In this Elements of Landscape Design Series post we are focusing on landscape design using perennials to accomplish your landscape vision.
Incorporating perennials into a garden is a wonderful way to add beauty, diversity, and longevity to your outdoor space. Perennials are plants that live for more than two years, returning year-after-year, and they come in a wide variety of colors, sizes, and textures. Here are some steps to help you successfully incorporate perennials into your garden:
Assess your garden
Before choosing perennials, take a close look at your garden to determine its conditions. Observe the amount of sunlight different areas receive, the soil type, the moisture levels, and area dimensions. This information will help you select perennials that are well-suited to your specific garden conditions and have the best outcome.
Determine your design goals
Consider the overall aesthetic you want to achieve in your garden. Are you aiming for a cottage garden with a romantic, informal feel? Pastel colors are the go-to for a cottage garden. Or perhaps a modern garden with clean lines and bold colors? Understanding your design preferences will guide your choice of perennials and their arrangement.
Think into the future
As perennials mature they will fill in the space and one of the hardest things to do when planting perennials is to consider the spacing between the plants when they are at their mature size. Being impatient and filling out the space right away is going to cause problems in the future, as well as increased chances of fungal and disease issues.
Maintenance and care
As with any garden, perennials require regular maintenance. Be sure to provide proper watering, mulching, and fertilization based on the specific needs of each plant. Regularly deadhead spent blooms and remove any diseased or damaged foliage to promote healthy growth.
Plan for seasonality
Perennials can provide blooms and interest throughout the year. When selecting plants, pay attention to their flowering times to ensure you have a mix of perennials that bloom in different seasons. This way, you’ll have a continuous display of color and texture from spring to fall.
Choose a variety of heights and textures
Incorporate perennials with varying heights and textures to create visual interest and depth in your garden. Combine tall, vertical plants like delphiniums or hollyhocks with mid-height flowers such as coneflowers or salvias, and add low-growing groundcovers like creeping thyme or sedum for a layered effect. Depending on the viewing angle, place tall behind mid-height and then low groundcovers.
Consider foliage
While flowers are often the main attraction, don’t forget about foliage. Perennials with interesting foliage, such as ferns, coral bells, or ornamental grasses, can add texture and color even when not in bloom. Incorporating a mix of foliage types can provide year-round appeal in your garden.
Group plants according to their needs
Group perennials with similar growing requirements together. Consider their preferred light levels, moisture needs, and soil conditions. This will make it easier to care for the plants and ensure they thrive. For example, place sun-loving plants in areas with full sun and moisture-loving plants in areas that retain more moisture.
Create focal points
Use perennials to create focal points or anchor areas in your garden. Select a few standout plants, like ornamental grasses, tall flowering perennials, or shrubby varieties like hardy hibiscus, and place them strategically to draw the eye and add drama to your landscape. Small Hydrangea trees are another great focal point option!
Incorporate native species
Consider including native perennials in your garden. Native plants are adapted to the local climate and require less maintenance, making them an eco-friendly choice. They also provide habitat and food for native wildlife, helping to support biodiversity. Incorporate native species: Consider including native perennials in your garden. Native plants are adapted to the local climate and require less maintenance, making them an eco-friendly choice. They also provide habitat and food for native wildlife, helping to support biodiversity.
Remember that gardening is a dynamic process, and as your perennials mature and spread, you may need to divide or relocate them to maintain the desired look and prevent overcrowding. With time and attention, your garden will flourish, and you’ll enjoy the beauty and resilience of your perennial plants for years to come.
Support for pollinators is a joint effort – a partnership.
As of July 2022 Monarchs are now at critically low populations. As a flagship pollinator – one that attracts attention because of it’s beautiful colors and easier tracking methods – this news is a wake up call that we are losing pollinators at a fast rate. We need to add pollinator plants to our landscapes every year.
What We Need to Do Now
Add plants into our landscapes so there is a succession of blooms spring through fall. You can use pollinator friendly annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees to accomplish this.
Reduce or eliminate the use of insecticides. Organic insecticides still kill beneficial insects. There are now studies that find that even if the plant isn’t blooming, pollinators will drink dew off of plant foliage. If it’s treated with insecticides it will kill them. If you do need to spray, avoid bloom time.
Plant ecologically sound landscapes. Add a diverse mix of native plants into your landscape to bring in beneficial insects, birds, and pollinators. Predatory birds and insects are a great way to control damaging insects without the use of insecticides.
