![]() ![]() If you are making a new bed, use real top soil. Soil for New BedsĪs you will see below, you should not amend the soil in the potting hole before planting. In this case it is a good idea to shade the plant for the first month. If you plant during warm weather, understand that the plant will lose water faster. In warmer zones, try to plant during cool weather. Fall is also a good time to plant, but in zone 5, I seem to have less success with fall planting than spring planting. In colder zones, it is best to plant in spring, earlier is better. Buying in bloom ensures you get what you want.Ī perennial in bloom can be planted successfully, but understand that the plant will have a harder time getting established. Plants like day lilies come in many colors and the color in pictures or online are not always correct. ![]() Some varieties, like mixed delphiniums, have variable colors and the only way to get the color you want is to buy in flower. There is a good reason to buy perennials in flower. Or it was just transplanted and you are paying a high price for a small plant. It was either over or under watered and the roots have died. If you don’t see good white or off-white roots, don’t buy the plant. The plant should come out of the pot with all of the soil attached, allowing you to have a look at the roots. Unfortunately, small perennials are rarely sold and you get stuck with a large expensive plant.īefore you buy, turn the pot over, and give it a light tap. Smaller plants are always a better buy because they transplant much easier and have suffered less time being confined to a pot. This whole process starts with buying good quality plants. Circulating roots are the ones found between the soil and pot that go round and round forming the shape of the pot – see the picture below. If this process is done properly, your purchased plant will have a nice fibrous root system that fills the pot with no circulating roots. Most perennials are moved several times before they are big enough to meet today’s demand for mature plants. They are then moved to larger pots so they can grow bigger. These small plants are grown in small pots until they outgrow the pots. Nurseries start their plants from either seed or cuttings, but usually from cuttings since so many of today’s perennials are named cultivars which do not come true from seed. Most of the information in this post applies to all three cases but the focus will be on potted plants – the kind you get from a nursery. ![]() You can increase your perennial collection in three ways germinate seeds, buy potted plants and transplant from either your own garden or a friend’s garden. Acanthus hungaricus with 60 flower spikes – planting perennials the right way, by Robert Pavlis ![]()
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