Planting Perennials: How to Plant and Care for Perennials

Perennials are plants that return and blossom year after year. While annuals only offer one season of blooms, perennials establish themselves for years to come. As a result, you do not need to replant perennials after the growing season ends. Many herbs and flowers are perennials.

The longer lifespan of perennials makes these plants easier on the home gardener. As long as you adhere to your perennials’ needs in regard to hardiness zones, watering, and sunlight exposure, you can have a successful garden of perennial flowers year after year with varied bloom time.

Perennials fall into three main categories: tender perennials, hardy perennials, and half-hardy perennials. These terms determine a plant’s ability to withstand frost and colder temperatures.

1. 1. Tender perennials: You may need to bring these plants inside when the weather is freezing, but they grow year-round in warm climates. Tender perennials include sweet potatoes, yams, eggplant, tomato, geranium, calla lilies, dahlias, and petunias.
2. 2. Hardy perennials: These plants can handle cold and frost. Asparagus, fennel, sage, potatoes, and hydrangeas are all hardy perennials.
3. 3. Half-hardy perennials: Plants such as daylily, hosta, peonies, and mint can withstand freezing temperatures up to a point, but they don’t do well in sustained cold.

You can grow perennials by starting with seeds or transplants. There are benefits to starting from seed, seedlings, or developing plants.

Seeds are the most cost-effective way to start gardening, but take the most time to develop into adult plants. Using transplants is an easy and quick way to garden. Transplants develop quicker than when starting from seeds and require less upkeep. However, this tends to be a more expensive option, and you won't have the same control over the plants as you would starting with seeds or seedlings. If using transplants, be sure to dig a hole big enough to fit the root sphere.

Regardless of the time of year, all perennials require the same basic steps for planting:

• Prepare your soil: When the optimal planting season for your plants arrives, arrange the soil in your desired planting area. You'll want high-quality, fertile soil for growing vegetation. Loam soil is a hybrid soil (about forty percent sand soil, forty percent silt soil, and twenty percent clay soil) that has the ideal nutrients and pH balance for development.
• Dig a hole: Ensure your planting hole is wide and shallow for your seeds or seedlings. If using a transplant, you will need a bigger hole to fit the root ball. When planting perennials, it is not necessary to grow them exclusively alongside other perennials. They are fine to grow with other annuals as long as they are compatible.
• Cover with soil: You can further improve the quality of your soil by adding compost, peat moss, or other organic matter.

Given how long they last, perennials require a lengthy investment. Use these tips for optimal results for your plants that last multiple years:

1. 1. Find your plant hardiness zone. Before you start, find your corresponding hardiness zone. The USDA maintains an online hardiness map, searchable by zip code, which divides the country into 13 zones based on average annual minimum temperature. The map also features a zone finder to locate your zone.
2. 2. Water well and check in. All perennial garden plants need water to grow. Depending on the soil moisture, you may want to add about one inch of water. If your plant feels too dry, add an extra inch of water. When the weather is cooler in early spring, water your annuals about once a week, increasing to two or even three times per week once the air temperature increases.
3. 3. Compost and mulch your soil. Composting is popular for the many benefits it brings to vegetation and the environment. The organic and biological materials living in compost activate the soil's contents (which include fungi, bacteria, minerals, among others). This promotes strong immunity in your plants, and expands the life of your crops. Adding mulch, organic fertilizer, or other organic matter to the top layer of your soil can also give your vegetables a head start in growth.
4. 4. Use a natural or organic pesticide. All vegetables are prone to pests like flea beetles and aphids; critters or insects may snack on your vegetables. For bugs, use an organic or noninvasive pesticide. There are also many recipes for making your own natural pesticide at home. If you’re dealing with larger animals or critters, try netting or fencing the perimeter of your garden.
5. 5. Weed often. Weeding prevents fungus or disease from infecting your plants and is an essential step for proper plant maintenance. Make weeding part of your everyday gardening routine. You'll want to do this in the morning when the soil is damp and you can easily remove the weeds.
6. 6. Prune and deadhead thoroughly. As the months go on and your plants begin to bloom, you'll want to prune your garden by removing any dead or dying foliage. Additionally, you can remove spent flowers and prevent smaller corps by deadheading, pinching, or cutting off dead blooms and young bugs. For vegetables, remove dead leaves or stems. This will ultimately improve the look of your garden over time while also promoting healthy, new growth.
7. 7. Divide your perennials. You should divide your new perennials. After the first bloom, manually uproot and separate the plants, an essential step for proper growth and health, especially if they bloom vigorously. You can only divide plants after they bloom. After the first bloom, you only need to divide them a few times in the following years.
8. 8. Start a diary. Keep a garden journal to track your veggies' progress, as well as notes on when and where you planted your vegetables, if pests or critters are interfering, or any pertinent details to the development or health of your crops. You'll want to be as detailed as possible when logging, ideally every day. Starting a garden is an investment of time and labor, and the best way to reap those rewards is through daily logs.

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