Choosing Hardy Perennials Plants: The great range of hardy perennials makes it good policy and sense to consider well the possibilities before making a final choice. Height, spread, vigor, colors and flowering time, preferences for wet and dry positions, for shade and for sunshine should all be taken into account
Even among such commonly grown subjects as Michaelma daisies and golden rod, for example, varieties are available that range in height from 6 in to ft. Delphiniums and lupins, if so required, in short stumpy varieties that need n staking or tying, even in the twos exposed situations. The common Achillea, so often seen as lank plants with flat yellow heads o flower, can now be had as Galax hybrids, short front-of-the border plants, in white, pink purple and red as well as yellow. Different leaf colors, too, are always attractive. Even the well-- known grey, woolly Stachy lanata (lamb's ears) has a new relation, just as soft and woolly, but a pure gold instead of silver. And the common Heuchera can now be had in a dark purple- leaved form.
A keen eye kept on nurserymen's stock, new catalogues an other people's gardens, will often reveal new varieties, sometimes of old favorites with a surprising new look. And although just one small plant of some of these can be comparatively expensive, the beauty of most hardy perennials is that in a short time, and with very little trouble, more can be made of them.
Even so, this simple multiplication can be a dangerous feature. Plants that increase easily are easy to acquire from friends, relations and, among the gardening fraternity, even from complete strangers.
. A good variety is just as easy to grow as a bad one. With hardy perennials, it pays to be choosy and to tool around.
Flowering time is perhaps the most influential factor. The earliest and latest subject may not be the most spectacular, but away from summer, even the most modest display is very welcome. Who wouldn't, for example, find a corner for a Christmas rose, or a clump of the pink or purple Helleborus orientalis?
And what better to light up a dull corner in March and April than the easy-going golden daisies of Doronicum (leopard's bane)? Its summer, of course, there is no trouble to create a show and in the autumn Michaelmas daisies and chrysanthemums will go on into November in a good season.
