Flower gardening with perennials . . .
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. . . means your flowers can reproduce year after year. Better still,
your garden landsape can keep changing from one season to the other, even late into the fall. Here are excellent tips
on choosing, starting, and transplanting perennials .
Gardening With Perennials
© Renee Randall
For dependable flower variety year after year, do your flower gardening with perennials. Choose perennials that are easy to
grow, brightly colored, pastel, short, or tall.
Excellent Perennial Choices
Bleeding Hearts, chrysanthemums, delphiniums, geraniums, hosta, phlox, and
rudbeckia are great perennial choices.
Bleeding Hearts are heart-shaped, pink-to-rose flowers needing moist soil and partially
shaded location.
Chrysanthemums are single, semi-double, and double flowers in all colors but blue. It
requires moist, well-drained soil and full-sun location.
Delphiniums are very tall flowers of many colors, though mostly blue. They also need
moist, well-drained soil and full sun location.
Geraniums are easy-to-grow flowers of many colors needing mostly any soil type and full sun
or partial shade location.
Hosta can grow from 4 inches to 3 feet. They have showy flowers with bright foliage and need
moist, well-drained soil and partial to deep shade location.
Lupine are large spiked 3-4' tall flowers of many colors needing a cool
location.
Phlox are soft pastel flowers, some with a contrasting center, ranging from low lying
to tall flowers. They grow best in moist soil and full sun or partial shade location.
Rudbeckia are yellow, daisy-like flowers with contrasting centers needing any soil type and
full sun location.
How To Start Perennials
Begin perennials indoors to allow slow growing flowers the extra needed time for germination.
1. Moisten the germinating mix you will be using with warm water.
2 Fill small containers with the moistened germinating mix. Lightly pack the mix into the containers almost to the top.
3. Label each container with the seed you will be planting.
4. Determine the planting depth of each of the seeds. Insert seeds, as determined, into the soil.
5. Add a light layer of mix to cover the seeds.
6. Water the newly planted seeds using a fine spray, and
7. Cover all containers with clear plastic until the seeds germinate.
Seeds and seedlings should never be allowed to dry out, yet, too much water can harm and even kill seedlings, and over watering can make soil
temperatures too cold. Consistently warm temperatures, about 70-75 degrees, are important for germination to take place.
Electric mats can provide bottom heat. Proper lighting is also important for germination to take place. Use white lighting above containers and
adjust intensity as needed by raising or lowering lights. Once germination takes place, new seedlings will need natural or fluorescent light to
grow.
How To Replant Your Perennials
Replant perennials before their roots grow too big for their containers.
1. Begin this process by watering the seedlings in their containers and watering the ground where
they will be planted.
2. Work some compost or manure into the ground then rake the bed smooth.
3. Decide where you will be placing your seedlings, keeping taller growing plants to the back, and determine how far apart each seedling should
be.
4. Measure and mark the spot each seedling will go by poking finger-deep holes into the ground.
5. Take one seedling out of a container by holding the stem gently and pushing up a little from the bottom of the container.
6. Set the seedling into the first planting hole. Hold it so that the soil around the seedling is even with the garden soil.
7. Pull soil around the roots of the seedling, and pack gently.
Continue with each of the seedlings until all are planted. Water each new plant. Let the water
soak in, and water again.
Arrange perennials that bloom in spring, summer, and fall together for color from season to season.
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About the Author:
Learn more about
perennial gardening, pots and planters, backyard ponds and foundations, and more at http://www.dpbolvw.net
Source; goarticles.com
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