Perennials

As you decide which plants to add to your garden this year, check out these new perennial plants at your garden center.

At a time when most plants are preparing for winter, these easy-to-grow perennials add glorious, long-blooming, and colorful flowers in the fall landscape, extending the gardening season through Autumn.

Tired of the same old mums, black-eyed Susans, and orange daylilies? Plant breeders have been hard at work developing lots of new perennial flowers that bloom longer, come in new colors, and grow sturdier than past versions.

Much of the flower world is called a daisy. But what is a daisy, really? Daisies include a dozen or more different genera, many with numerous species and cultivars.

As long as your perennials have not been bothered by insect or disease infestation, many of them can stay upright through the winter to serve as a food source for birds. Others hold their own to provide winter interest.

Catmint, an aromatice plant with gray-green foliage and beautiful lavender blue flowers, was named Perennial of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. Catmint is low maintenance, long-blooming and disease and insect resistent.

Most of us think of evergreens as trees and shrubs, but there also are evergreen perennials to brighten the winter landscape.

A hardy geranium named 'Rozanne' has been named the 2008 Perennial of the Year and has won dozens of rave reviews from professional landscapers, gardeners and plant groups.