The following article is from Rebeccas Garden and was featured on the HGTV website.

Foolproof perennials can be the staple of your garden, giving you enduring color and interest with little or no effort on your part. Here are Rebecca Kolls’s top-ten easiest perennials to grow. Scoring high on the charts for disease resistance, hardiness and low maintenance, these perennials will brighten your garden for years to come.
 

6. Bleeding Heart (Dicentra sp.)
Bleeding heart is an excellent candidate for a shady garden. The dangling, heart-shaped flowers line up side-by-side from a single stem that gracefully arches over the foliage. Typically it blooms in the spring, but the fern-leaf variety blooms all summer long. Bleeding hearts come in pink, white and red and grow to a height of one to three feet. Zones 3 to 8.

7. Daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) 
One of the hardiest perennials you can grow, this plant is great for hot, dry sites. Large trumpet-shaped blooms come in many colors; they bloom over a long period of the season (early, mid or late summer), but each flower lasts only a day. Select a variety of daylilies, and you can have color in the garden from early summer to fall. Propagate by root division every few years. USDA Zones 3 to 10.

8. Delphinium (Delphinium sp.)
Delphinium blooms in early summer with tall, stately spikes that add strong vertical accents in the garden. Deadheading the blooms shortly after they fade will give you a second flush of color in late summer. Usually seen in blue, delphiniums also come in purple, red, pink, yellow and white. Give them full sun and plant two feet apart. Stake the taller types, which often can reach six feet. USDA Zones 3 to 8.

9. Yarrow (Achillea sp.)
A great plant for hot, dry and poor soil conditions, yarrow comes in white, yellow and pink. Various cultivars and species produce flowers that are anywhere from a few inches to several feet tall. Give this plant full sun and place the taller types two feet apart. Propagate by stem cuttings in midsummer or by division every few years in the spring or fall.

10. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Another great perennial for hot, dry and poor-soil conditions, the coneflower also handles light shade. Besides the common rosy-hued species, cultivars offer a few other shades including white. Space plants two feet apart. Coneflowers reseed themselves; they can also be propagated from seeds or by division. Zones 3 to 9.

These perennials are all welcome in my gardens. Most of these I use in flower arrangements.

Five more easy to grow perennials from this program are listed in an article at http://thegardenersrake.com/top-ten-perennials-to-grow-part-one

Give perennials the site and soil they prefer the most, and then be patient, says Kolls. “The first year they sleep,” she says, “the second year they creep, and the third year they leap with color.”

Tags: easy to grow perennials, fool proof perennial, Purple Coneflower, yarrow, Daylily, Delphinium, Bleeding Heart

The following article is from Rebeccas Garden and was featured on the HGTV website.

Foolproof perennials can be the staple of your garden, giving you enduring color and interest with little or no effort on your part. Here are Rebecca Kolls’s top-ten easiest perennials to grow. Scoring high on the charts for disease resistance, hardiness and low maintenance, these perennials will brighten your garden for years to come.
 
1. Iris (Iris sp.) Dutch Iris   
This classic staple of your grandmother’s garden won’t let you down. Irises come in a wide array of colors–from nearly translucent, pale yellow to a murky, dark purple. Some are bearded, some are not. Most of the common irises bloom in mid to late spring, but if you select from varieties and cultivars, you can extend the season from early spring to early summer. The reblooming bearded iris gives a second blooming period from midsummer to fall. During the rest of the growing season, the lance-shaped foliage is a good filler for the garden. For even more interest off-season, plant irises with variegated foliage.
Planting iris is different than planting most perennials. It’s very important the fleshy bulb, the rhizome, is slightly above the soil’s surface. Dig a shallow hole, hold the plant in place and cover the roots and sides of the rhizome with soil. You may have to toggle the plant back and forth to make sure that the tip of the rhizome is exposed. USDA Zones 4 to 9.

2. Peony (Paeonia sp.)
Peony is another classic late-spring-blooming perennial with large masses of petals in shades of pink, white and red. They grow best in full sun but tolerate light shade. Give them well-drained, fertile soil (mix in an organic matter when you plant) and be prepared to wait for a couple of years for their first good show; they often take awhile to become fully established. Plant three feet apart, burying the buds (eyes) no more than two inches below the soil surface. Peonies are a great flower for a cutting garden. Zones 3 to 8.

3. Hosta (Hosta sp.) 
One of America’s most popular perennials for the shade garden, the hosta is nearly impossible to kill. Although hostas have pale, slender flowers that appear on spires above the leaves, what you’re getting is a magnificently varied foliage plant. Hostas come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes and texture. Some are a couple of inches tall, and others climb to three feet. They’re excellent for borders and lining pathways, for partial to the densest shade. The blue-green varieties generally don’t tolerate sun, while the yellow-green varieties can. USDA Zones 3 to 9.

4. Astilbe (Astilbe sp.) 
Here’s another perennial that’s made for the shade. The soft, feathery plumes of astilbe come in shades of white, pink and red. Depending on the variety, they bloom in early, mid or late summer. Astilbes need moist, well-drained soil; they don’t like to have their roots disturbed, so amend the soil with peat moss, cow manure and compost before or when you plant. When transferring from a container, gently tease apart the roots so they’ll spread out once planted, and place the plant as deeply as it was in the container. Keep it watered and fertilize once a month. Plant one and a half to two feet apart in light shade. Astilbes can withstand sun as long as they’re well mulched and watered. Propagate by division every three or four years. USDA Zones 4 to 8.

5. Bee Balm (Monarda sp.) 
This plant is a Mecca for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, who feed on the nectar of its pompom flowers from summer to fall. Bee balm can do equally well in full sun or light shade. It’s also deer-resistant. You can propagate from cuttings, from seed or by division in the spring. USDA Zones 4 to 9.

Give perennials the site and soil they prefer the most, and then be patient, says Kolls. “The first year they sleep,” she says, “the second year they creep, and the third year they leap with color.”

All of these perennials grow in my yard and I highly recommend them. The following link has the rest of the article: http://thegardenersrake.com/top-ten-perennials-part-two

Tags: 5 top perennials, easy perennials to grow, foolproof perennials, Iris, hosta, peonies, beebalm, astilbe

Have you ever been to a “Dig your Own” flower garden? We have both an herb and a perennial flower garden business that are operated this way and it’s great experience.

I haven’t been to the herb garden yet but I stopped in at the perennial gardens yesterday and it was a great experience. There were over 4 acres of beautiful gardens and great plants at Sandy’s Perennials. Plus, Sandy, the owner was a fountain of information.

There were gardens in the front set up for shades, under trees, fountain area gardens and full sun gardens. Then there were the growing gardens where the plants were harvested. You just chose what you wanted and for a scoop of a perennial plant you paid two dollars.

Of course I came home with plenty of new plants and spent today getting them in the ground. And yes, I do plan to go back!

Sandy also had a work area and had a huge vat of Manure tea brewing. Manure tea is a staple in my gardens. It really picks up my plants production and growth and the price is right. I make my tea either out of Sheep manure. One coffee cup to 5 gallons of water is the recipe I use. I thin the tea down after it has brewed. I also use comfrey are a tea mix.

Sandy had plenty of advice on the plants she sells and how to grow them. She offers over 120 different perennials.

She has been in business for 15 years and started by trading pansies for other perennial varieties. Her small start has turned into a fun garden business. For those interest Sandy’s perennials in located just across the Pennsylvainia/Ny border near Ashville New York.

Tags: dig your own perennials, interesting gardens, perennial plants