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Plants that keep coming back year after year

Katey from Romence Gardens shares some of her favorite perennials.

It's the time of year to get planting, but before you put that flower in the ground, it will help to know a little more about it.

Plants and flowers can be annuals or perennials. Annuals are plants with a life cycle that only lasts one year. Every spring they need to be replanted. Perennials are herbaceous (green) plants that will last more than one season and will regrow in the spring. Woody perennials is often a term used to refer to shrubs or trees because they tend to have thicker stems and don't die all the way back to the ground in the winter. 

Besides knowing if a plant is an annual or a perennial, it is also important to know how much sunlight a plant needs to thrive. When it comes to perennials, there are a lot of options. Katey from Romence Gardens shared some ideas and some expertise with us. 

Shade Plants: 

Hostas like "Maui Buttercups" and "Praying Hands" are easy to grow and make a wonderful statement in shaded gardens. Deer like to munch on them, but you can take some precautions to avoid that. Hostas come in hundreds of varieties that vary in size, bloom color, and leaf color. 

Transitional (part shade and part sun) Plants: 

Heurchera. Katey's favorites are "Caramel" and "Lemon Love". 

Hakonechola "All Gold" or Aralia "Sun King". The Japanese forest grass or Hakone grass is a great arching shade grass and pretty much the only grass that grows well in the shade. The Sun King grows tall and strong and is bright in the shade. 

Astilbe "Visions" and Polemonium "Heavenly Habit", Jacobs Ladder, or the long blooming Tiarella "Candy Striper". These add some blooms and some color. 

Shade plants like to avoid hot sun times, but can usually handle filtered sun or sun that isn't as intense as during the middle of the day. Just keep them watered and they will be happy. 

Sun Plants:

Sun perennials need at least five of six hours of sunlight. Some varieties love even hotter and dryer climates. 

Baptisia "Cherries Jubilee" and "Sparkling Saphire" are early summer bloomers. They become almost shrub-like. The flowers turn into cool seed pods and the plant stays beautiful all summer long. In the fall, cut it all the way down and it will return in the spring. 

Dianthus, Salvia, and Perennial Geraniums are all long blooming sun perennials. They give you bright spots of color in your garden and are easy to care for. Most just need a little bit of pruning after they bloom to stay healthy. Knock Out Rose bushes are in this category of plants as well. It's a tough shrub that blooms all summer long with very little need for pruning. It is also disease resistant and winter hardy. 

Sedum Flaming Carpet does well with more sun and less water than some other plants, and gives you a bright and colorful area in your garden. Agastache "Orange Hyssop" or Anthemis "Charme" and Penstemon "Dakota Burgandy" can all handle getting a little dry between waterings. You can also try "Orange Gnome" Lychnis, Lavender "Super Blue", Yarrow, and Echinacea in those sunnier spots of your garden. 

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