Some basic perennial plant information.

Perennials are plants that come back year after year . A perennial plant by definition is a plant that lives for more than 2 years.

We carry over 1500 perennial plant varieties thoughout the year.

Perennial plants have various bloom times. When starting a perennial garden, visit our store weekly - as we supply perennials grown locally and outdoors. This is why you won't always see the same variety on our tables all year. When you see it blooming in our store on our tables, this is about when it would be blooming in your garden.

When selecting your perennials pay attention to the tags. This is very important. The tags will tell you the height, light requirement and usually will show you a picture of the bloom and/or plant. Decide what colors you like and go from there.

Plant tall perennials in the back, a mid size perennial in the middle and lower, short ones in the front. Be sure to mulch your garden beds prior to planting. Plant shade loving perennials with shade loving perennials, sun loving perennials with sun loving perennials. On most plant tags, the easy industry standard will have the tags colored in some way on them, for instance, a plant tag that has purple on it wil enjoy shade - less than 3 hours of direct sunlight, a tag that has orange could be found for a plant that enjoys part-sun 3-6 hours of direct sunlight and a tag with a yellow marking or icon could be found on a plant that enjoys full sun - more that 6 hours of direct sunlight.

When designing your garden beds, a design principle would be to plant in odd numbers rather than even. For example plant 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. of a variety and don't plant them in perfect rows, plant them unevenly, or in a slight triangle. This will look more natural.

Another helpful tip when planting your perennial beds is to save your tags. You can stick them in the ground next to the plant or lay them out and paste or tape them on a piece of paper to create a plant map of your garden bed. This way when you add on to your beds over time, you will know exactly what and where you planted.

Don't forget to 'dead head' remove the spent blooms from your perenials to promote a longer bloom time.

Finally, over time generally every 3-5 years for most varieties - your perennials should be divided. (Split in half, or quarters) then replant the divisions. The rule is divide spring and summer bloomers in the fall and fall bloomers in the spring. For hostas, you really could divide them at any time during the warm season. (Refer to your saved tags for bloom times).

For more information on perennials check out our Resource Links Page .