Perennial Care

From Gardening Wiki

Contents 1 How to Care for Perennials 2 Cultivation of Perennials 3 Watering Perennials 4 Staking Perennial Plants 5 Deadheading Perennials and Removal of Seed Pods 6 Dividing Perennials

How to Care for Perennials

This is a guide on how you can care for perennials.

Cultivation of Perennials

Through the growing season the surface soil should be loosened so that air may enter in order to encourage root action, as well as to conserve the moisture, and keep the weeds in check.

Under the heading of Lawnswe have mentioned the value of lawn clippings as a Summer mulch to conserve moisture. We very strongly recommend nicely decayed stable manure and leafmold, where these are obtainable.

Watering Perennials

Watering, although beneficial, is less necessary if the soil is always kept loose. In dry seasons water may be applied, using plenty at one time. Little drippings of water are bad for all plants, for such a method of watering only destroys the surface looseness. Syringing the foliage is beneficial; in many cases it serves to keep insects in check if done vigorously. Wherever possible, water pipes should be laid on for use in the garden.

Staking Perennial Plants

Many of the perennials will become tall and some support will be necessary, Do not make it conspicuous. Paint the stake green and tie with green cord or raffia, but do not use an old mop handle nor tie with brilliant calico. A light, but long stake placed at the center of the plant is effective. Branchlets may also be used. In that case scarcely any tying is needed. Let the stakes be placed early; when the plants have made a great growth they cannot be effectively supported, so that a natural appearance is lost. The whole beauty of a garden is frequently marred by the absence of stakes or a poor method of staking.

Deadheading Perennials and Removal of Seed Pods

All old flowers, seed pods and dead leaves should be removed from time to time.

They should be burned. Old flowers harbor thrips, a very minute insect which is usually found in the heart of a Rose bloom ; they cause a shabby appearance of the petalage. Seed production is a most debilitating process; the plant therefore should be prevented from doing this excessive labor. When the old flowers are picked the energies are often turned to a second crop of bloom. Many dead leaves are diseased and are a menace to the other plants. Besides this, old flowers, dead leaves and seed pods give an air of untidiness to the garden.

Dividing Perennials

Some of the later blooming perennials, especially Helianthus, Rudbeckia, Asters Boltonia, Physostegia, Achillea, need to be replanted or parts of them removed each year.

Five or eight shoots of these perennials can be chosen and the rest dug up and moved to another place. This is the only way to keep some of the weedier growers in subjection. Perennials which bloom from crowns in the early Spring are usually impatient of being moved often, examples being Bleeding Heart, Oriental Poppy, Dictamnus, Red Hot Poker and Peony. Iris reproduces rapidly and is best divided every two or three years; Phlox every three or four years and Peony only every five or six years. Many perennials, as Delphinium and Columbine, increase by a gradual enlargement of the crown.