Most people would like to have a garden, but many either don’t have the time to tend a flower garden or have no idea where to start. Never fear: there are easy perennials to your rescue! These plants work well for the busy gardener or the beginning gardener alike.
The plants I’ll describe here are five of the easiest to grow perennials. These plants are not merely the easiest to grow in my region; they are the easiest to grow just about everywhere. Please notice I say “just about.” There are always limits. The area known as zone 10 normally grows mostly tropical plants; however, I believe these plants will work in the coldest parts of the U.S. Please check with your county extension office if you have any doubts. Better yet, check with the folks down the street with the fabulous flowerbeds. They’re the ones you need to get to know!
The first flower that is a must for every beginning or busy gardener is the coneflower, also known as Echinacea. This wonderful flower will bloom all through summer for you asking only one thing: to be picked! In fact, the more you pick this beauty, the more flowers it will produce. You will see the next baby flower coming when you pick it, so just don’t pick the baby. There is an enjoyable faint fragrance to this flower.
The coneflower used to be rather boring. They came in one size and one color. But hybridizing has done wonders for this plant. There are now many heights and colors.
Buy one or two of several different colors, but don’t worry if they don’t fill the area you want filled. These babies will spread out quickly; furthermore, they like to self-seed to bring you new baby coneflowers in springtime. Finches and other birds are also attracted to them for their seed heads, so leave the dead stalks with the seed heads on the plants when the plant is finishing up for the year. That will be about the time birds are hungry from migrating. You will find that your coneflowers, although at that time no longer blooming, are still providing color to your garden in the shape of beautiful birds.
The next plant that should be in the busy or beginning gardener’s garden is the hosta. Originally, hostas could only be planted in the shade, but many can handle partial or even full sun. Hostas are planted more for their sumptuous leaves rather than their flowers although sometimes their flowers are lovely. Hostas are best shown off from a large bed of them together rather than one hosta here and there.
Hostas have been hybridized to the point that some of them are very expensive. But there are still the tried and true varieties, and many of the modern varieties drop in price after just a few years after being on the market.
The only work you will ever have from a hosta is warding off slugs. That is usually pretty easy. You can put a circle of sharpish gravel around the hosta just outside the area of its leaves. The slugs will not cross this ring of rocks because it hurts them too much. Some people like to use a ring of salt, but that is foolish: would you sow your fields with salt? You can also put a few small dishes of beer in the neighborhood of the hostas. Make sure the beer is at least an inch or so deep. Slugs love beer, and when they slither their little bodies over for a taste they fall over and drown. Just be careful when putting out the beer that you give the majority of it to the slugs and don’t do the old “a drink for you, a drink for me” trick.
Green hostas take the most sun while the blues take the least. The whites can take some sun. These hardy plants can thrive under trees where nothing or little else will grow. While they would enjoy regular watering and fertilizer, they won’t moan if they don’t get it. In fact, the only problem I’ve ever had with mine is that one of my friends put a table on them. While that did the hosta in for that year, it came back hearty as ever the next year.
One of the easiest of all perennials is salvia. There is hundreds of variety of salvia. Some varieties are perennials while others are annuals; however, the annuals types readily self-seed. These lovely plants grow anywhere from six inches to five feet high. They can bloom in shades of blue, purple, pink, red, or white, but purple tones are by far the most common.
Perennial salvia grown in a warm weather region can be a real workhorse. These plants are one of the first perennials to bloom here Mobile, Alabama. They bloom for approximately two months when they take a two month or so break, depending on the area, and then many varieties will repeat their bloom till the first hard frost. Then all the care they need is to be cut back until till spring. However, don’t think you need to live in the Deep South to have pretty salvia! While the plant may bloom longer in the Deep South, it is still quite long blooming in other parts of the country.
Local garden centers usually have some variety of salvia, but check with the mail order companies if you want something a little different from what everyone else has.
Our fifth easy to grow perennial may surprise you, but the rose can be very easy to grow when chosen properly. Granted, some varieties require constant attention, but others can be ignored. The hybrid musk roses in particular are very easy to grow as are those roses known as “Old Garden Roses”. Teas, Chinas, and Hybrid Teas need more care. I have an article posted on the easiest climbing roses to grow, so you might want to check that out.
These five are by no means the only easy perennial flowers to grow. Perennial Black Eye Susans, Stokes Aster, Coreopsis, and Sedum are all excellent easy to grow plants. By knowing which flowers are easy to grow, a beginner or busy gardener can plant the backbone to their garden and take things from there.
Most people would like to have a garden, but many either don’t have the time to tend a flower garden or have no idea where to start. Never fear: there are easy perennials to your rescue! These plants work well for the busy gardener or the beginning gardener alike.
The plants I’ll describe here are five of the easiest to grow perennials. These plants are not merely the easiest to grow in my region; they are the easiest to grow just about everywhere. Please notice I say “just about.” There are always limits. The area known as zone 10 normally grows mostly tropical plants; however, I believe these plants will work in the coldest parts of the U.S. Please check with your county extension office if you have any doubts. Better yet, check with the folks down the street with the fabulous flowerbeds. They’re the ones you need to get to know!
