100 Sunny Cottage Garden Perennials
How many perennials do you need for the cottage garden? Well, that really depends on your layout, design, and the size of land you are working with. I have a small backyard garden area, roughly 15 feet by 30 feet, in which I have around 70 species of perennials, shrubs, and grasses. And this is […]
Native Perennials for New Gardeners
I have already gone over many of the plants which are best for new gardeners, but what about native perennials? Some of the plants listed in my other blog were natives, but this list is only natives. These native perennials are easy to grow, usually bloom in the first year or plantings, are host plants […]
Long-Lived Perennials for the Garden
Long-lived perennials should be a staple in the garden, right? Well, with so many options these days for perennials and plants, finding the truly long-lived ones is not as easy. Some of our Grandmother’s favorite flowers are the long-lived plants we desire now, but cannot find. Sometimes we need to go back to our roots […]
5 Easy to Grow Perennials that are Underused
There are 5 easy to grow perennials that are vastly underused in our landscapes. As a landscape maintenance foreman, I travel across Northeast Kansas and Southeast Nebraska. While doing so, I observe multiple landscapes and their plantings. What I have found is that most landscapes use the same plant pallette, though different cultivars. It is […]
Perennials for Butterfly Habitats
Perennials can be the backbone of anyone’s garden – they certainly are for mine. I choose perennials that bloom in succession, support native insect populations, are pretty, and attract lots of butterflies! Despite living in Zone 5 in Northeast Kansas, where the weather is constantly changing, I have a very diverse garden. So what are […]
Plant Perennials (and Trees) Now!
Autumn is finally here with the advent of some much wanted and needed cooler temperatures, and lovely fall rains. When the weather cools down to daily temperatures in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and the night-time temperatures stay around the 50s, then it is the best time to plant most of our perennials, shrubs, grasses, […]
Top Perennials for Bees & Butterflies – August
August is here with the dog days of summer. The cicadas are singing their wings off in the trees each night, but the pollinators are in full force across the summertime perennials. I have seen the many more monarchs in the past week than in the the previous months combined. With all these pollinators buzzing […]
Stacking the Deck – Heat Loving Perennials for Summer
Its hard to think about the hot, dry summer days of July and August when the temperatures outside are in the teens and twenties. But those days will come as surely as the weather changes in Kansas and Nebraska. We live in one of the harshest growing climates in the United States-it could be minus […]
Six Perennials for Tough Conditions
Summer is here and the heat is on! Over the course of the last two summers I have noticed the good and the bad of perennials in my gardens. I don’t have an irrigation system, and I rarely water after planting, even when it gets hot. My plants seem to perform in the heat, really […]
