Low Maintenance Perennials

What are low maintenance Perennials?

In many ways perennials are like people, some are quick, some are slow, there is the bold and there is the meek, and the sloppy, and the neat.  This is what makes perennials both so charming and so challenging.  

Techniqually speaking, a perennial is any plant that survives mores than two winters.  Perennials encompass a wide range of plants suitable for many areas of the yard.  Perennials may be used in borders, as edging, in rock gardens, and shady areas.  Specifically, we will talk about easy to grow, low maintenance herbaceous plants such as hostas, coneflowers, day lilies, daisies, and ornamental grasses.  Plants may be grown for both their ornamental flowers or for their foliage.  There are many versatile perennials that are also easy to grow.

Not all perennials are low maintenance:

v   First check to make sure a specific perennial is hardy to your area.  If you have to replace a plant every year it is definitely not low maintenance. 

v   Make sure the perennial you are planting is not prone to many diseases and pest problems.  If your plant needs to be sprayed for insects and diseases often it will be very time consuming.

v   The perennials you pick out should not be rapid growers.  For low maintenance plants, you do not want to have to divide any more than once every three years.

v   Choose plants that do not need staking under normal weather conditions.

Perennials lend themselves well to low-maintenance gardens for a couple of reasons.  Because they are perennial they will come back year after year.  Also perennials add winter interest to your garden.  You do not have to clean everything up in the fall.  You may leave it until spring.  Snow on your perennials will give some texture to an otherwise empty garden.  It will also help insulate the roots in winter.

Perennials are suited well for standard island beds, borders, rock gardens, foundation plantings, and under trees.  Perennials also work well in both shady and sunny conditions.    For a shady perennial you want to consider the color of the leaves and the texture of the plant besides just the flower.  Flowers diminish in the shade where as the texture and color of the leaves will speak out to you.  Chartreuse and lighter colors in the garden will really brighten up a densely shaded area.  Plants need to be placed in the right location.  Sunny plants placed in an area too shaded will only flop and need to be staked.  Their flowers will also be lessened if not receiving enough sun.  Shady plants placed in too much sun will burn and wither.

The secret to growing any good garden is in the soil.  Make sure to loosen the soil, add organic matter, and make sure you have good drainage.  It is recommended that before you start a new garden have your soil tested to see what amendments might need to be added and check the alkalinity or acidity of the soil. 

When adding flower beds under existing trees, do not add more than a couple inches of soil on top of the current soil level or bring heavy equipment in on top of the tree roots.  Be careful when digging up not to disturb the roots of the trees as much as possible.  Too much damage may cause decline of the trees.  You may just dig holes and plant plants between the tree roots instead of digging up large areas.

A standard perennial border and foundation plantings are designed mainly by height.  The taller plants are placed in the back and the shorter plants to the front.  With an island bed you want to place the taller plants in the middle with the shorter ones on each side.  A rock garden is designed with mainly smaller plants in mind.

Before starting a new perennial bed it is advisable to draw it on paper first:

v   Place all of your existing elements on the paper, drawn as close to scale as possible.  Then you are ready to start adding new plants. 

v   The size of the mature plant needs to be taken into consideration, both the height and the width. 

v   Consider the color of the plant as to how it coordinates with your other plantings.

v   The texture of the leaves is an important consideration when picking out new perennials.  A pleasing texture of the plant will carry it through the season even when it is not in bloom.

v   Check into the bloom time of the plants you would like to have in your garden.  Try to have successive bloom times, so everything is not blooming all at once.  A perennial bed is much more interesting with something blooming all the time.

v   Choose low-maintenance perennials if your lifestyle does not allow you a lot of time to spend on gardening.

v   Look for perennials that have a long season of bloom.  

Before starting your new perennial bed, lay out a garden hose to establish the shape of your new bed.  Spray paint around the edge of your garden hose to form a line to start cutting out the sod.  Removing sod from the bed works best, but you may also spray the area with Round-Up and then roto-till the sod into the bed.

Shredded leaves, compost, or peat moss may be worked into the bed.  You may also apply a granular time-released fertilizer at this time and work it in well.  After planting your perennial bed, mulch should be applied to keep the moisture in the soil and to reduce weed growth.  If you are not planting seeds, a product such as Preen, sprinkled over the entire bed will also inhibit weed growth.

Remember, “low maintenance” is not “no maintenance”.  There is no such thing as a no maintenance garden.  Minimal maintenance will be required to keep your perennial garden looking good:

v   Dead-heading is the removal of spent flowers to encourage re-bloom on some varieties of perennials.

v   Pruning is required to rid yourself of any unattractive areas of the plant that are not growing well.

v   In the fall whole leaves should be removed from the garden because the leaves can cover the crowns of your plants over winter and cause moisture problems.

v   Some perennials have very attractive growth and may be left all winter for their winter appearance.  Also this is a natural protection for the crown of the plant over winter.  Other plants with unattractive growth and a heavy crown should be cut back for the winter.  This provides better air circulation and prevents moisture problems from occurring.

v   Mulching your perennial garden should be done only after the ground has frozen.  The reason for this is to keep the soil at a constant temperature to prevent freezing and then thawing during warm periods.  This will prevent heaving of the ground, which can expose the roots of the plant and kill them.  (Mulching with shredded leaves, not whole, is a good mulch.  Also a thin layer of compost works great.)

v   Spring clean-up can be accomplished too early.  Keep an eye on the temperatures.  Do not remove your mulch until all periods of very cold weather has subsided.  Removing your mulch too early can also cause heaving of the ground.  Also when you remove this mulch this will cause tender new growth to occur, which if removed too early, freezing may cause damage to the plant.

            
Purple Coneflower Echinacea Purpurea “Mangus”                                        Coreopsis

        
      Stonecrop Hyotelephium “Autumn Joy”                            Black-Eyed Susan Rudbeckia Hirta

         
Cardinal Flower Lobelia Cardinalis                 Astilbe Astilbe Xrosea                                        Hosta