Low-maintenance Perennials
- • Trim foliage on grape vines to allow more sun to reach the fruit and ripen the grapes.
- • If your bearded iris blooms were sparse this year or the plants are more than four years old, now is the time to divide and replant them. Mix some bone meal into the soil, and plant the rhizomes just beneath the soil surface.
- • Lilac bushes will bloom better next spring if you cut back on the watering now.
- • Keep apples picked up from under the trees to help control the spread of coddling moths which make wormy apples.
- • Cover newly planted vegetable starts to protect them from birds. Spray cabbage and broccoli plants with BT to control cabbage worms which make holes in the leaves.
Low-maintenance Perennials
Perennials give us some of the best flowers in the garden. These hardy plants come back year after year getting bigger and better each time. Most perennials take a lot of dead-heading to keep them looking nice throughout their blooming time, but there are a few that are easier to care for. Cut them down when they are done flowering and that’s all the maintenance they need.
Sedum Autumn Joy is a well-known favorite that attracts butterflies. The leaves grow close to the ground, then once a year it sends up shoots topped with soft pink flowers, similar to yarrow. As the days get shorter, the flowers turn a rich rusty red.
Moonbeam Coreopsis produces star-like blossoms of pale yellow with finely textured foliage that is good-looking all season. It blooms from July through October and spreads 18-24” wide.
Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, grows into a large clump with 3’ tall golden, black-centered, daisy flowers bloom from August to October. Seed heads are attractive to birds in the fall and winter.
Stella D’oro Daylily has bright, golden-yellow flowers that bloom throughout the summer above fresh green leaves. It is compact, growing only 16 inches tall, and is good for containers and flower borders.
Purple Dome New England Aster is a compact aster with dark green foliage and profuse bloom of dark purple daisy flowers which can entirely cover the plant in September and October.Â
Santa Barbara Daisy, Erigeron karvinskianus, is a low-growing perennial that is covered with little white daisy flowers all summer long. It is tolerate drought once established, and can be used as a border plant or to hang over a wall.
Peonies are easy to grow and give you magnificent flowers in May-June. They come in pink, white and red and live for many years, growing into a larger clump with more flowers each year.
For shady areas, Hostas can’t be beat. With their beautiful foliage in different combinations of blue, green, white and yellow, they will fill the shady bed with their colorful leaves. Hostas also bloom in the summer with spikes of lavender to white, lily-like flowers, which can be quite showy.
Heucheras, or Coral Bells, are one of the most diverse and colorful shade perennials. Plant them as a groundcover, or intersperse some between other plants. Their round leaves come in many colors from bright green to purples to near black, and they send up delicate spikes of white or coral flowers in the summer.
Helleborus is an iron clad deer-proof plant that tolerates dry shade once established. It blooms very early, in late winter with cup-like, greenish-white flowers. Some varieties have pinkish flowers, but their broad leaves are good-looking all year.
Dicentra, or Bleeding Heart, is one of the easiest perennials to grow in the shade. The pretty little pink flowers in the spring resemble pink and white hearts, and when they are done, the plant turns yellow and dies back. Clean up dead foliage and forget about them until next year.
Fall is a good time to plant perennials. They will get established over the winter and bloom beautifully for you next year.
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