IT used to be reckoned that the only places for the stately perennials such as lupins, delphiniums and hollyhocks were the cottage garden or a broad herbaceous border.
The hard and fast rule was tallest at the rear, shortest in the middle and use annuals in the front.
But gardens have shrunk and now this most beautiful and useful group of perennials can be used with great effect in several ways – even in small
gardens – as screening, or in narrow borders and island beds.
They can be used to great effect in a mixed border. In a newly laid out shrub border, perennials can be included until the site fills out then lifted to go elsewhere. Perennials, in fact, form the largest group of garden flowers and by careful selection the gardener can have some in bloom for many months of the year. Plants for a hardy herbaceous border can be bought as young plants in spring, summer and autumn in containers but another way is to raise them from seed. Many of them are readily raised from seed – it's an economical method to get several plants.
Some perennials can be raised under glass or even on a sunny windowsill in early spring and planted out to flower the same year. Pansies and pinks are just two good examples. However, another method is to sow in a prepared bed in a sheltered part of the garden in early summer and transplant the young plants to their flowering positions in the autumn. They will then flower the following year.
Seed is sown thinly in shallow drills and the seedling thinned out as soon as possible to about six inches apart. Care must be taken that the young plants do not suffer a lack of moisture or damage by slugs.
The flowering site should be prepared well in advance of transplanting. It should be weed-free and made water retentive by the addition of organic material such as well rotted manure, home-made garden compost or a proprietary compost.
Just prior to planting out, a dressing of a balanced organic fertilizer such as Growmore should be worked into the top six inches of soil.
The great advantage with hardy herbaceous plants is they come ever year, they die down in winter so are not affected by severe weather and, once fully established and are a large clump, they can be divided up and so more plants are obtained – free!
When planting use them in groups of three (five it is a large border) of the same type so as to provide maximum effect. Planted singly, they can take quite a while to grow into a large clump.
