Perennial flowers can be found in every summer cottage and in every rural garden. Their main advantages are unpretentiousness and high decorative qualities. By planting any perennial variety on your site, you can enjoy the beauty of plants for several years in a row. Garden perennial flowers feel great in almost all regions of Russia.
Where these flowers can be used
Perennials are planted both in flower beds and along paths, along the banks of artificial or natural reservoirs, on alpine hills. Usually, summer residents use not too whimsical varieties that do not require complex care. When choosing perennial flowers for summer cottages, you should follow some recommendations from landscape designers. So, compact bushy plants, not too tall, are usually planted along the paths. It can be lavender, peonies, crocuses, primroses. For an alpine slide, unpretentious plants are also usually selected. These can be undersized edelweiss, daffodils, creeping thyme, stonecrops, etc. From the taller ones, you can choose, for example, phloxes or spectacular feather grass.
How to properly arrange a flower bed
When choosing garden perennial flowers for a flower bed, you must also follow some rules. In the event that planting will be carried out along the fence or wall of the building, tall plants are planted in the background. Next come flowers with a stem of medium length, and then undersized. If you want to arrange clubs that can be viewed from all sides, tall plants should be planted in the middle. At the same time, low perennials should grow along the perimeter.
Selection of color combinations
Of course, in order to arrange beautiful flower beds and borders, you need to choose the right color scheme. Each perennial flower should grow in this plan in its place. If desired, you can use both plants with petals of the same color, but different shades, or play on contrasts. For example, lupins (planted in the center), anemones (in the middle) and bear ears (at the edges) will look very beautiful in one flower bed. Next to purple flowers, yellow ones look unusually impressive.
In the event that you doubt the final result, it is best to plant flowers of the same type in a flower bed or along paths. It is easy to pick up perennial garden flowers with variety names in any specialized store. For greater effect, plant several different ones at once.
Ground landing
Particular attention when planting perennial flowers should be given to the composition of the soil. After all, they will grow in one place for a long time, and therefore, there should be a lot of nutrients in the soil. Fertilization before planting is a necessary process in this case. In addition, the varieties themselves should be selected according to the type of soil on the site. So, for clay soils, hosta, astilba, violets, lily of the valley or iris are well suited.
Drought-resistant and moisture-loving flowers
Perennials are most often chosen to decorate the site if they want to save time on caring for flower beds. Therefore, it is best to plant the most unpretentious plants, with a strong root system and not requiring frequent watering. In this regard, from the high species, one can distinguish the bluehead, yucca, elecampane, loosestrife, gaillardia. Of the low ones, you should choose cornflowers, thyme, stonecrops, edelweiss.
In the lowlands, where the soil is constantly moist, or near artificial reservoirs, it is worth planting such moisture-loving garden perennial flowers as budry, violets, primroses, cuff, backache.
Which fertilizer to use
Despite the unpretentiousness, such flowers, of course, still require attention to themselves. If you forget about your flower beds, they will very quickly lose their decorative effect, and all your efforts in selecting varieties and planting will be in vain. Perennials, as already mentioned, need nutrient-rich soil. Therefore, they are needed from time to time.feed. In early spring, complex fertilizers should be applied under the roots. During flowering, potash and phosphorus top dressing can be used. Closer to autumn, any fertilizer that does not contain nitrogen should be applied to the soil. This will strengthen the root system for the winter.
Watering perennial garden plants
Water such flowers should be quite careful - under the root, trying not to get on the leaves and stems. At the end of the procedure, be sure to mulch the soil. This will allow the roots to "breathe". In addition, the moisture will remain in the soil longer. Mulching also has another important plus for flower beds - plantings treated in this way look much neater. Another mandatory procedure that garden perennial flowers require is the removal of flowers and leaves that begin to fade. If you tear off all unnecessary parts in time, you can stimulate rapid flowering. In addition, cleaned of all unnecessary, the plants look much more spectacular.
How to choose varieties in a particular region
Of course, you should choose the types of perennials, as well as their varieties, taking into account the climate of the area in which you live. In central Russia and in the southern regions, absolutely any garden flowers feel great. In the Urals, perennials of most species also grow just fine. The same can be said about Siberia. But flowers like fireball, garden chamomile, delphinium, peonies, forget-me-nots, feel best in these two regions,tulips, irises.
However, it should be remembered that some (mainly tuberous and bulbous) plants may not endure the cold Ural and Siberian winters. Therefore, flowers such as peonies, gladioli, dahlias, irises, will have to be covered for the winter. In some types of perennials, tubers must be dug up in the fall and stored in a cool place.
Diseases and pests
Perennials are, as a rule, flowers that are very resistant to various diseases. However, sometimes infection with any infections and pests does occur. One of the most common diseases of such plants is gray mold. In order to get rid of such a problem, the easiest way is to use a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture for spraying. Processing is carried out 2-4 times per season. As for pests, most often perennials infect nematodes. It is extremely difficult to deal with this scourge. Easier to prevent infection. It is as a preventive measure against the appearance of this unpleasant fly that perennial plants are watered under the root, trying not to wet the stems and leaves.