Plants to Add for Monarchs
Name – Bloom Time
Pale Purple Coneflower – Early-summer Butterflyweed – Mid-summer Milkweed – Mid-summer – Emphasis on Common Milkweed since they lay their eggs on it. Black-eyed Susan – All summer Joe Pye Weed – Late-summer Blazing Star – Late-summer Aster – Late-summer to fall Monarda fistulosa – Late-summer to fall Goldenrod – Late-summer to fall
Click on a map to download the Ecoregional Planting Guide. Each guide will give you information on specific plant traits that pollinators prefer ( color, odor, pollen, nectar, flower shape ) as well as a list of plants to support pollinators in that region. There are many overlaps in plant varieties in these guides. We wanted to include specific regions because we have customers that are from nearby areas that may live in a different zone.
Mankato is zone 5a (was 4b) and in the Prairie Parkland Temperate Province.
Don’t have room for an in-ground pollinator garden? Check out the portable pollinator garden list from National Garden Bureau.
Sources: Pollinator Partnership. Selecting Plants for Pollinators, Prairie Parkland, Temperate Province. Published by Pollinator Partnership, San Francisco
Pollinator Partnership. Selecting Plants for Pollinators, Eastern Broadleaf Forest, Continental Province. Published by Pollinator Partnership, San Francisco, USA. https://www.pollinator.org/guides#about
ABOUT POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP MISSION
“Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food.
They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.
Without the actions of pollinators agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would collapse.”
Fall is the second-best time to plant – with some saying it’s the best!
We typically have late-summer and fall sales. Check out current plant sales here.
GARLIC
Garlic is one of the easiest to crops to grow. Garlic is planted in the fall late September or early October. They start to grow their roots this fall and then emerge next spring. We recommend adding compost to your planting area two weeks before planting your garlic.
We typically carry 7 different varieties of hardneck garlic that has been proven to do well in MN climate.
Sow perennial plant seeds, that need stratification, after a hard frost – below 25 F. Stratification is the process of seeds being in a cold environment and then breaking dormancy once the weather warms. This ensures that they will not sprout until the following spring.
Be sure to mark the spot you planted. If we have a dry winter and less rain in the spring, make sure to water your seeds in the spring to keep soil moist.
Perennial plants to sow after a hard frost:
Blue and Breezy Flax Seeds
Forget-Me-Not
Hyssop
Lavender
Russell Lupine Blend
Milkweed
Penstemon
Sundial Lupine Bluebonnet
Colorado Blend Yarrow
LATE-FALL SOWN ANNUAL SEEDS
You’ll get earlier blooms and reduce time in the late winter/early spring sowing seeds indoors. The moisture from melting snow will greatly reduce your need to water in the spring.
Tips for sowing annual seed:
Sow the seeds after a killing freeze and before snowfall. You may also sow in late-winter between snow fall. The snow buries the seed and insulates them, helping to retain moisture.
Mix the seed with a bit of sand before sowing. This helps the seed spread evenly and gives you a better visual of where you have sown.
Mark where you planted with labeled garden stakes to avoid damaging emerging flowers.
Bulbs are really as easy as dig, drop, and done. When planting, make sure the soil is well-draining (soil doesn’t stay soggy more than a day) and use Bulb Tone to get their roots off to a healthy start before the ground freezes. Amend your soil with compost or top soil if it’s compacted or not well-draining.
If you have a presence of voles, mice, chipmunks, or squirrels we recommend planting them with a granular animal repellent.
LANDSCAPE PLANTS
Fall is a wonderful time to plant in you landscape. The heat of the summer is done and the cooler weather is less stressful for the plants during transplanting. The soil also stays moist longer, there is less disease and pest stressors, and your plants will put more energy into root growth than foliage.
We recommend mulching around your new landscape plants, leaving a couple inches open around the stems to help retain moisture when they are establishing themselves.
PLANT TREES, SHRUBS, AND EVERGREENS
Trees, shrubs, and evergreens can be planted up to 6 weeks before ground freeze (average ground freeze is beginning of Dec.). If the trees or shrubs are dormant by the time of planting, you may not need to water if the soil stays slightly moist. Make sure to mulch 2-3 inches around the root zone and wrap your tree saplings Oct. 31st or as soon as possible after that.
Deeply water your plants until the ground freezes. Only water when the top 2 – 3 inches are dry. It’s usually 5 gallons of water every week to two weeks depending on your soil type, size of the plant, and weather.
