Perennial Favorites: Choosing Plants to Create Color All Season Long

Perennials, plants that come up each year, are a great option for any garden. While the initial investment is higher than annuals – a good-sized annual flower may cost $5.00 vs. a perennial at $15.00 – after just a few years, perennials are the more cost-effective choice. Not only do they bloom every year, they’ll also spread, filling out a flowerbed, and can eventually be split to create additional plants.

With proper care, annuals will typically bloom throughout the entire growing season while perennials have a shorter blooming period. When choosing perennials, it’s important to note the blooming period and go with a variety of plants that will keep color in your garden throughout the growing season in your Cape Cod landscape.

Spring
Bulbs, such as daffodils, tulips and hyacinth are sure bets for early color. Once they’ve been planted they’re virtually maintenance free and will spread rapidly. Bleeding heart and columbine are great choices for areas with limited sun and creeping phlox and dianthus are early spring bloomers that do well in sunny areas.

Late-Spring to Early Summer
With its feathery spikes of flowers and shiny leaves, astilbe is lovely choice for a late-spring bloomer. It thrives in shaded areas and comes in a variety of colors ranging from deep lavender to dusty pink to white. For sunny spots, a selection of irises is an absolute showstopper. Once the blooms have passed, the leaves continue to add dramatic texture.

Summer
When it comes to summer-blooming perennials on Cape Cod, the list is nearly limitless. With sufficient watering, especially necessary with new plants, your perennial garden will be bursting with color with choices such as black-eyed Susan, gaillardia, catmint, lavender, lilies, Shasta daisies and Echinacea in sunny areas. Many varieties of sun-loving hydrangea are also at their showy best in the summer months. For shaded areas consider going with a hosta garden. They’re available in a wide variety, with varying leaf color and pattern, and will flourish with virtually no care once they’re established.

Late-Summer & Early-Fall
As we enter late summer, things can begin to get tricky. By mid-August, especially if we’re having a particularly dry summer, gardens on Cape Cod can look spent and be lacking in color. Keep up the watering and deadheading and you’ll keep color in your beds with sun-loving plants such as Echinacea, Russian sage, sedum, black-eyed Susans and asters.

Fall
The reward in having chosen your perennials carefully will be most noticeable once Labor Day has come and gone. While every other home on the block is relying solely on mums for color, with the right perennials, your garden can be filled visual interest right through October. We say ‘visual interest’ because autumn is when plants such as ornamental grass and burning bush really add to the overall effect. The bottom photo at the right was taken on October 22…seriously. In this South Dennis landscape, we paired a row of Montauk daisies anchored with beachy ornamental grass on either side and a backdrop of burning bush to create a wall of texture and color that would hold until the first hard frost. Annuals at the front of the bed were swapped out for mums for an autumnal feel and additional color.

If your Cape Cod landscape is in need of attention – whether some assistance in rearranging existing plantings or to completely rethink your new or existing landscape – please contact us to arrange a consultation.