Knowing What’s What

A well laid out garden will likely contain a mixture of these plants. Depending on your style and time available to maintain your garden, you will choose accordingly. Every garden has maintenance but some plants require more than others.

While looking at these photos, do you prefer the curvy look or ordered straight lines?

Perennial.  A perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. It comes back, year after year. Some are more long lived than others and occasionally will die for no apparent reason. Like animals they will have a life span.

Examples: Delphiniums, Sedums

Tender Perennial is one which will not tolerate colder temperatures because it comes from a much warmer climate. It therefore must be treated as an annual.

Examples: Pelargonium (commonly called Geraniums), Poinsettias are treated as such but in their own environment will become a semi -woody perennial. Both can be kept for more than one year providing they receive the comforts of their homeland.

Half Hardy Perennial is one which will tolerate cool temperatures but not tolerate frosts. It may tolerate cooler temperatures but must be treated as an annual, unless well protected.

Example: Passion Flower, Agapanthus

Below: Perennial borders also known as herbaceous borders. These are frequently the basic for a flowering garden that comes back every year. Work is still required!

Annual is a plant that completes its life Cycle in one year. It grows, flowers, sets seed, distributes seed and then dies.

Examples: Cosmos, Marigolds

Hardy Annuals can withstand a few degrees of frost and are a workhorse for the flowering garden. They can be planted out early in spring and will last into fall.

Examples: Pansies, Snapdragons, Bachelor Buttons, Spinach, Peas,

Below: Annual bedding plants at Butchart Gardens and Downtown Cranbrook Annual Baskets. This kind of flowering garden requires a redo every year, just as a vegetable garden does.

A Biennial is a plant that completes its life cycle in two years. It grows vegetatively in the first year but flowers, sets seed and dies in the second year. Occasionally if stressed they will complete their lifecycle in slightly less than two years.

Example: Foxgloves, Carrots, Hollyhocks

Below: Foxglove and Hollyhock with Yarrow. Biennials are one of the garden’s colourful travellers. They will set seed and pop up wherever they feel comfortable. If I plant Hollyhocks at the back of the border, two years later they inevitably show up front and center, where they are not so welcome!

Herbaceous plants die back in winter, reappearing in the spring. Their stems do not become woody.

Woody plants are perennials which produce lignin giving them, firm self-supporting stems.

Trees and Shrubs are woody perennials. Lavender and Russian Sage are known as woody perennials because they appear to be herbaceous and are frequently included in herbaceous borders but they have woody stems which do not completely die down.

Trees have a single woody stem from which branches grow.

Shrubs have many stems which grow from the ground. Some shrubs are trained to be trees. Some trees are shrubs grafted on to a single woody tree stock that will accept it. Standard Roses for example.

Below: Brilliant designs with Trees and Shrubs

Succulent plants store more water in their fleshy leaves and stems than other plants. They are drought resistant plants. All Cacti are succulents.

Below: Succulent Hens and Chicks, Sempervirens.