Perennials are a key feature of landscape design because they only require occasional maintenance and help define areas within your garden. Rather than replanting your garden spring after spring, just pop a few perennials into the ground and let them grow. Here are five of my absolute favourite perennials, along with some expert design tips to help you work them into your landscape.
I am in love with ornamental grasses. I adore their structure, textures, and even the soothing sound they make as they blow gently in the breeze. Sight, sound, and sometimes even smell are delighted by ornamental grass, one of the many reasons I adore them and highly recommend them for home gardens. Some of my personal favourites include switchgrasses and moor grasses, though we have plenty of other varieties in stock in the garden centre!
From a design standpoint, perennial grasses make excellent privacy screens for patios and other seating areas. If you have a large enough area, they also look fantastic grouped together as a plain, where you can actually watch the wind ripple through as if it were a lake or pond. Can you imagine anything more soothing on a warm spring’s day?
Shady patches in your garden are easy to neglect or forget about, but they’re an amazing way to incorporate shade-loving perennials like anemones and hellebore into your landscape and add an extra month to your garden’s flowering period this spring! Shade-loving perennials do double or even triple duty by maximizing your garden’s bloom time, making them essential additions for small garden spaces and the pollinators that rely on them!
Of all the shade-loving perennials out there, I think Japanese anemones are my absolute favourite. They flower late in the season (September through November), do quite nicely in partial shade, and produce flower stalks that are quite tall, making them perfect for interplanting with your grasses this spring! Another great option to help you extend your growing season, especially in your planters and containers, is the hellebore, a stunning evergreen that’s one of the first perennials to flower in the spring.
Cranesbills are a perennial garden classic perfectly suited to Guelph’s conditions. These delightful plants form robust clumps and produce cup-shaped flowers for up to two and a half months, which is incredibly rare for most perennials! Best of all, the vibrant green leaves on these beautiful bloomers turn red in cooler temperatures, meaning they add a wonderful pop of fall colour to your landscape when the frost starts rolling in. If you’re looking for spring perennials for full sun or partial shade, cranesbills are a no-brainer.
Some of my favourite cranesbill varieties are azure rush, which produces large lavender blooms; Ballerina, which features show-stopping pink flowers with dark centers; Rozanne, which can grow up to three feet tall; and tiny monster, which can also feature as a groundcover!
While many of us think of a type of grass when we hear the term “groundcover,” there are hundreds of other options! To me, a groundcover is simply something that covers the ground and helps you define a space in your landscape. Think of your groundcover like an area rug in an open-concept living room. Until you add in that area rug, the rest of your space can feel lost and undefined.
Tread-resistant perennial groundcovers like creeping thyme are perfect for high-traffic areas of your landscape, as you and your kids can stomp all over them without causing any excess damage or worry. For lower-traffic areas, however, I recommend creeping junipers like the icy blue juniper, Japanese garden juniper, or blue rug juniper. These junipers will quickly form a mat over your landscape, meaning you won’t have to worry about as much weeding! Creeping phlox and rock cress are also beautiful choices for the early spring, as they instantly brighten your groundcover area and emit a delightful fragrance.
I love a good sea holly. While this member of the thistle family might first appear to have a bit of a rough exterior, it’s not until you stop to really look at it that you begin to appreciate its beauty. These hardy perennials are incredibly drought-tolerant, thrive in areas with high salt concentrations, like driveways, sidewalks, and boulevards, and are a glorious steel blue in full bloom.
Sea hollies flower in July, August, and September and can reach heights of up to three feet tall, infusing your landscape with something extra special and unique. They’re also absolute butterfly magnets, which I’m always a fan of!
With so many perennials to choose from, picking the right ones for your garden can seem overwhelming. Lucky for you, Royal City Nursery in Guelph, ON, has the selection and expert advice you need to make your planting journey a breeze this spring! Come stop by the garden centre today to get your hands on the spring perennials of your dreams, and be sure to keep an eye out for some of the favourites I’ve covered here. Hope to see you soon!