PLANT PERENNIALS
You can plant perennials up to 6 weeks before ground freeze (average ground freeze is beginning of Dec.) but sooner the better for transplanting success. Just make sure they are watered until freeze and heavily mulched after ground freeze to protect their roots.
When planting, mix in a slow release fertilizer – like Biotone. When the top couple inches of soil are dry, that’s when you should water. Water deeply so the plant roots reach deeper into the soil and create a more robust root system before winter weather.
A good rule of thumb to follow: “Blooms late-summer/fall, divide them in spring. Blooms spring, divide in the fall.”
REDUCE WINTER DAMAGE
If you have issues with rabbits or deer around, get a hard plastic mesh tree guard. You’ll be happy you did because if animals chew around the entire tree diameter, it’ll cut off nutrients to the tree, which will cause the plant to die. Shrubs and evergreens can also experience animal damage from hungry animals so use a granular or spray animal repellent or fencing.
Here is an extra note about evergreens. It’s very important evergreens have adequate water before ground freeze or you may experience browning of needles the next spring. Evergreens do better when planted early fall instead of late fall to help them take up moisture before freezing. They slowly lose water from their needles over winter and if they are in an area of high winds and/or bright, all day sun, it dries them out quicker.
Mid-August through mid-September is an ideal time to start new grass from seed. We carry high quality seed from Ramy Seeds in Mankato. If it seems daunting to keep the soil moist to sprout grass this time of year or it’s too late, you can wait until late fall – after we have our first frosts – to sow seeds that will sprout in the spring when the weather warms and spring rains help keep the seed moist.
PLANT COVER CROPS AFTER HARVEST
Cover crops are also an option if you are done with your garden space until next spring or before you plant garlic in late Sept. or Oct. It’s best to start growing cover crops as soon as you can but many crops will grow into late fall. Plant a quick growing crop like peas, oats, radishes, or buckwheat.
A cover crop is used to slow erosion from wind and rain, improve soil health, smother weeds, help control pests and diseases, break up compacted soil, and increase biodiversity. Using a cover crop can reduce the amount of compost you need to prepare your garden soil for next year.
Read our post about Living Soil which covers best practices for healthier soil and head over to the University of MN Extension article with a cover crops selector tool to choose a cover crop for your soil goals. For example: If you fertilize with liquid fertilizers you probably have excess nitrogen in your soil or if you grew peas ( nitrogen fixers) in an area then you’d choose a cover crop that adds other nutrients.
Top 8 ‘Tough as Nails’ Perennials
When it comes to plants, reliable is a characteristic we love! This is our top 8 ‘tough as nails’ perennials that will come back every year and tolerate a wide array of conditions. We would like to mention, even though they are tough, it doesn’t mean they can be completely neglected of nutrients, sun, and water. These plants, after their first couple years of more watchful care, will definitely catch your attention with their beauty, tenacity and reduced level of care once established.
Yarrow
Yarrow Vintage Rose with Salvia in the background.
Achillea millefolium is a Native American plant. Yarrow adds light texture to a garden and one of the best low care perennials for adding a burst of color. It grows tall ( can be up to 3′-4′) with showy clusters of fragrant white, red, pink, or yellow flowers, depending on the variety. It does well in hot and dry spots and resistant to pests. Their blooms typically last from early summer through early fall and are a wonderful cut flower!
Feather Reed Grass
Feather Reed Grass
Calamagrostis x acutiflora is an upright clump forming ornamental grass, with multiple varieties, that adds architecture, movement, and the seed heads add floating fluffy textures in the fall through winter. It does best in moist, rich soil but can handle poor, dry soils as well. This is the perfect grass for urban areas and tough to grow sunny areas. In addition to its high tolerance for multiple conditions, it is pest and disease resistant. Prune down foliage to a couple inches above soil before new growth in the spring and add organic fertilizer if it’s in poor soil if you want to give it a boost and that’s it!
Phlox
Phlox paniculata Coral Flame.
There are so many varieties of phlox it’s impossible to describe them all but they come in low, medium, and tall growing forms to fit in just about any garden. It’s one of the most versatile and colorful plants that have been used in gardens for over 100 yrs and for good reason. Most are long-blooming, often fragrant, and tall varieties don’t require staking. They prefer moist, rich soil and full sun, but depending on the variety, some don’t mind poor, rocky soils or part-sun. Flower colors range from pure white to red, with nearly every shade of pink, lavender, salmon and purple and some multi-colored petals. With proper planting, you can avoid most disease issues, such as powdery mildew.
