6 green thumb tips for growing perennials

Although most perennials produce flowers, their sheer diversity makes it easy to build a satisfying garden using little else. Here's some tips for growing healthy and abundant perennials.

• Plant perennials abundantly in a border.
• Combine them with woody plants, annuals, vines and bulbs for a garden with a many-sided personality.
• Plant a variety of perennials for different bloom times. Focus on long bloomers to maximize your floral show.

• Your climate can determine the number and type of perennials you can grow, but resourceful gardeners know ways to stretch the limits.
• You can coax slightly tender plants into overwintering in cold climates. Plant them in protected spots that capture the sun's warmth and provide shelter from wind.

• In warm regions, accommodate plants that dislike heat and humidity by siting them where they'll have midday shade.
• Provide them with generous spacing for air circulation.

• Some perennials have a compact habit that suits them to container use instead.
• Keep you container perennials in a place around 4°C during the winter. That way, the plants have the dormancy they need without suffering frost damage.

• In most parts of North America, perennials go dormant in winter, providing the ideal opportunity to divide and transplant.
• Divide every few years. It reinvigorates old plants and produces more plants to expand your garden, or share with friends.

The best gardens use many perennial varieties, each of which can complement and enhance their visual appeal. Here are some popular perennials that you can add to your garden:

• Campanula
• Daylily
• Dead Nettle
• Ferns
• Geranium
• Ornamental Grasses
• Lavender
• Monkshood
• Oriental Poppy
• Painted Daisy
• Primrose
• Rudbeckia
• Sneezeweed
• Thyme
• Trillium

Perennials are the workhorses of the garden. You can easily incorporate perennials into a garden of any proportion, and they don't have to be replanted every spring.