flower Pot, Zen Garden, Wire Topiary Frames, Window Bird Feeders, Planting Guide, Flower Seeds, Gardening Vegetable, Garden Furniture.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.

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