Daylily
Handwriting on the Wall Daylily.
Hemerocallis means “beauty for a day”because daylily buds blooms only one day but has successive blooms over 4-5 weeks. Some daylily varieties are labeled rebloomers since they perform a couple times in the season with successive blooms. The Daylily is considered “a perfect perennial” because it’s drought tolerant, can grow in almost any kind of soil, can grow in full or part-sun, offers an array of early season to late season blooming varieties, has showy vibrant colors, are pest and disease resistant, and attracts birds, bees, and butterflies. Can be grown on hillsides, around the city, or in a traditional garden with very little care needed.
Sedum
Pure Joy Sedum with coneflowers.
Sedum, also called stonecrop, have thick succulent like leaves that form clusters of small colorful flowers (white,red,pink,or yellow) in late summer and fall that bees love! There are low-growing and tall varieties that love full sun and can handle drought conditions. Once these plants are established they require almost no care. Sedums are easy to split in spring and fall if they get too big for their space. These perennials can grow quickly! Foliage of the fleshy leaves are not only green but there are varieties with varying foliage colors. For example, Sedum Dragon’s Blood Tricolor has white and green foliage with pink edges or deep purple leaves like Sedum Dark Magic. Just make sure these plants have well-draining soil because they can succumb to root rot in prolonged wet soil.
Coneflower
Pow Wow Wild Berry Coneflower.
Echinacea, comonly known as Coneflower are bright, upright, and tough perennials! They can take the heat and drought conditions once established ,deer resistant, and trouble free! Echinacea purpurea is the native coneflower to North America but there are varieties with many different bloom colors. These flowering perennials can have blooms that last from mid-summer though fall! Give coneflowers full sun and avoid other plants shading them. They don’t need much in regards to fertilizer if you mix in plenty of compost into the soil when planting. They attract bees and butterflies and if you leave the flowers on in the fall, birds like to eat the seeds. Prune off dead flowers in summer to promote more blooms for fall.
Russian Sage
Denim N’ Lace Russian Sage. 2020 PW Perennial of the Year.
Perovskiaatriplicifolia, commonly known as Russian sage is a must have plant to add to your garden! Russian sage has grey-green leaves that are very aromatic with bluish-purple flowers that bloom mid-summer through fall. It can tolerate clay soil, dry soil, street salt, and are deer and rabbit resistant. It’s also disease and pest resistant! It really is a tough plant! They can fill up a 3′-4’x3’x4′ space in your garden quickly. Birds, bees, and hummingbirds will appreciate this valuable addition as well!
Hyssop
Blue Fortune Hyssop. Photo Courtesy of Monrovia.
Agastache, or commonly known as Hyssop or Butterfly Mint, have very fragrant foliage and flowers that attract bees and butterflies. The flowers bloom late summer through fall to add color when other perennials are winding down. Most hyssop varieties are native to North America and not only like compost rich soil but also lean, dry soil. They prefer a “tough love” approach so they don’t need much water once established and be sure not to over-fertilize. Only top-dress with compost in spring if you want. Hyssop prefer full sun but can tolerate part sun areas.
Discover beautiful fall shrubs for your garden now! We can help you choose plants with amazing autumn colors. Don’t wait, add these shrubs and keep the colors going all the way to the snowfall!
Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac
This sumac grows about 6′ wide and 6′ tall and the foliage is beautiful all season long! The brilliant chartreuse green foliage is in the summer giving way to the fall when it’s leaves turns orange, yellow, and scarlet color. This plant definitely has an oriental look to it! It’s drought resistant, can take full sun, and is a zone 4 so it will survive the winters here!
Barberry – The foliage of these shrubs are lovely! Orange, red, lime green, yellow, and purple leaf colors.
We wanted to add this shrub because it provides color from spring through fall. The new leaves come out coral orange, turn green, and then a bright red in the fall, always adding warmth and a pop of brightness to your landscape. It grows 4′-5′ tall and 2′-3′ wide and likes full to partial sun. Tolerant of most soils other than slow draining/wet areas. Can take drought conditions once established and great can tolerate road salts and pollution well. Most barberries have wonderful fall color transitions so check out barberry as a great barrier plant in your contemporary or rustic garden.
