Perennials

Perennials

Our enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable perennials team is here to answer your questions and help you choose the best perennials for your situation. There’s always something in bloom for sun, shade, butterflies, birds or deer resistance  as well as a variety of bulbs for your space.

Stroll through our time-tested favorites and introduce yourself to the newest varieties. We garden with perennials too; we love them and it shows!

Chasmanthium latifolium | Sea Oats

Height: 5 feet

Spread: 30 inches

Sunlight: full sun, partial shade

Hardiness Zone: 4a

Other Names: Uniola latifolia

Description:
This grass is grown for its lovely drooping hop-like seed heads that flutter in the wind; the seed heads mature to a purple-bronze color and make a nice accent when left on through the winter; use for fresh and dried flower arrangements

Ornamental Features:
Northern Sea Oats is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit. It produces abundant clusters of purple hop-like fruit from late summer to late fall. It grassy leaves are light green in color. As an added bonus, the foliage turns a gorgeous coppery-bronze in the fall.

Landscape Attributes:
Northern Sea Oats is an herbaceous perennial grass with a shapely form and gracefully arching stems. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Northern Sea Oats is recommended for the following landscape applications:

- Accent
- Mass Planting
- Border Edging
- General Garden Use
- Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
- Container Planting

Planting & Growing:
Northern Sea Oats will grow to be about 4 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 30 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It is quite adaptable, prefering to grow in average to wet conditions, and will even tolerate some standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is native to parts of North America.

Northern Sea Oats is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.

Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition' Blue Grama Grass

Blue Grama Grass 'Blonde Ambition' | Chartreuse flowers & tan Seed Heads. Naturalizing. USDA 3-10

Iberis sempervirens Snowsurfer? 'Forte'

White blooms. Uniform mounding evergreen groundcover. USDA 4-8

Liatris spicata 'Floristan White'

Fluffy, white flowers attract pollinators. Upright, strong stalks. USDA 3-9

Stachys byzantina 'Helen Von Stein'

Silvery green foliage. Flowering stems are rare. USDA 4-9

Galium odoratum

White blooms. Fragrant lance-shaped dark green leaves. Edible foliage. Tolerates deep shade. USDA 4-8

Galium odoratum

White blooms. Fragrant lance-shaped dark green leaves. Edible foliage. Tolerates deep shade. USDA 4-8

Helleborus x 'Walhelivor'

Height: 15 inches

Spacing: 14 inches

Sunlight: partial shade full shade

Hardiness Zone: 4a

Other Names: Lenten Rose, Winter Rose

Description:
Large dangling buttercup-type flowers of ivory streaked with rose and chartreuse emerge in late winter and spring, one of the first flowers to come up in cool weather and what a beautiful harbinger they are; great in woodland gardens and on shaded slopes

Ornamental Features:
Ivory Prince Hellebore features showy nodding white cup-shaped flowers with chartreuse overtones and rose streaks at the ends of the stems from late winter to early spring. Its glossy oval compound leaves remain bluish-green in color throughout the year.

Landscape Attributes:
Ivory Prince Hellebore is an herbaceous evergreen perennial with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should be cut back in late fall in preparation for winter. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Ivory Prince Hellebore is recommended for the following landscape applications:
- Mass Planting
- Rock/Alpine Gardens
- Border Edging
- General Garden Use
- Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens

Planting & Growing:
Ivory Prince Hellebore will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 14 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 5 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.