GARDENING : Perennials Stage Comeback
Fast food, car phones, faxed information--it’s the age of “I want it now.” Or “I wanted it yesterday.” You would hardly expect patience, willingness to invest time and sensitivity for subtleties to be surplus commodities in such a climate.
But there are people out there with these closet virtues. Because these are the traits needed to appreciate old-fashioned perennials, which are re-emerging in local gardens after a decades-long absence.
Wallflower, maiden pinks, love-in-a-mist, Cupid’s dart, bleeding heart flower and a host of other perennials with Victorian-sounding common names are staging a comeback.
Heard’s Country Gardens in Westminster, which specializes in perennials, has seen sales double every year since it opened in 1986, according to owner Mary Lou Heard. Another nursery with a large perennial selection, the Laguna Garden Nursery in Laguna Beach, has also witnessed significant growth recently. “Sales this year have been very strong,” says owner Kevin Naughton. And demand has been so good at Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach, according to retail manager Phil Miller, that Roger’s pulled out a demonstration bed to make room for its expanding perennial stock.
The so-called disadvantages of perennials--their requirements for patience, time and an appreciation for their distinctive character--are just what make them popular, believes Heard. “Perennials do require patience--or maybe you should call it faith,” she says, “because they’re usually planted in the fall, and you don’t see flowers until the following spring. Some even require a second year to bloom.”
But anticipation is half the fun, she insists. “It’s something that’s become very welcome in this age of instant everything. Remember what holidays were like as a kid? Anticipation was half the fun. It’s the same thing with spring flowers if you plant perennials. The first bloom is always a thrill.”
While perennials tend to be hardy and can usually easily withstand neglect, they need to be divided, deadheaded and cut back regularly to look their best, Heard says. “They are more work,” she concedes. “You can’t just leave them for the mow-blow-and-go guys. You’ve got to get personally involved.”
Time spent tending perennials is rarely begrudged, she says. “The time people allot to their perennial gardens is time they want to spend, not time they have to spend. Their garden is their recreation, their therapy, their retreat from the fast lane.”
Another alleged disadvantage of perennials is their lack of punch. “Many do lack the dazzle of annuals,” says Naughton at the Laguna Gardens Nursery. “Either they have smaller, more delicate flowers, like these,” he says, stooping to point out the airy white and pink blossoms of a Gaura lindheimeri , a native southwestern perennial.
“Or else they’re rough-hewn and almost weedy. And some people just aren’t used to hair-leaved flowers,” he says, stopping again in front of a dramatic lion’s tail plant (Leonotis leonurus) that sports fuzzy orange tubular flowers as well as hairy stems and leaves.
But the distinctive character of perennials is just what attracts some gardeners to them in the first place. “You have to appreciate them as individuals because they all have such definite personalities,” says Carole McElwee, a Laguna Beach perennial enthusiast. “But that’s what I like about them.
“That and their tremendous variety. For someone like me who always has to experience something new, there’s great satisfaction in perennials.”
McElwee’s garden in Emerald Bay is tiny--just two borders about six strides long and half as wide with a narrow stone walkway in between. But she has planted so many species in that confined space, and each is so different than the others, that once you’ve taken the time to study them all, it seems to be a much larger garden.
It’s not necessary to have a country estate to have a cottage garden. Select more plants from the delicate side of the spectrum, like feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium) and Welch poppy (Meconopsis cambrica), as McElwee has.
If you have some land to work with, you might want to try the bolder, more exuberant look of hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) and foxglove (digitalis), which you don’t have to stoop to appreciate because they grow to eye-level. Or Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri), a southwestern native perennial with white crepe-paper textured flowers 9 inches across. Or some of the more robust, shrublike sages (Salvia) , which Naughton at the Laguna Garden Nursery is partial to because of their heady scent and drought-tolerant qualities.
To see such a garden, visit the Los Rios Historical District in San Juan Capistrano. Turn right on Los Rios, the first street immediately after the railroad tracks heading west on Del Obispo, and step back a hundred years. Many of the homes here date from the turn of the century, and some of the plants must too, says Frances Kennedy, a local landscape planner who specializes in historical garden restoration and a Los Rios resident.
“If you walk around here,” Kennedy says, “you’ll see certain signature plants in almost every garden--hollyhocks, four o’clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) , feverfew, pincushion flowers (Scabiosa) , and Coreopsis .” Neighbors shared cuttings and seeds when this neighborhood was first established, she says, because plant specimens were hard to obtain.
These signature flowers, combined with native yucca, oak and cactus, and scented geraniums, sages and herbs give the area its distinctive California cottage garden style, Kennedy believes.
If you’re interested in creating either style perennial garden, or a combination somewhere in between, there are two ways to go about it, according to Linda Cooper, a Laguna Beach-based landscape planner.
“One way is what I call the evolved garden,” she says. “My own garden falls into that category. Just buy a few perennials you find intriguing, plant them, and see what happens.” Time will tell, she says, which plants ought to be moved to a sunnier or roomier spot or combined with cooler or warmer colors.
For quicker results, the services of a garden planner or advice of a nursery expert familiar with perennials is advisable. It’s hard to imagine a 6-foot flower stalk emerging from a flowerless plant in a four-inch pot, so it helps to work with people who are accustomed to perennials’ habits.
“Basically what you want for a cottage garden effect is to combine round and spiky-shaped plants, foliage that ranges from silvery gray to dark green, and lots of variations in height and texture to create a lush, exuberant, undulating kind of look.”
It does take some practice, she admits. “You have to consider the whole plant instead of just looking at blocks of color the way you tend to do with annuals.”
Creating a lusher, less-landscaped look is not the only benefit of perennial gardens, their fans claim. Perennials are usually more fragrant, and they tend to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. They also produce superior cut flowers, gardeners say, and cutting merely extends the plants’ flowering period. Some make good dried flowers too. They also work well with herbs and roses--the other traditional elements in a cottage garden.
If those weren’t virtues enough, many perennials are drought tolerant. “In fact, I’d say overwatering is the most common problem,” says Miller at Roger’s Gardens.
While the peak blooming season for perennials has already passed, it’s not to late to take advantage of perennial color for the remainder of summer and fall. “We get a lot of mileage out of our perennials in Southern California because, as far as the weather is concerned, September is still summer,” Miller says. Late August is not too late to plant Coreopsis, Scabiosa , digitalis, Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan), Achillea (yarrow), Campanulas (bellflowers) or a number of other perennials, he says.
It’s also the perfect time for planning next year’s spring flowers, according to Heard’s Country Gardens. “Fall is the prime time to plant spring stock,” Heard says. “If you’ve never used perennials before, this would be a great time to begin your investigation.”
