Twelve dependable perennials

Flower & Garden Magazine, Feb-March, 1993 by Patricia A. Taylor

THINKING ABOUT MY FAVORITE perennial flowers, I can't help but be inspired by a photograph of 'Festiva Maxima' peonies from my garden. So vividly does the photo capture their gleaming white beauty, I can almost sense the lush fragrance.

These elegant flowers, flecked with tiny dashes of carmine red in their centers, come from a plant that grew and bloomed for 10 years in an open field, without the benefit of a gardener's care. In effect, it had become a "wildflower" in an abandoned garden.

When salping trees began to crowd out the peony, my husband dug it up, split its enormous crown into 10 sections and replanted these one and one-half inches deep in the partial shade borders outside our house. Once again -- without either fertilizers or pesticides - the plants have flourished.

The 'Festiva Maxima' peony is just one of many easy-care perennials that beautify my garden with little or no effort on my part. These perennials are so adaptable that they can decorate beds and borders across the country. I'm sure more garderners would grow these gorgeous flowers if they only knew how easy it is.

All they require is reasonably fertile soil -- neither brick-solid clay nor beach sand -- and perhaps a weekly watering when nature provides none. That's it. As my 'Festiva Maxima' peony did during the 10 years that no gardener cared for it, these tried-and-true perennials will bloom on their own year after year.

If you would like to add long-lived perennial color and beauty to your garden, consider the following plants, presented by season of bloom. Just check the accompanying chart for each plant's vital statistics; then mix and match as you please.

SPRING

For a bright white, you can't beat candytuft (Iberis sempervirens). This old-fashioned favorite is low-growing and best placed in front of the border. Once its sparkling white flowers have finished blooming, the plant continues to look neat and tidy with dark green, needlelike leaves. Candytuft foliage looks perky throughout the summer and, in my garden, is evergreen.

As American gardens have become shadier, the crested iris (Iris cristata) has gained increased attention. Found on woodland floors from Maryland to Georgia and west to Missouri, this diminutive native wildflower has blossoms resembling those of the popular garden irises. When the flowers fade, handsome foliage mats provide a decorative touch through the remainder of the garden year.

Our native pink foamflower (Tiarella wherryi) has long been prized in England; when it received a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit, it was cited for its "charm and beauty." Yet it is just now gaining favor in its home country. With small clumps of good-looking foliage and spikes of pink flowers like tiny cones of cotton candy, this is a prize specimen in a shade garden.

SUMMER

The brilliant orange flowers of the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) adorn sunny fields and gardens throughout our country from Florida to Washington state. Monarch butterflies hover about these flowers, complementing their orange color and giving the plant its popular name. After blooming most of the summer, butterfly weed provides a fall bonus: striking seed pods.

The pale yellow flowers of 'Moonbeam' coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam') start blooming in mid-June in my garden and continue through September. The foliage is so airy and wispy that, from a distance, the flowers seem to float above a fine green netting.

The Lancaster geranium (Geranium sanguineum prostratum) is a long-blooming garden gem and quite different from the annual geranium (which, botanically speaking, is a Pelargonium). Best placed in front of a border -- and absolutely spectacular when allowed to wander among iris foliage -- this low-growing plant is covered with pink flowers from May to September and has dark green foliage that can double as a groundcover. In the fall, the leaves often provide a garden bonus by turning bright red.

The durable orange daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) can be seen growing wild through so much of our country, yet it's an import from Europe. Its bright stands of flowers are a favorite roadside attraction in early summer. There is a double form, usually called 'Kwanso,' which is much more attractive and also less prone to rampant spreading. The flowers are standouts in arrangements.

Every summer garden needs, in my opinion, a touch of blue. Few plants can match the ease of care, beauty and durability of the balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus). This plant does take its time in settling into a garden -- generally about three years to form a good-size clump. Once established, however, it will produce a succession of lovely blue flowers for up to eight weeks.

AUTUMN

The pink, dogwoodlike flowers of the grape-leaf anemone (Anemone vitifolia 'Robustissima,' sometimes sold as A. tomentosa 'Robustissima') are lovely at the end of the garden year. This plant hails from Nepal but is so tough and adaptable that it thrives in Georgia's heat and humidity. It looks very much like the Japanese anemones that also bloom at this time of year, but is much hardier and can be grown in more areas of the country.