A plant guide
Perennials
Curated abundance with a touch of whimsy
An annual lives one season and gives everything to it. A perennial comes back — a little bigger each year, on its own schedule, without being replanted. Most gardens want both, and knowing which is which is the difference between replanting every spring and building something.
Quick tips
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Think in layers
Structure, flowers, foliage, pollinators, repeat bloom. Fill the jobs, not the gaps.
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Wide hole, not deep
Roots run sideways. Loosened soil around them is the whole point.
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Water the first season
Drought-tolerant describes an established plant, not a new one.
Think in layers, not in plants
The gardens people admire are rarely collections of favorites. They are four or five jobs, filled deliberately, and then repeated.
Structure
The evergreens and the shrubs that hold a shape through winter. Liriope along an edge, a camellia at the corner. This is what the bed looks like in February, and it is the layer most people forget until February.
Seasonal flowers
The things that bloom and hand off to each other — daylilies in June, asters in September. Aim for two or three overlapping, not one big moment.
Foliage
Leaves work eleven months; flowers work three weeks. Hosta’s white edge, a thyme’s silver, the strap leaves of liriope. A bed built on good foliage never looks empty.
Pollinator support
Asclepias, asters, anything with an open flower a bee can land on. This layer pays you back in the vegetable garden.
Repeat bloom
The plants that go again — ‘Happy Returns’ and ‘Stella D’Oro’ among the daylilies. One or two of these carry the bed through the gaps.
Planting and the first year
Dig the hole wider than it is deep — twice the width of the pot is not too much. Roots spread out, not down, and loosened soil around them is the whole point.
Set the plant at the same depth it grew in the pot, firm it gently, and water deeply. Then keep watering through the first season, even a drought-tolerant plant. “Drought-tolerant” describes an established plant, not a new one.
Dividing
Most perennials want lifting and splitting every three to five years, when the clump starts to die out in the middle. Do it in fall or early spring, cut the clump into pieces with growth on each, and replant.
This is the best part of perennials: they pay a dividend. One daylily becomes four, and four becomes a border you did not buy.
What we have
Daylily 'Happy Returns'
$6
Hemerocallis
- Light
- full sun to part sun
- Water
- Low once established
- Size
- 15–18 in
- Bloom
- Early summer, again in fall
Clear lemon-yellow, and a rebloomer — it does not stop after one show the way older daylilies do.
Daylily 'Stella D'Oro'
$6
Hemerocallis
- Light
- full sun to part sun
- Water
- Low once established
- Size
- 12–15 in
- Bloom
- Early summer through fall
The workhorse. Golden, compact, and close to unkillable — a good first perennial.
Hosta 'Patriot'
$10
Hosta
- Light
- shade / part shade
- Water
- Even moisture
- Size
- 18–22 in wide
- Bloom
- Lavender spikes in summer
Dark green with a wide white edge that lights up a shady corner all season.
Good to know Slugs like it as much as you do. A gritty mulch or an evening patrol handles them.
Liriope 'Variegated'
$7
Liriope muscari
- Light
- part sun to shade
- Water
- Low once established
- Size
- 12–15 in
- Bloom
- Purple spikes in late summer
Cream-edged evergreen strap leaves. The edging plant for a bed that has to look tidy year-round.
Aster 'Believer Purple'
$8
Symphyotrichum
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Moderate
- Size
- 18–24 in
- Bloom
- Late summer into fall
Rich purple daisies just as everything else is finishing, and the pollinators pile onto it.
Aster 'Hazy Pink'
$8
Symphyotrichum
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Moderate
- Size
- 18–24 in
- Bloom
- Late summer into fall
Soft pink, a gentler partner for the purple, and just as busy with bees.
Asclepias 'Apollo Orange'
$12
Asclepias tuberosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Low — poor soil suits it
- Size
- 18–24 in
- Bloom
- Summer
Butterfly weed. A monarch host plant, and one of the few perennials that genuinely prefers poor ground.
Good to know Slow to wake in spring. Mark where you planted it so you do not dig it up thinking it died.
Asclepias 'Red Butterfly'
$12
Asclepias curassavica
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Size
- 24–36 in
- Bloom
- Summer into fall
Red and orange florets over a long season — the one butterflies find first.
Asclepias 'Silky Gold'
$12
Asclepias curassavica
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Size
- 24–36 in
- Bloom
- Summer into fall
Clear gold, and it keeps flowering when the rest of the bed has given up in August.
A little field guide to the plants that come back.