Powerful Perennials

    My love of gardening truly began with a packet of mixed flowering plant seeds & an open space. Now known as my triangle cottage garden, I had no idea back in the day that the packet of seeds would begin my passion for powerful perennials! That year I saw annual blue cornflowers & tiny California poppies. But hiding in that packet, waiting to emerge en force the following summer were black-eyed susans, white yarrow & purple coneflowers. I still have the daughter (or original – who knows!) plants of the yarrow & coneflowers 20 years later. Too cool. That is how powerful a perennial garden can be. I remember what grocery store I purchased my bee balm plant (that is now many & many given to others). Each plant has a story. Some have come & gone. My heart goes out to the ones that are long-lived, strong & always beautiful. They compete for space now in my triangle, many getting inches taller than they ever intended. There is barely room for mulch anymore, but I tuck some in here & there. It expands by edging inches around it every year, but that just encourages the buggers to keep growing! My successes have been but are not limited to (in order of bloom time): columbine, blue false indigo, salvia, sundrops, coral bells, coreopsis ‘moonbeam’ & ‘zagreb’, bellflower, yarrow, campion, bee balm, phlox piniculata, purple coneflower, black-eyed susan, purple loosestrife, obedient plant, asters & sedum. So my suggestion is to just keep on trying with powerful perennials & be rewarded! They are easy to grow & have personalities all their own. Enjoy!!