Perennial Flower Garden Design

Yardsmart: A more productive home landscape

While studying horticulture decades ago, there was a clear division between the "ornamental" students and the "agricultural" ones.

With organic gardening now mainstream, these two polar camps are coming together. Designers are looking to add food plants to both their residential and institutional projects. To do this, they are looking more closely at varieties that have evolved over the last 20 years to make food plants better suited to the landscape.

The result is a more productive home landscape without sacrificing any of its beauty. It is a place where we are considering many food plants in lieu of very similar ornamental ones. For example, design classes emphasized fruitless cherries, plums and pears to bring spring color into ornamental gardens. They were some of our most widely used landscape trees, and remain so to this day. But now we ask: Why grow a fruit tree if it doesn't fruit?

Let's consider Bradford and Kawakamii pears, two long-standing fruitless pears. They are so similar to gourmet Seckel or Bosc pear trees, and just as easy to grow. Only with fruiting versions you enjoy spring flowers, summer fruit and fall color. What makes fruiting trees even more useful is that the same variety can be purchased in dwarf, semi-dwarf and full-sized trees. Such variation offers a size suited to both small spaces or an average yard.

Artichokes are large perennials with truly lovely foliage. Their large, deeply cut leaves are silver in color and stand out crisply against dark or vivid backgrounds. The strong stalks that rise from the plants produce the flower bud that we love to eat, scale by scale. The buds are attractive in their own right, but if left on the plant to mature, the result is a gorgeous blue thistlelike flower the size of a softball. In this case, you can enjoy foliage, food and flower all in one plant.

Another plant with multiple crops is fennel, because virtually every bit of it is edible. This is a beautiful, drought-resistant perennial that bears very finely textured foliage to create a cloudlike mass. Forms sold as Purpurea or Nigra bear attractive bronze foliage that is outstanding in the perennial garden. The plant's flavor is that of anise and vital to Mediterranean cooking. Foliage is easily snipped to add depth to all sorts of fresh summer dishes and salads. Fennel also produces a bulb at the base from which the stems rise, much like fine celery. The thick, corrugated bases are quite tasty, particularly when lightly sauteed in olive oil. When fennel blooms, it resembles dill with tall umbels of small golden flowers. Even the seed is valued, as it is the most intensely anise-flavored part of the plant.

Perennial Flowers All Season: Perennial Garden Design Guide for ...

Many flower gardeners desire a nonstop continuous display of flowers from spring to fall using perennials. To achieve that, you must pay attention to sequence of bloom and design the garden with an assortment of different perennial plants that will bloom one after the other from spring to fall. The reason for this is that most perennial flowers generally only bloom for a short time each year. (Some perennials will rebloom later in the season if deadheaded, but many will not.) So, to achieve color in the garden all season you need to plan your garden design using flowers that will bloom one after the other, beginning in spring and continuing to bloom through summer and finally finishing in the fall.

There are so many different perennials to try. It is difficult to limit the selection to a short list. However, most gardeners find that a certain set of plants become the backbone of their perennial garden and depend on them to provide reliable color and blooms year in and year out. Which ones grow best for you will depend on where you are gardening and the microclimate and other conditions in your garden. But, here are a few that tend to be steady performers and are generally worth considering.

Favorite Perennials for Spring Bloom Include :

Pasque flower (Anemone pulsatilla), Creeping phlox (Phlox subulata), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), Lungwort (Pulmonaria) and the many minor bulbs such as Iris reticulata, Chionodoxa, crocus and of course daffodils (Narcissus).

Favorite Perennials for Late Spring to Early Summer Bloom Include :

Peonies, Bleeding heart (Dicentra), Columbine (Aquilegia), Siberian iris (Iris sibirica), tall bearded or German iris (Iris germanica), cranesbill (Geranium), Dianthus, Lamium, Baptisia, Coreopsis, Coral Bells (Heuchera), Salvia and Candytuft (Iberis).

Favorite Perennials Blooming in Summer Include :

yarrow (Achillea), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), daylilies (Hemerocallis), bulb lilies (Lilium), Indian blanket flower (Gaillardia), tall border phlox (Phlox paniculata), Penstemon, bee balm (Monarda didyma), Boltonia, and Hosta.

Favorite Fall Blooming Perennials Include :

Toadlily (Tricyrtis), Windflower or Japanese Anemone, assorted Sedums and assorted asters.

When planning your perennial garden design, keep in mind the cultural needs of each plant in addition to the approximate time of year it will bloom. Follow the guiding principle of “right plant, right place” to group your plants according to sun or shade, dry soil or damp soil, and any other special needs.

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