Bailey Red Twigged Dogwood
This one we are also focusing further than the fall season. We don’t want to take away from the adorable white berries that adorn the plant in late summer but sometimes it’s what’s within that gives the real beauty. The dropping of its dramatic red and orange foliage in fall reveals bright red twigs that stand upright against the mostly colorless landscape. They can get fairly big at 9′ tall and 5′ wide. It’s great for mass planting, in wetter areas, and its roots work well to create an embankment for erosion control. Plant in full to partial sun and hopefully somewhere you see often in the winter! Really easy care and cutting back old stems in the spring will give you the best color on new growth.
Winter photo: Courtesy of Monrovia
Spirea
Birch leaf spirea autumn colors
Spirea is a spring/summer flowering shrub that works well for your border plantings and provides spring blossoms as well as great fall foliage. Some spirea varieties can also bloom spring and fall. Two Spirea came to mind when thinking of fall color. Magic Carpet Spirea (See image on the right ) that turns a rich russet red in the fall after its summer season mature bright gold foliage or the Tor Birchleaf Spirea that turns gold, red, and purple in the fall. The Tor Birchleaf grows in compacted mounds and is deer-resistant, fragrant, and attracts butterflies. The Magic Carpet grows full and bushy, is an early bloomer, and has the brightest colors in full sun. Planting them en masse and pairing them with other perennials would create a more dramatic effect on your landscape. Ask us about which varieties can be pruned after first flowering to try for continued blooming into fall.
There are many plants, other than shrubs, that can provide you with extended seasonal color and eye appeal in your landscape or garden. The garden is an evolving thing so when you have time to take tabs on when plants are blooming or changing color, why not add more plants for fall interest?
Top 10 Perennials 2019
Back in January of this year, the full-time staff went to the Northern Green Conference up in the Twin Cities for continuing education and to see what is new for this year in landscaping and gardening. One of the more popular sit downs was the Top 10 lists of perennials, shrubs, and trees. Since June is Perennial Gardening Month we thought we’d share the Top 10 Perennials of 2019 decided by Mike Heger. Mike has been in the horticultural industry for over 40 yrs and has even written a book on growing perennials in cold climates. He of course prefaced the list with saying this was a very difficult list to make and was focusing more on natives and pollinators this year. Check out the quick list of his Top Ten Perennials!
Top Ten Perennials 2019
Baptisia Lactea ‘ White False Indigo ‘. Tough, long-lived plant, and tolerates many different soils and light conditions. Great nectar plant. The Blue False Indigo, Baptista ‘ American Goldfinch ‘, and Baptisia Decadence Series are other Baptisia he mentioned.
Calamintha nepeta ‘ Montrose White ‘ (Catmint). Clump forming mint with long bloom time. Great for bees and hummingbirds love it. Considered a zone 5 but could possibly survive our winters in the right spot.
Clematis ‘ Arabella ‘. A rambling ground cover that can have flowers all summer long. Mike said his bloomed 14 weeks! Bees and Hummingbirds enjoy!
Helianthus ‘ Lemon Queen ‘ (Hybrid Sunflower). Blooms late summer and fall and great for all kinds of pollinators. It’s a great tall, background plant. Blooms 2-2.5 months!
Native Liatris ligulistylis ( Meadow Blazing Star ). It blooms from the top down and monarchs and butterflies love it. Tolerant of many soils and high light. Another good native option is Liatris Pycnostachya.
Nepetax faasenii ‘ Purrsian Blue ‘ Catmint. A low maintenance clumping mint with 4-6 mths of color. The ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ is the shorter version with similar qualities. Will see butterflies, moths, bees, and hummingbirds around it!
Origanum ‘ Rosenkuppel ‘ (Ornamental Oregano). Burgundy blooms June-September and even past September at times. It prefers full sun and no wet feet. It is a zone 5 plant so may not survive winters in southern MN.
Salvia nemorosa ‘ Blue Marvel ‘. This perennial sage has violet-blue blooms and the butterflies and bees flock to it. Other forms of Salvia have white, pinks, and purple blooms and there are plenty of varieties to choose from.
Stachys monieri ‘ Hummelo ‘ Boteny. This is the 2019 Perennial of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. This perennial tolerates many different soil and full sun to light shade.
Vernonia fasiculata ‘ Common Ironweed’. This native perennial can get up to 6′ tall and is a wonderful nectar plant. Painted lady butterflies love them and are a great plant in the back of the garden due to their height. Their blooms are a bright purple and bloom July, August, and September.
