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SOME EASY NO-WORK PERENNIALS
Many perennials are trouble-free and permanent. They contribute flower color
to the landscape, year after year, and ask little in return.
There are choices to fill every purpose:
Groundcover, prolific bloom, ruggedness and carefree display. Plans can be
made now to include some of these remarkable plants in the garden this year.
They can be planted early in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked.
Two favorite spring-blooming groundcovers for part shade are ajuga and the
little known but delightful epimedium. The common Ajuga Rupens bears shining
green leaves in flat rosettes that are decorative almost the year round. They
can be cut with the lawn mower without harm. Plants spread rapidly by stolons;
flowers are deep blue, on chunky 8" spikes. A white-flowered form has light
green leaves while another sort has bronze-purple leaves. The Geneva Bugle (A.
Genevensis and A. Pyramidalis) spread slowly; both have bright blue flowers in
the summer time.
Not quite so showy is an old-fashioned favorite, the lemon daylily
(hermerocallis flava). The fragrant flowers of the daylily are 4" funnels of
clear yellow, borne on 30~ stalks above a fountain of long, narrow light-green
leaves. Each flower lasts only a day but there are many buds. The plants
spread by rhizomes, not rapidly, but in a mixed planting they do grow out of
bounds. They are fine for informal use, such as naturalizing on a sunny bank.
Siberian iris is iron-clad hardy and blooms prolifically. It develops strong
clumps of narrow grasslike leaves and numerous strong slender stems, each with
several dainty narrow-petaled blossoms that are excellent bouquet material.
Inexpensive older varieties include light-blue Gatineau, Snowcrest and dark
pansy-violet Caesar's Brother. A similar plant is versicolor, known as the
wild blue flag, grows luxuriantly in swampy places from New Brunswick to
Georgia and will flourish in a well-drained garden too.
Baptisia and gas plant are top choices. They have highly ornamental foliage,
flowers and seed pods. Both perennials grow well in wild gardens and borders,
and never need transplanting. In my southwestern New York garden, both begin
to bloom in late May. They can be grown from seed or - preferably - purchased
as small plants (mature plants are hard to transplant.)
Baptisia australis, sometimes called wild indigo, is found growing naturally
from Vermont to North Carolina (australis means southern, not Australian). Its
clusters of indigo-blue flowers are showy. The blue-green leaves are small,
clustered in threes.
The gas plant (Dictamnis albus) grows slowly to 3' and produces spikes closely
set with white or pinkish flowers. The compound leaves are dark glossy green
and the plants have a wonderful citrous fragrance.
Several tough perennials are splendid for moist, but not soggy areas in part
shade. Most of the hostas (plantain lilies) bloom in mid to late summer, but
their large, conspicuously ribbed leaves are handsome all season. The flowers,
like little lilies carried on tall scapes, are lavender, shades of blue-
violet, or white. Leaves are light or dark green or a wonderful blue-grey.
Some are edged with a wide band of white. Other smaller leaved sorts are
irregularly variegated white or yellow.
Astilbe also has decorative leaves. In July, broad spires or large feathery
plumes composed of multitudes of minute flowers, appear. They may be pink,
rose, garnet red or white. One dark red variety, Fanal, has bronze foliage.
Astilbes are trouble-free but must be divided and replanted after several
years.
Two showy monardas grow wild in southern New York State:
(1) Monarda didyma, called Bee-balm.
(2) M. fistulosa, called wild bergamot.
They are mints with square stems and opposite pointed leaves. Though rather
coarse plants, they are easy to grow and bloom prolifically.
I rescued a 3' lavender-flowered wild bergamot from a garbage dump and planted
it behind daylilies in full sun. It blooms in August.
Flowers of Bee-balm are brilliant scarlet, in showy heads surrounded by
red-tinged bracts. It volunteered most conveniently in a naturalized area of
my garden, where I can watch the humming birds it attracts.
Named hybrids from these two wild species are compact and handsome indeed.
Mahogany, a darkly handsome wine-red, combines well with the rosy-pink
Croftway Pink. The more recent bright-red Adam is said to be superior to the
well-known Cambridge Scarlet. Seeds in mixed colors are available.
Few plants are as self-sufficient as the purple loose-strife (Lythrum
Salicaria) which crowds our sunny marshes with spikes of rosy-magenta flowers
during July and August. This tall, showy wild flower is good for naturalizing
along streams or around pools, but spreads too rapidly to be let loose in a
cultivated area. However, seeds of a comparatively civilized variety Roseum
Superbum are available from Park Seed Company.
Veronicas are excellent garden plants from 1' to 3' tall. Easy to grow,
require only good drainage and a sunny situation. I have started a good many
kinds from seed:
(1) Foot-tall V. Incana with little silvery leaves and deep blue flowers in
June and July.
(2) Taller V. longifolia subsessilis is outstanding , with royal-blue flowers
from June to September.
By Molly Price
The garden is the poor man's apothecary.
- German Proverb
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Prevent flowers from fading. Use a few drops of chlorine bleach in water, add an aspirin for life.
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