Planning a Perennial Garden

Planning a perennial garden can be a lot of fun, especially if you have a list of perennial flowers that you love as much as I do!!

For those of you who don’t know, perennial plants return year after year, increasing in size and quality each year. They are able to be divided within 3-5 years of initial planting. I love it! It’s like a great surprise every spring to see the perennials start emerging from the ground.

Planning a perennial garden can actually be a little trickier to establish than an annual garden because perennials have a much shorter blooming period than annuals, and you are establishing a "long-term" relationship with these plants. Annuals grow quickly, produce massive amounts of flowers, and die at the end of the season. Perennials grow slowly, and therefore it takes awhile for them to fill out the space allocated for them.

Because annual flowers will bloom all season long, it's desirable to plant a carpet of one type of flower. With the short blooming period of perennial plants, it's often better to plant a variety of plants to ensure the garden is in constant bloom. Most perennial flowers do not bloom for more than a month. As a result, when selecting a list of perennial plants, you'll select plants based on their blooms AND their foliage.

Because of the short blooming time, it is wise to group perennials together whose blooming periods begin in different seasons. When one plant’s blooms are fading away, another one is moving into all its glory!

The benefit of planning a perennial garden is that you have the ability to accent different colors during different seasons. With an annual garden, you’ll need to make sure that the colors of the flowers are complimentary all season long, however when planning a perennial garden you can focus on red and yellow flowers in spring, blue and purple flowers in summer, and orange and white flowers in fall. The constant change in a perennial garden is definitely one of it’s greatest features.

Planning a perennial garden takes a bit more effort during the initial phase, however your efforts will pay off in the years to come.

Before you begin, identify the area in which you would like to place your garden. Observe the amount of sun that the area receives every day – if it receives sun most of the day, you’ll be looking for plants that grow best in “full sun”, if it receives sun for about half of the day, you’ll be looking for plants that grow best in “part sun”, and if it receives sun less than 2 hours per day, you’ll be looking for plants that grow best in “shade.”

I will say that in my experience, these rules are not absolutely, 100% set in stone. It may pay to try and establish a plant you’re particularly fond of, even if it’s not in the best area identified for that plant.

Even though the hostas are shade loving perennials, my parents have hostas in their front yard that are in full sun, and they are not suffering because of it. As a matter of fact, they’re doing better than the hostas I have planted in shade! (Ironic, isn't it?)

The point is, have a general idea of the standards for a particular plan, but don’t let yourself get imprisoned by rules. Gardening is about bending the rules a little.

Now that you've identified the amount of sun exposure you have in the area, you can start planning a perennial garden.

Start by putting together a list of perennial plants that you're fond of. Select only those plants that meet the sun exposure requirements of the area that you'll be planting. Identify each plant's height, the color of it's blooms (if any), the month(s) during which blooms appear, and how long those blooms last.

Take your time during this process, as you are establishing this garden for it's long-term value. Also, remember that it takes time for perennials to establish themselves, so you will not reap the full benefits of this garden for at least 1-2 years after planting.

Then you’ll start categorizing your plants by height, spread, blooming period, and color of blooms (if any). When planning a perennial garden, if the area is along a wall or border in your yard, you'll place several groups of the tallest plants in the back, the medium sized plants in the middle, and the shortest plants around the edge.

Everyone's tastes are different so use your own judgement. Some people prefer to have many different varieties of plants located in the same area, to create more of a "wild flower" garden effect. Others prefer to have a smaller number of plants that are grouped together. It can look nice when a row of plantings are located at the back, with staggered plants towards the front of the garden.

When planning a perennial garden, observe how others in your area have arranged their plants, and incorporate those ideas into your own garden.

Once you've planted your plants, you'll need to take weed control into consideration, particularly until the plants offer sufficient ground cover.

My preference for landscaping fabric is newspaper on top of which I lay free mulch. You may want to consider some type of ground cover to grow in between your perennials if it is appropriate to the design, as this will help control weed growth.

Planning a Perennial Garden - List of Perennial Plants

1. plant name (common and latin),
2. sun exposure,
3. height,
4. spread,
5. blooming period, and
6. color of blooms.

You'll notice that I have indicated both the common and latin name for the plant in item #1. While this isn't always important, there have been times when I've been looking for a specific plant, and would not have been able to find it without the latin name. If you're looking for something unique when planning a perennial garden, I would suggest that you research the latin name of the plant as well as the common name.

I invite you to review this website for some ideas as to which plants to use in your garden. I will continue to have more information available to you as I grow this site.

You can also find a list of perennials from searching the web. For example, you could enter, “perennials for sun” in the search engine, and you’ll get literally thousands of websites that meet this description.

There are so many perennials out there to choose from, however there certainly are many favorites that seem to show up in many yards and garden centers.

Sidebar: Many of the same flowers and plants show up in yards and garden centers because they are reliable and predictable. That’s usually a good combination! When planning a perennial garden, start looking around and notice the plants that others have that are of interest to you. It’s a good way to get started in your garden!

I hope that this helps give you a start towards creating your own perennial garden. I will include more and more information on this site regarding annual flowers, perennial plants, and perennials for shade in the future so that your decision making becomes easier.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog so that you can receive regular updates as new information is added.

Enjoy the process of planning a perennial garden!

Return from Planning a Perennial Garden to Garden Landscape Designs