Perennials 101: What They Are and How to Grow Them

Perennials offer charming beauty and limitless design potential. These non‑woody plants live more than two years, typically dying back to the ground after hard frosts and re‑emerging in spring. Some, like heart‑leaf bergenia and mondograss, stay evergreen in mild climates, providing year‑round structure.

Key Things to Know

While a few perennials are carefree, most require ongoing attention—mulching, watering, staking, and deadheading—to perform their best. Growing perennials becomes a rewarding, lifelong learning journey.

Perennials Are Not “Plant‑and‑Forget”

A common myth is that perennials create a zero‑maintenance garden. In reality, most need regular care throughout the growing season. Deadheading spent blooms on plants like yarrow encourages more flowers.

Color Comes in Waves

Most perennials bloom for only 2–4 weeks. Without careful planning, a perennial bed is mostly foliage for the rest of the year. The solution is to combine varieties that flower in sequence, supplemented by annuals for continuous color.

Give Them Room to Grow

Because perennials expand each year, overcrowding young plants leads to poor air flow and diminished vigor. Plan for mature sizes and increase plant numbers if you want season‑long bloom.

Versatile Garden Roles

Perennials can be stars (bold torch lilies), supporting players (feathery silvermound artemisia), or chorus members (silvery Russian sage). As the season progresses, different plants take center stage—crocosmia’s fiery spikes in summer, Russian sage’s purple haze in late summer.

Incredible Diversity

From lacy to strappy, chunky to wispy foliage; from ground‑hugging to 6‑foot towers. There’s a perennial for every condition—deep shade, standing water, desert heat, steep slopes, heavy clay. They thrive in borders, containers, mixed plantings, and even vegetable gardens.

Beauty Across the Seasons

Early risers like anemone and bleeding heart welcome spring; monkshood and aster bid farewell in fall. Some, like Lenten rose, persist through winter. Mature perennials grow larger and more floriferous each year, with many living 15 years or more—some even a century.

Perennials deliver versatile, dependable, adaptable beauty that only improves with time.