Perennial favorites

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Tina Wilson wasn’t always a perennial gardener.

But in 1990, faced with a completely bare landscape surrounding her newly built house, she gladly accepted some asters from her mother-in-law.

She wasn’t expecting much, but the next fall the blooms were absolutely gorgeous.

“I wanted more of that kind of beauty in my yard,” Wilson said. “The following year I bought a few more perennials including a daylily.”

It was the daylily that taught her perennial patience. Each day the plant would offer up a single bloom only to fade the next day.

“Daylily lived up to its name. I couldn’t believe anyone would sell a plant that bloomed for one day only. I thought, ‘What a stupid plant,’” Wilson said. “The next year, it had several blooms, and the year after that, wow. I’ve been crazy for perennials ever since.”

It was the classic illustration of what would become Wilson’s perennial mantra: “In the first year they sleep, in the second year they creep and in the third year they leap.”

Perennials are the gardening gifts that keep on giving in Wilson’s rural Arlington garden, which is full of perennials planted in combination with deciduous trees, shrubs, vines and ferns.

This year, we’ll follow Wilson, a master gardener and landscape designer, on her perennial journey, in a three-part series of articles.

She’ll share her favorite plants, growing techniques and maintenance tips on perennials throughout the seasons – spring, summer and fall – to help you get started on your own perennial collection or perhaps to nurture the ever-returning beauties emerging now in your yard.

Though they’re rewarding plants, Wilson admits: Perennials aren’t for the set-it-and-forget-it gardener.

They typically require annual clean-up and cutback, deadheading and, in some years, dividing.

“Perennials, in general, are the higher maintenance plants of the plant world,” said Wilson. But they’re definitely worth the trade-off, she said, especially with the time-saving and cost-effective tricks she’s learned over the years.

“Each year when a perennial returns to bloom again in my garden, it creates a sense of excitement,” she said. “They simply get more beautiful each passing year.”

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.

What is a perennial?

The “Sunset Western Garden Book” defines a perennial as any plant that lives longer than two years, but isn’t a tree or a shrub, The definition gets fuzzier in practice because of so many other plant categories.

Generally speaking, however, perennials are nonwoody plants that offer a flush of new growth in spring or summer. Herbaceous perennials such as hostas die to the ground but stay alive underground during winter. Semi-evergreen perennials such as huchera keep some of their foliage. Evergreen perennials such as grasses keep almost all their foliage throughout the year. Some ferns and Siberian irises, which typically grow from rhizomes, are also included in some perennial collections.

Planting: Now is a great time to plant perennials. Stocks at nurseries are beginning to peak; it’s easy to work the soil; spring rains will help with watering; and you can save money by dividing some perennials into multiple plants. Fall is another great time for planting, but if the plants you select aren’t completely cold hardy, plant them in the spring so they can get their roots established before winter. Put plants in at the same depth they were growing in the pot.

Design: When planning a new perennial bed, try to envision your beds three years from now. In the first year the plants will sleep, the second year they’ll merely creep and in the third year they’ll leap. Space accordingly or you’ll be redoing your beds all over again.

Water: Group plants with similar water needs and light needs together to save time and energy. Water perennials routinely the first year or two until they’re well established, checking them every week in spring and fall and every few days in the heat of summer.

Soil: Add compost to any type of soil. If you have heavy clay with poor drainage, consider mounding your beds up or building raised beds or choose plants that like heavy, wet soil.

Feeding: Most perennials don’t require large amounts of fertilizer. Compost added to the soil during planting and an occasional top dressing should be enough for most plants.

Untangle: Examine roots of container-grown plants. If they are root bound you will need to make cuts into the root ball so the roots will branch out into the soil. For all others you can tease the roots apart gently with your fingers and plant.

Divide plants when they begin flower less or otherwise perform poorly. If a dead space develops in the center of a plant, it’s time to divide. If you simply want more plants, you can divide to multiply, usually in spring or fall.

Perennials

Geranium Rozanne – One of Wilson’s all-time favorites, this plant has an extremely long bloom time from summer through November. Beautiful blue violet flowers appear on creeping stems. If planted near a shrub or rose, it will climb up into it and create quite a show. It grows 2 feet tall by 3 feet wide.

Hosta Sum &Substance – This slug-resistant hosta features huge chartreuse leaves that can be as large as 20 inches wide and 3 feet long, if given ideal conditions. Plants fed with a high nitrogen fertilizer have a better chance of becoming giants up to 6 feet tall and wide.

Stachys byzantina Helen von Stein or Big Ears – Grayish white velvety leaves on these lamb’s ears look good all year round unlike other, more common varieties. It rarely flowers, which means less maintenance, and its leaves stay nice and tidy, making it an ideal border or low-hedge plant. It grows 18 inches tall and eventually 2 feet wide and it’s easy to divide too.

Leucanthemum x superbum Becky – This shasta daisy doesn’t need staking unlike other varieties. Large white flowers bloom from early summer to early autumn. They make great cut flowers and are drought tolerant. It grows to about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

Veronica peduncularis Georgia Blue – This easy to grow, low-maintenance plant, sometimes called speedwell, makes is great groundcover. Evergreen foliage turns bronze in winter and looks good year-round. Cobalt blue flowers appear April through early June but can appear sporadically all year. It grows 6 to 8 inches tall by several feet wide.

“The Well-Tended Perennial Garden,” published in 1998 by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, who released an expanded version, “The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques” in 2006.

“Sunset Western Garden Book” edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel

“Perennials for Washington and Oregon” by Alison Beck and Marianne Binetti

“The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer” by Stephanie Cohen &Nancy J. Ondra

“The American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants” edited by H. Marc Cathey and Christopher Brickell