Perennials can become the backbone of a landscape or garden plan.
From baptisia (false indigo) to black-eyed Susans, ornamental grasses to Oriental poppies; helianthus, heuchera and hosta, you can find many stalwart perennials that will thrive in Bucks County and provide many years of beauty and enjoyment.
When considering perennial borders, beds and gardens understanding what growing conditions your proposed plants will need – and what your garden site provides – are crucial steps to success.
From sun and shade exposure to wet or dry soils, take the time to do your landscape homework – then have some fun!
Margaret Pickhoff, a commercial horticulture educator in the Bucks County office of Penn State Extension in Wrightstown Township said sun and soil environment are two base conditions upon which everything else should be built.
“The big thing is to know what your site characteristics are, and to match plants to the site,” she explained, “it’s easier to keep them happy, healthy and flowering when they are planted in the right conditions.”
Pickhoff likes to begin with plants native to Pennsylvania “…and build out from there.”
Plants Pickhoff recommends for sunny locations include:
• Baptisia (blue false indigo). “Not only do you get tall flower spikes, but the foliage is really beautiful,” she said.
• Asclepias tuberose (butterfly weed) is not a weed at all, but a member of the milkweed family. “It attracts butterflies, in particular Monarch butterflies,” Pickhoff said.
• Liatris (blazing star) is another native plant, attractive to beneficial insects and pollinators – especially honey bees.
Shade and part shade locations are perfect for heuchera (coral bells) and hosta – with its contrasting, sometimes bi-colored foliage ranging from chartreuse to dusky blue types.
When planting hosta beware: Deer are fond of dining on hosta foliage, Pickhoff said.
In part sun spaces consider feathery-flowered astilbe, foamflower (tiarella) and hellebore, with is lovely foliage shape and down turned early-blooming spring flowers.
While many native plants attract pollinators keep in mind size, scale and your garden color scheme, as well as the colors and shapes pollinators find attractive.
George Carl Ball, Jr., seedsman, chairman and CEO of W. Atlee Burpee Company in Warminster said people are looking for varieties that grow up, as well as great perennials for pollinators.
“Pollinator gardening is exploding,” Ball remarked.
He recommends delphiniums, including Red Lark, a two-foot tall variety with a more traditional plant growth habit.
Also on Ball’s shortlist are lilacs like Bloomerang and Sensational, a lower-growth lavender variety.
For pollinator gardens, his picks would include mondarda (bee balm, bergamot, horsemint and Oswego tea are among its common names) verbascum and weigela.
“A lot of our classics sell like crazy because with the Covid gardening boom people are still gardening, which is a good thing,” he said.
If you are serious about planting and maintaining a native garden habitat keep the 70/30 ratio in mind, Pickhoff said.
That means 70% of the plants are straight species natives, or those that occur in wild or natural environments without human intervention.
The remaining 30% can be native cultivars, which means those plants have been bred for certain desirable traits or disease resistance.
“Cultivars can be confusing to pollinators, but if you have the 70/30 rule, there will be plenty of food for them,” Pickhoff explained.
Honey bees, for example, love blue and purple tones, according to Jon Kontz, executive director of the Hortulus Farm and Foundation and the founder of Plant Design Group, a landscape company based in Wrightstown Township.
He suggests nepeta, a catmint look-alike of lavender.
“People see it and think catmint is lavender. We steer new gardeners to it because it’s easier to grow, and deer don’t eat it,” Kontz said.
“The blue tone to the flower is a major honey bee attractor, and it doesn’t attract wasps. It’s a great flower to plant in areas where you want honey bees to have something to come to,” he explained.
When considering catmint, keep in mind it is also attractive to cats.
Other pollinating plants Kontz suggests include agastache (hyssop) Blue Fortune, which “is solidly deer resistant” and includes long-lasting blue flowers.
Combined with nepeta Junior Walker (a variety of catmint) the two compatible sun-loving plants provide many weeks of blooming show, especially when alternating their trim-back schedules.
“Honey bees feast on it,” Kontz said.
While it’s fun to browse garden books, online sources and magazines for inspiration, it’s also a good idea to find and establish relationships with local garden and plant nursery centers and high quality mail order catalog firms.
Local providers are a plentiful resource for advice, as well as offering high quality and curated nursery stock.
Kontz said while many customers are searching for inspiration this year, three different types of plants are resonating with gardening enthusiasts.
• Allium Lavender Bubbles or ornamental onion.
• Mexican feathergrass (nassella tenuissima).
• Phenomenal lavender, an easier to grow lavender variety, which thrives in Bucks County.
He recommends adding ornamental chives to the above mix to fill in spaces and round out beds, borders and gardens.
“I think people forget about grasses, but they create a lot of habitat, and the texture is really beautiful,” Pickhoff said.
Look for native grasses like little bluestem and prairie dropseed, which are delicate varieties that can add interest in the landscape.
Switchgrass is another native, and its foliage adds golden tones to the garden in fall.
Foliage can range in color and texture.
“You have grayish green, blue green to the deep black of (annual) First Knight, pennisetum,” Pickhoff explained.
While First Knight is not a perennial grass, its spectacular size and color is a great showpiece in containers and can add drama to an established perennial garden, bed or border.
“When snow falls on grasses, it creates this really beautiful winter scenery,” Pickhoff said.
She recommends waiting to cut perennial ornamental grasses back until late winter – or sometime during late February through mid March.
While it’s easy to think of perennials as simply foliage and flowers, some vegetable perennials are great additions to the garden, too.
Asparagus, for example, is a perennial plant that can last and produce bountiful harvests for many years with proper care.
Figs and herbs are other perennials worth incorporating into the garden and landscape.
Ball said consumers want longevity and reliability from perennials, as well as plants that are easy to grow.
He said Burpee’s Purple Passion and Millennium asparagus are newer, reliable long season varieties, offering high yields and great vegetable production.
“Millennium is a reliable newcomer that just won’t quit,” Ball said.
New product is another important factor for gardeners – regardless of how short or long they have been actively working the soil
“The biggest thing people are looking for is something they’ve never seen, or tasted; heard of, or grown before. Even for long-standing gardeners, what they really treasure is the stuff they’ve never seen before,” Ball said.
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