Perennial Favorites

These fuss-free flowers just keep on giving.

By Sarah Ehrhardt, Pewaukee, Wisconsin

I’m a landscape designer, and if I asked 10 clients their priorities for their home landscapes, eight of them would undoubtedly put “low maintenance” at the top of their list. These days, it seems no one has enough time to do everything they’d like.

So it’s no wonder perennial gardening has grown so popular in the past few years. Perennial flowers let us add vibrant color to a yard without the repeated cost and labor of planting annual flowers each year.

Truthfully, even with perennials, I can’t promise you a “no maintenance” garden. That’s the impossible dream! But by selecting the right perennials, you can certainly enjoy the next-best thing—a wonderful “low maintenance” garden.

You see, many perennials require regular dividing every 3 to 5 years. This digging up and splitting one plant into several new ones rejuvenates the plants, keeping them healthy and blooming well.

Note the unique scalloped leaves on lady’s mantle.

But happily, some perennials just keep on looking good year after year, even without regular dividing. Go ahead and divide them if you want more plants. But you don’t have to do it to keep them healthy.

Here are some of my favorites:

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is one of my all-time favorites. Its beautiful cone-topped flower heads begin their show of color in June and continue all the way into September. Not many perennials provide color for such an extended time! Purple coneflower is also very drought-resistant—it’s often found in native prairie plantings.

While purpurea, or purple, might be the most common coneflower, you can find other varieties in an array of summer colors. Orange and yellow make a bright splash in the garden, or soften the planting with the pure white of the ‘Jade’ cultivar. I’ve mixed all four colors in one of my own gardens to create a refreshing all-summer display!

Siberian irises feature three inner petals that stand up as outer petals spread gracefully.

Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is popping up everywhere these days. Uniquely scalloped leaves of grayish-green make a great ground cover, while fluffy chartreuse flowers arch gracefully above from mid-May through August. Early in the morning, or after it rains, you’ll find tiny water droplets on the leaves.

Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) begins to bloom in late spring and continues all the way into late summer. Dainty, sulfur-yellow flowers wave on slender stems, against a backdrop of airy green foliage. This perennial looks great all season long.

Onward and Upward
Need a little vertical accent in your garden? Try adding blazing star (Liatris). From within its grassy foliage, flower spikes of rose or lavender rise up 2 to 5 feet, depending on variety and growing conditions. They will bloom from July to September.

Long, narrow leaves and delicate spring flowers of white, blue or velvet purple are the hallmarks of Siberian iris (Iris siberica). As a bonus, these dainty spikes make a fantastic cut flower, if you like to bring blooms into your home.

Coreopsis looks great all season long.

A good old-fashioned peony (Paeonia) will live forever and always look good. You’ll enjoy its large, colorful blossoms in May and later watch the leaves turn bronze-purple in fall. Peonies are truly a dual-purpose perennial.

Remember, you’ll still need to perform a few regular garden chores, like weeding, fertilizing, mulching and pruning. But by doing a little research and carefully selecting your plants, you can glory in a garden that gives you plenty of beauty for far less work.

And that’s time you can surely put to use elsewhere, if only to sip iced tea in a garden swing!

Sarah F. Ehrhardt, our guest garden expert, holds a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and has 21 years of experience in landscape design. She still loves to turn the soil and watch plants grow.

Peonies bring old-fashioned charm to a garden

Purple’s still popular in coneflowers, but look for other colors, too.

Blazing star, attractive to bees and butterflies, blooms from the top downward.

Photos: W. Atlee Burpee & Co. (Photos 1 & 5)