Are you planning on adding new flowers to your garden? Why not plant ones that will keep coming back every year?

Perennial - A plant that lives for more then a couple of years (from 4 years to 40,000).  This is a great feature if you want the same flower in the same spot year in and year out. Just plant it once and it will coming back.......there are however some factories to remember.

Hardiness - This dictates the survival of a plant in a particular area.  Climate helps determine a plants hardiness. An example of this is Temperature.   Many plants are only hardy in warmer climates.   Some other factories that are important to remember are soil and water.  For instance, highly alkaline soil will kill a rhododendron and soil that is to wet will kill a cactus. Therefore, hardiness is broken into groups.

Hardy Perennial - A plant that that can survive freezing temperatures, usually by going dormant. These include tulips, peonies, lilacs, pines, and much much more.

Tender Perennial - A plant that can not withstand cold temperatures, about 50°F. Non-hardy plants include weeping figs, many palm trees, and most passionflowers.

Woody perennial - This is a plant that stems stay above ground level during hibernation and grow new growth on those same stems the following season.

Herbaceous perennial - These are the plants we all commonly refer to as perennials.  These are different from the woody types because the stems die back to grown level when they are dormant.  These include monkshood, bleeding hearts, and lungworts.

Short-Lived - These plants <as the name implies> only live for a few years.  Columbines and Lupines are two that that die out after several seasons.   Many however reseed themselves.

To view a list of our favorite perennials just click.

For this months tips on planting and maintaining perennials.

Looking for the best place to plant a tree peony? Check out next months tips.