Did your New Years resolution include a pledge to plant perennials instead of annuals-you love flowers but are tired of spending all the time and money? You want something that comes back every year.
     Perennials do come back every year; however, they must be divided and tended.  A perennial border is definitely maintenance intensive and unlike annuals, most perennials bloom only a few weeks at a time. This means that it takes more space to produce constant flowers. On the other hand, flowering shrubs, when combined with a few perennials and a handful of annuals can give the impression of loads of flowers and require half the work.
     The first step is to choose plants with drought tolerance, a compact growth habit, long blooming season and or interesting foliage.
     Next decide on the colors you want to use in your planting. Choose three colors that you like and repeat them in flowers and foliage. Repetition of color will visually tie the garden together. Some color combinations that I have used successfully are: red-orange, blue-violet and yellow-green; lavender, pink and pale yellow; yellow-orange, red-violet and blue-green
      For example, lets make a garden using the first set of colors: red-orange, blue-violet and yellow-green Choose several shrubs for the back of the border and arrange them in groups of three Philadelphus coronarius'Aureus' (Golden Mockorange), with fragrant white flowers in June and yellow-green leaves all summer, is a shrub that would work well at the back of this border as would Caryopteris 'Black Knight', a shrub with blue-violet flowers.
      Between the shrubs, tuck groups of perennial, red-orange lilies : Asiatic lilies or Tiger lilies. Use blue-violet perennials to face down the shrubs and lilies: Salvia'Sunny Border Blue', Delphinium 'Magic Fountains' Dark Blue), Platycodon  and Catananche cerulea. Red-orange perennials to spot between the blue-violet perennials include: daylilies (there are hundreds to choose from), and Gaillardia 'Goblin'. For the front of the border is Alchemilla mollis, a perennial with yellow-green flowers. Long blooming annuals to combine with the lady's Mantle at the front of the border include: Marigold 'Tangerine Gem', Nasturtiums: 'Creamsicle' and 'Whirlybird' Tangerine, Rudbeckia'Becky' .
       You can play this many ways expand the garden to fill a large space, or use one shrub, several perennials and three annuals for a corner planting There will be colorful leaves and flowers all spring, and summer.  The shrubs and perennials will come back every year. Yearly replacements will be limited to a few market pacs of annuals.   Happy gardening
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