From the first spring shoots to a stunning winter silhouette. Experience the seasons close to home with perennial garden plants. Plant them once for years of enjoyment.
Fresh and green every year
Your garden can look attractive from early spring to late autumn when you plant a beautiful selection of perennial garden plants. Most perennials disappear underground during the winter. Although their leaves and stems wither, they can still add to the beauty of your garden: covered with a layer of rime, many perennials – especially ornamental grasses – look quite enchanting! Then, starting in early spring, fresh new leaves, stems and sometimes even flowers (depending on the variety) emerge. And this happens year after year.
Selecting
You can find perennials in all kinds and sizes. They range from variegated foliage plants to ones with lots of flowers. And from low groundcovers to tall upright plants. When choosing garden plants, select a combination that appeals to you, but remember the preferences of the plants (e.g. a sunny location) and the time you want to spend on garden maintenance. A garden filled with vigorous plants and groundcovers requires less maintenance than, say, an English cottage garden.
Profusely flowering garden plants
- Catmint (Nepeta)
- Giant hyssops (Agastache varieties)
- Purple coneflower (Echinacea)
- Cranesbill (Geranium)
- Japanese anemone (Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’)
- Sage (Salvia)
- Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis)
- Thoroughwort (Eupatorium)
Tips
- If you’d like to harvest food from your own garden, give edible plants a place in the border or your vegetable garden. Good examples of these plants are wild strawberries, artichoke, mint and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). This is a good way to contribute to biodiversity, even with a small garden.
- Some perennials, such as European wild ginger (Asarum), Periwinkle (Vinca) and Elephant-eared saxifrage (Bergenia) are evergreen, so they will add colour to your garden even in winter.
- If you’d like to help bees, bumblebees and butterflies, choose plants that will attract and nourish them like Oregano (Origanum), Sage (Salvia) and Giant hyssop (Agastache).
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