The first flower that is a must for every beginning or busy gardener is the coneflower, also known as Echinacea. This wonderful flower will bloom all through the heat of summer asking only one thing: to be picked! In fact, the more you pick this beauty, the more flowers it will produce. You will see the next baby flower coming when you pick it, so just don’t pick the baby. There is an enjoyable faint fragrance to this flower.
The coneflower used to be rather boring. They came in one size and one color. But hybridizing has done wonders for this plant. There are now many heights and colors.
Buy one or two of several different colors, but don’t worry if they don’t fill the area you want filled. These babies will spread out quickly; furthermore, they like to self-seed to bring you new baby coneflowers in springtime. Finches and other birds are also attracted to them for their seed heads, so leave the dead stalks with the seed heads on the plants when the plant is finishing up for the year. That will be about the time birds are hungry from migrating. You will find that your coneflowers, although at that time no longer blooming, are still providing color to your garden in the shape of beautiful birds.
The next plant that should be in the busy or beginning gardener’s garden is the hosta. Originally, hostas could only be planted in the shade, but many can handle partial or even full sun. Hostas are planted more for their sumptuous leaves rather than their flowers although sometimes their flowers are lovely. Hostas are best shown off from a large bed of them together rather than one hosta here and there.
Hostas have been hybridized to the point that some of them are very expensive. But there are still the tried and true varieties, and many of the modern varieties drop in price after just a few years after being on the market.
Hostas are great because they will take a dry shade area without complaint. They can even be planted under trees! Of course, if you give them what they want they’ll do even better, but it’s nice to know you can’t kill them.
The only work you will ever have from a hosta is warding off slugs. That is usually pretty easy. You can put a circle of sharpish gravel around the hosta just outside the area of its leaves. The slugs will not cross this ring of rocks because it hurts them too much. Some people like to use a ring of salt, but that is foolish: would you sow your fields with salt? You can also put a few small dishes of beer in the neighborhood of the hostas. Make sure the beer is at least an inch or so deep. Slugs love beer, and when they slither their little bodies over for a taste they fall over and drown. Just be careful when putting out the beer that you give the majority of it to the slugs and don’t do the old “a drink for you, a drink for me” trick.
Green hostas take the most sun while the blues take the least. The whites can take some sun. These hardy plants can thrive under trees where nothing or little else will grow. While they would enjoy regular watering and fertilizer, they won’t moan if they don’t get it. In fact, the only problem I’ve ever had with mine is that one of my friends put a table on them. While that did the hosta in for that year, it came back hearty as ever the next year.
One of the easiest of all perennials is salvia. There is hundreds of variety of salvia. Some varieties are perennials while others are annuals; however, the annuals types readily self-seed. These lovely plants grow anywhere from six inches to five feet high. They can bloom in shades of blue, purple, pink, red, or white, but purple tones are by far the most common.
Perennial salvia grown in a warm weather region can be a real workhorse. These plants are one of the first perennials to bloom here Mobile, Alabama. They bloom for approximately two months when they take a month or so break, depending on the area, and then many varieties will repeat their bloom till the first hard frost. After the first hard frost you cut then back because they look ratty. That’s it! No fertilizing, no other prunin, nothing. And they’ll bloom, bloom, bloom.
Don’t think you need to live in the Deep South to have pretty salvia! While the plant may bloom longer in the Deep South, it is still quite long blooming in other parts of the country. By the way, the hummingbirds love our salvia.
Local garden centers usually have some variety of salvia, but check with the mail order companies if you want something a little different from what everyone else has.
The daylily is the backbone of the flower garden. Not only does this flower burst open with the most beautiful blossoms, but this flower now also repeat s blooming due to repeated careful hybridizing. Moveover, the daylily, with its heavy strap foliage, is a wonderful weed blocker, making it a useful plant when it is out of bloom. For numerous pictures of different types of daylilies, please see my slideshow “Daylily Dreams.”
Daylilies are great for covering up the mess caused by spring bulbs. Sometimes having to let bulbs die back on their own can be annoying because it can get to look so untidy. Plant daylilies around the bulbs and presto! The daylilies will be coming up, or fluffing up in the case of evergreen daylilies, and the their leaves will cover the mess of the bulbs. I love a plant that will not only be easy, but will do a job for you, don’t you?
Our fifth easy to grow perennial may surprise you, but the rose can be very easy to grow when chosen properly. Granted, some varieties require constant attention, but others can be ignored. The hybrid musk roses in particular are very easy to grow as are those roses known as “Old Garden Roses”. Teas, Chinas, and Hybrid Teas need more care. I have an article posted on the easiest climbing roses to grow, so you might want to check that out.
These five are by no means the only easy perennial flowers to grow. Perennial Black Eye Susans, Daisies, Stokes Aster, Coreopsis, and Sedum are all excellent easy to grow plants. By knowing which flowers are easy to grow, a beginner or busy gardener can plant the backbone to their garden and enjoy a garden full of flowers without much work.
