Color in the garden begins with perennials. Yes, I know you can always add annual flowers for color, although you may have to possibly purchase and replant new annual flowers. The initial time and effort expended in planting perennials, pays off in the long term, and sometimes creates more plants for you to share or move around in your garden. Therefore, one of the great aspects of perennial plants is the fact that they come back year after year.
Some of our favorites are Irises. They have lovely blooms in a variety of colors. Most often people see purples and whites, though there are so many more choices. Typically, they only bloom once per year, typically, they can cycle through blooms over the course of a month. This year’s Iris blooms were not the best. I think partly due to the freeze we had in January. No matter where we are, we will always have Iris in our garden. We are hoping to add to our Iris collect this year with some new varieties and colors, and are always willing to share from our plants as well.
Another crowd favorite are gladiolus. The long, spear like stem blooms slowly flowering from the bottom to the top creating a riot of color late in the spring to early summer. These flowers are wonderful to watch bloom and attract pollinators of all kinds. The challenge is to make sure they do not get too too heavy and fall over as the blooms open. So many color options are available in these flowers that you can match your garden to any color scheme.
Let’s not forget a series of blooming herbs. Lavender, sage, rosemary, comfrey, and oregano make up some of the beautiful and simple edible plants that grow in our garden. Small purple or white flowers bloom on these plants, typically in the spring. Besides being fragrant they can help keep pests away, and can be dried to use in cooking and for making teas.
A large portion of our perennial garden is made up of varieties of lilies. We have a variety of colors and various bloom sizes in our lily collection, which adds color and dimension to the garden. One great thing about lilies and Irises they like to spread their wings and are easy to split and move around your garden from plants you already own.
Most of our perennial plants are in full sun. We are slowly adding plants that require more shady areas. Hostas, cannas, elephant ears and certain ground covers prefer a more shady environment. I always think it’s fun to see the hostas reemerge in the spring from under the cover of winter. Deep down you know you are gardening right, when your plants return each year to shower your yard in a wash of colors.
Perennial gardens might seem like a lot of work to start but if you have the patience to wait and watch your garden grow, the rewards in the long run will be great. The return of your plants every year is worth the time and effort to me, instead of having to buy new each year.
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