A lasting flourish

Here are 10 perennial plants that flower mightily and are easy to grow. Plant them now or in fall.Alstroemeria hybrids. You’ve seen them in vases on white restaurant tablecloths. New kinds are so colorful they make you squint. Bloom spring-fall with armfuls of flowers.

Aster frikartii. Lots of lilac daisies on a lovely, trouble-free plant. Blooms early summer-fall.

Bidens. Several heights but most are golden yellow and spread like weeds. New kinds are said to be less aggressive, but keep an eye on them. Spring-fall.

Coreopsis. Well-mannered, yellow to red daisies. Summer bloom. Most short-lived.

Japanese anemone. These wait until late summer to flower and they really put on a show. Impossible to get rid of once established, so be careful where you plant. The only ones in this list that tolerate shade.

Penstemon. Many kinds and some are tough and floriferous, others not so much.

Pentas. Soft shrublets in several colors. Lots of flowers all the time. You’ll get bored with their company before they call it quits.

Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus). Little white daisies that keep coming like ants after sugar. Seeds about, but not a problem.

Verbena bonariensis and V. rigida. OK, so they’re weeds when let loose, but who cares? They fill all those little bare spots where you forgot to plant something. It’s as if they’re clairvoyant. How do they know?

Yarrow. Slowly spreading, summer blooming, they come in some really classy colors.

-- Robert Smaus