Plants bring so much joy in so many ways and most gardeners are addicted to these living entities and for good reason. They add value to our lives, to our health and well-being and even to the value of our homes. A beautiful garden is a place to make precious memories with your friends and family and a haven away from the world outside. It’s an extra room to our home and a lovely place for a morning coffee or a lunch with friends. But it needs dressing with colour and texture to bring out its full potential and that’s the role of garden plants and especially garden perennials.
What is a perennial?
Sometimes the terminology in gardening can be confusing. It doesn’t need to be that way. Perennials are plants that are perennial and that means that once established, they live for many years. Compare them to the annuals, which grow, flower and then set seed and die all within one year, the perennials are the season tickets that last for years on end, they usually die back to the ground (but not always – some are evergreen) at the end of the season and then grow back from a bigger crown next spring. It’s a bit like a refilling bottle of wine, you enjoy the treat and then it refills and repeats its gift again and again. And just like the bottle of wine, most perennials cost about the same, and offer even more in terms of pleasure, beauty and wonder for a much longer period of time, again and again.
What makes a great garden perennial?
There are thousands of different garden perennials for our gardens. If you are new to gardening it can be hard to choose what to plant and grow. Visit some open gardens this season and take photos of the plants that you like and ask the garden owner if they know what the plants are? Plants that grow well locally to you are likely to thrive in your garden too as you will probably have similar soil.
If you are buying plants then buy from a reputable source, so that you know you are buying quality. Here at Richard Jackson Garden, we have a team of plant experts who select not just fantastic garden plants that look great, but plants that will grow well and give you years of colour, interest and drama in your garden. Our team chooses new plants and tried and tested plants, from a range of specialist nurseries so you can be sure of great quality for everything that you order.
Five garden perennials for pollinators
Why not make your garden perennials work even harder and grow those that are particularly powerful for pollinators. These plants produce copious amounts of protein rich pollen which is collected by bumblebees to feed their babies. They are also very rich in nectar offering energy rich forage for most pollinators on the wing.
Scabiosa Butterfly Blue has lavender-blue pin cushion flower heads through the summer which are landing pads for pollinators such as butterflies and bees. These ethereal creatures can land on a flower head and move around feeding from the nectar rich flowers. It’s a fabulous variety that flowers in mid to late summer and comes back bigger and better, year after year.
Phlox Fabulous White has masses of stunning white flowers from May until August. The long tubular, nectar rich flowers are a magnet for long tongued pollinators such as butterflies and moths that can access the deep flowers.
Salvia Blue Marvel has spires of rich blue flowers that bring pollinators buzzing to your garden seeking the nectar rich flowers. It’s a true marvel that will establish into large clumps of purple haze that will bring your borders, pots and garden alive.
Aster Blue Lapis has masses of purple daisy like flowers in late summer into autumn. Its yellow centred, daisy flowers are like dinner plates for pollinators, offering pollen and nectar at a critical time of year.
Angelonia Adessa Pink has fabulous dusky pink flowers, rich in nectar and loved by butterflies. This garden perennial is lovely grown in tubs and planters, or planted into your garden border. It flowers from May to September and you can harvest the flowers as cut flowers for your home.
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