You Cant Beat Perennials For Glorious Color All Season Long

When you start gardening with perennials, it's easy to think that all you have to do is get your plants into the ground, and with the exception of weeding, watering and cutting back, your garden will be done.

But here's what really happens: in the first year your new plants are underwhelming ? the clumps small, the flowers sparse. By the second year, your perennials have grown fuller and have more flowers, but in the third season ? watch out ? your plants look like they're on steroids, and you look like an accomplished gardener.

After that, many plants get bigger each season, while the odd one confounds you by doing a disappearing act. Responding to the inevitable change is your challenge as a flower gardener.

Veteran gardeners say that no flower garden is ever truly finished. When I was starting out about 15 years ago, my husband used to joke that my plants should have been on wheels because I moved them so much.

Perennial plants are the backbone of the flower garden because they're the plants with staying power. Their leaves die back as winter approaches, but with luck, the following spring, they come back. Some plants are short-lived, but old favorites like daylilies, hostas and peonies can last for decades.

The right perennials for your garden

When you're planning your flower garden, there are many choices to make ? some purely aesthetic, such as match-making with winning perennial combinations, and some purely horticultural - what grows best in your conditons.

The more closely you base your decisions on meeting the needs of your plants (in terms of light requirements, soil, moisture levels and so on) and on which plants look good together, the more likely you are to be successful with your perennial gardening.

Yvonne Cunnington is an avid perennial gardener and the author of Clueless in the Garden: A Guide for the Horticulturally Helpless. For lots more perennial gardening tips, visit her website http://www.flower-gardening-made-ea sy.com/perennials.html"

---

Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction To Hydroponics Gardening For Beginners (Part 3) Lighting

THE BASICS OF HYDROPONICS.An Introduction To Indoor Plant Grow Lights.There... Read More

Fertilizers - What you Need to Feed Your Lawn

Just like humans need food, water and shelter to survive,... Read More

Tuscan Garden Design

If you're looking for a beautiful, old world garden style,... Read More

Safety On Lawn Tractors

Every gardener riding a lawn tractor should be concerned about... Read More

A Look at Fall Flower Bulbs

Most people would think of fall as a season when... Read More

Black Walnut Trees Produce A Natural Insecticide

The black walnut tree manufactures a substance that is a... Read More

What Is One Flower Benefit That You Know Of?

The biggest flower benefit of all is the fact that... Read More

How to Grow Bamboo

Bamboo is a mysterious and elusive plant that baffles taxonomists... Read More

Sunflowers

Hi there,I am Jhon Saunders and recently took up gardening... Read More

The Importance of Garden Decor

The Quest for SignificancePeople are looking for ways to add... Read More

Growing Great Potatoes

Potatoes are so easy to grow in the no dig,... Read More

Feed the Birds

Elaborate and decorative or simple and functional, birdhouses and birdfeeders... Read More

Dill: Scandinavias Most Important Culinary Herb

The ancient herb, Anethum graveolens or Fernleaf dill as it... Read More

Garden Swings Create an Enchanted Garden Setting

Nothing invites one to sit and enjoy a lovingly created... Read More

Simple Lawnmower Maintenance

Do you have trouble starting your lawnmower up in the... Read More

To Salt or Not to Salt Your Pond

The important question of whether or not to add salt... Read More

High Intensity Discharge Grow Light (Generic)

HID lamps are categorized in three groups :Mercury Vapor ,... Read More

The Many Types of Palm Trees

There are thousands of species of Palm Trees. They are... Read More

10 Tips for Successful Rose Planting

Planting roses isn't actually complicated, as long as you have... Read More

Orchid Myths -The Truth

Here are some of the popular orchid myths#1 Orchids are... Read More

Bare Root Roses

Bare Root Roses, what to look for when buyingThe first... Read More

How To Choose Water Garden Plants

So. The water garden bug has bitten. You've dug and... Read More

Grow Herbs in your Garden for Pleasure and Profit

Herbs can add a touch of magic to your garden... Read More

Blue Wild Flowers for Your Garden

Planting wild flowers in your garden, or simply scattering wild... Read More

My Spring Bulbs Wont Bloom - Why?

You can hear the wailing from here. "Why aren't my... Read More