This past winter a former nurseryman told me perennial flowers are passe and that he got out of the business just in time.
But hold on. I still see customers at plant sales, garden centers and big- box stores loading up carts full of Shasta daisies, daylilies and meadow sage — perennials all. On more than one occasion, I’ve also overheard them asking for the flower “that comes back year after year.”
However, I can’t deny that something has changed. No longer is there the reverence for perennials that once verged on cult status. Not too many years ago all you had to do was mention the word perennial and seminars and symposiums filled up with devotees.
Although I’m somewhat reluctant to mention gardening trends because predictions can so easily become self- fulfilling prophecies, I think it’s safe to say that the notoriously labor-intensive perennial border brought to us by English Victorians is likely never to regain its former status. Few of us are the gentlepeople of leisure, with staff, that is the prerequisite of this particular style.
The average homeowner just wants color and value for his or her money. Perennials offer both. If they don’t always survive for the three years that by definition makes them perennials, unlike annual flowers, at least they have the potential to.
The Perennial Plant Association of America reports that the prevailing trend in perennials today is an emphasis on environmental gardening and sustainability. For Colorado, this means drought tolerance, winter hardiness, and pest and disease resistance. Low maintenance is also a big concern to those whose lives are already too hectic to have time to elevate gardening to the level of hobby. Fortunately, sustainability and low maintenance go hand in hand.
Using hardy perennials as container plants is also increasingly popular. Partly it’s because the industry is looking for new marketing niches to push more perennials. But growing hardy perennials in containers isn’t really such a radical idea. We’re already accustomed to growing tropical perennials like gazanias, begonias and geraniums as annuals and tossing them out at the end of the season.
What’s surprising is that many of the hardy perennials sold as throw- away plants survive the winter in a container to reappear the following spring — making them a good value. Among others, lamiums “Red Nancy” and “Pink Chablis” are in their third year in large pots on my patio.
Other trends are purely aesthetic. Hot and clashing colors are still the rage — which means we’re probably on the verge of a pastel revolution. I hope that it’s slow in coming, because bright colors complement and stand up to our intensely blue skies better than pastels. Novel variations in color, form, flower or foliage of familiar perennials has also led to an explosion of new cultivars of such old favorites as purple coneflower, coral bells and sedums, more arriving every season.
It looks as if perennial flowers are here to stay, doing what they’ve always done best — bringing a sense of permanence along with color to our gardens.
Marcia Tatroe is a garden writer and lecturer. Her most recent book is “Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West,” ($29.95, Johnson Books). E-mail her at rltaurora@aol.com.
