If you love ornamental plants, you’ll love perennials. When you combine several kinds of perennials, you can have a beautiful garden all year long – from flowers to foliage. And you also get a bonus: butterflies and birds.
Mix & match
Perennials make your garden pretty as a picture, even during the winter months. It starts off every spring with the first fresh green sprouts peeking above the ground. Then, the first flowers aren’t far behind. If you choose perennials with successive flowering periods, you’ll be enjoying masses of flowers until well into autumn. In the winter, evergreen perennials and the silhouettes of deciduous plants will add visual appeal. And just imagine the uniquely serene impression created by a dusting of hoar frost on the plants.
Birds & butterflies
Flowering perennials aren’t just beautiful. They also increase biodiversity. Their flowers are favourites with bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. Purple Coneflower (Echinacea) and Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) are just some of the ones that attract hoards of butterflies. Bellflower (Campanula) and Globe Thistle (Echinops) draw in bees like magnets. Later in the season, many flowering ornamental plants produce seeds contained in the most fascinating seed pods. Birds will be flocking to gobble them up.
Ornamental plants for a natural style
Flowering ornamental plants are so attractive that you could almost forget about the beautiful foliage plants. The visual interest of foliage plants is provided by the colours, shapes and patterns of their leaves. Both Coral Bells (Heuchera) and Plantain Lily (Hosta), for example, are available in many different colours ranging from bright green to rusty brown. You could create a lovely natural look with just a combination of foliage plants, or use them along with flowering plants.
Tips
- Many edible perennials such as flowering herbs also have ornamental value. Take artichokes, for example!
- Perennials are a good investment for your garden; plant them once for years of enjoyment.
Also interesting:
Edible plants
Nectar plants
The echinacea: its not always purple
