Long-Lasting Garden Beauty: How to Work With the Best Landscaping Perennials
The beauty of a garden full of perennial flowers cannot be understated. While there are plenty of flowers that can make an incredible impact on a landscape, it’s important to have a mix of annuals and perennials for the greatest variety of “show times.”
The best landscaping perennials are chosen not necessarily for their unique beauty, but for their durability in a landscape. Let’s cover some of the best options for long-lasting garden beauty: how to work with the best landscaping perennials.
What is the Meaning of Perennial Plants?
A perennial plant is one that survives year after year. If a plant survives through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter, then it may be hardy. However, it may not be in a great condition to do the same again in the next year. A perennial plant is one that’s able to live longer than two years instead of simply going to seed and restarting a generational cycle every season. Perennial plants are far more likely than other plants to produce long-lasting beauty in a landscape.
What is the Most Hardy Perennial Flower?
You may know this plant by its common use as an herbal supplement under a different name. The Coneflower, also known as Echinacea, is known for its natural beauty, attractiveness to pollinators, herbal qualities, and hardiness. The petals of the flower range from magenta to purple and have a prominent burnt orange center. No matter what kind of weather gets thrown at this flower, it’ll seem like it enjoys the challenge. The flowers bloom throughout the growing season from late spring to late fall.
What is the Easiest Perennial Flower to Grow?
No gardener wants to toil over a specific plant in the hopes that it blooms for a few weeks each season. In fact, sometimes the most successful garden uses some perennials that are easy to grow. The Black Eyed Susan is a small flower that resembles its much larger cousin, the Sunflower. They love to take in the full sun or moist soil as whatever the weather provides and add a lot of cheer to the landscape.
What is the Most Popular Perennial Flower?
It always depends on the specific location, but one flower that seems to love living in all parts of the country is the Lily. With plenty of varieties showing a range of color, this perennial will continue to impress. One plant alone can grow up to 30 of the beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers at a time and the blooms can last throughout the entire summer.
What Plants are Most Commonly Used in Landscaping?
The huge amount of biodiversity that is used in landscaping might sometimes make it difficult to decide which plants to use. One overarching theme is how well these plants will fare in your specific landscape. Simply, evolution holds the key. The best plants in landscaping are ones that have evolved in your region and are suitable for the growing conditions in your landscape. Native plants are hardy, water-wise, and you will rarely need to worry about their health.
What Plant is the Longest Blooming Perennial?
The perennial category of flowers will always produce the longest blooming flowers (outlasting the showy but short-lived annuals), yet of course there are superstars within the category.
The Blanket Flower is a group of species that are known to be incredibly resilient and beautiful, with stunning blooms that are red in the center and yellow on the tips. These flowers resemble the setting sun and will hold up even against prolonged droughts.
How Do You Make a Perennial Garden?
When building a perennial garden, there are certain considerations that will determine the kinds of plants you choose. These considerations all have to do with the location of your proposed garden.
Sunshine: You need to get a good understanding of the sunshine levels throughout the day. Certain plants love full sun while others prefer part shade, and others need consistent shade.
Moisture: The moisture level is highly dependent on the levels of sunlight and type of soil. Make sure to take note of the moisture content of the soil in different areas.
Climate Zone: It’s also important to know exactly which climate zone your garden resides in so you can make a decision about which plants will fare best in your landscape.
Plant Height: A pleasing layered effect arranges plants by height. Not only will it make the smaller plants more visible and prominent, but it will also determine their access to sunlight. Just like a group photo, the taller plants should be placed in the back to act as an anchor; but also take into consideration their width and visual density, and mix things up a little between layers to give your garden a natural look.
Mix Up Colors: Sometimes, grouping a large amount of the same flower next to each other can result in a striking presence. However, when you mix plants together, it helps to enable better pollination and create waves of textured color.
Blooming Cycles: Each perennial flower has a specific time of year that it blooms. Instead of placing similar flowers together which will bloom at the same time of year, mix up the flowers so that the garden never stops producing dazzling colors.
Embrace Randomness: When plants are arranged in perfect rows of even numbers, it seems rather unnatural. This orderly arrangement of flowers may seem like it’s visually pleasing, but the most stunning gardens are seemingly works of art in themselves. Place flowers in groups of odd numbers and stagger them so they aren’t in perfect lines.
Making a perennial garden isn’t about making a garden last as long as possible or become the most beautiful place in the whole neighborhood. Though those are nice goals, the best gardens are those that fit well into the surrounding landscape and act as a decoration for the home itself. Take inspiration from what others have done with their gardens, but work to make your garden as perfect as it could be by itself. The end result will be something truly spectacular.