Root One is thrilled to announce the arrival of a fresh batch of stunning perennial plants ready to infuse your garden with renewed vibrancy and colour. Besides supplying beauty throughout the summer months, perennials also offer a plethora of benefits for both the gardener and the environment. With so many varieties to choose form, the possibilities for transforming your outdoor space are endless!

From early spring bloomers to late autumn foliage, perennials offer a dynamic range of colours, textures, and forms, ensuring that your garden remains visually captivating throughout the growing season. Below we share some advantages of planting perennial plants, tips on how to care for them and some of our favourites!

Cost-Effective and Low Maintenance

Perennial plants, unlike annual counterparts, return each year, while perennials may have a slightly higher initial cost than annuals, their ability to persist year after year ultimately results in long-term savings on replacement plants. Many perennials require minimal care once they have established, making them an excellent choice for busy gardeners or those looking to create a more sustainable garden.

Biodiversity and Habitat

Perennials are not only beautiful, but they also provide a stable and long-term habitat for a variety of insects, birds, and small mammals. Unlike annual plants that complete their life cycle within one growing season, perennials return year after year, offering consistent shelter and food sources for diverse wildlife populations.

Perennials contribute to seasonal variation in the garden, providing a succession of flowering blooms, textures, and colours throughout the year, creating dynamic and ever-changing habitats that support wildlife adapted to different environmental conditions.

Caring for Your Perennials

While perennials are renowned for their resilience, a little care can go a long way in ensuring their continued health.

Choose a location that matches their sunlight and soil requirements. Water thoroughly during the establishment phase and during periods of drought, mulching around the base of the plants can help retain soil moisture and suppress weeds.

Regularly deadheading spent flowers and selective pruning can encourage prolonged blooming and maintain tidy shaped growth. Some perennials may benefit from occasional fertilisation; generally however it is best to avoid overfeeding as this can lead to excessive foliage growth at the expense of flowers.

Over a period of time perennials may become crowded resulting in reduced vigour and flowering, to prevent this divide these plants every few years to rejuvenate and provide them with the space they need. Any additional plants can be planted in other parts of the garden or shared with friends.

Many perennials go dormant during the winter months, as the growing season winds down, cut back spent foliage, and apply a layer of mulch to protect plants from frost over the winter. To fill in any gaps over the winter season, perennials that bloom during the winter months, such as hellebores, winter jasmine, and snowdrops will add a burst of colour to the garden when most other plants are dormant.

Our Favourite Perennials

Lavender

Lavender adds a touch of timeless elegance to any garden with its beautiful clusters of purple flowers and silvery-green foliage. Its delicate appearance and scent help create a tranquil and inviting atmosphere. Choose from varieties like English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and French Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) that thrive in well-drained soil and sunny locations, and add a touch of Mediterranean charm to your garden.

Lavender is well-known for its resilience and low maintenance requirements. Additionally, its flowers can be harvested for culinary purposes, home decor, or crafting, adding an extra layer of utility to this beloved herb.

Lupins

Lupins bring a burst of colour in the garden with their striking, tall floral spike. Lupins come in array of colour including purple, pink, yellow, and white, and they can be used to create eye-catching displays and add depth and dimension to flower beds and borders.

Lupins are a favourite among pollinators such as bees and butterflies. The abundant nectar and pollen produced by lupin flowers make them valuable food sources for beneficial insects, helping to support local ecosystems and promote biodiversity in the garden.

Lupins are relatively easy to grow and require minimal maintenance once established. They tolerate of a wide range of soil types and can thrive in both full sun and partial shade.

Peonies

Peonies are renowned for their stunning, fragrant blooms, which come in a variety of colours ranging from soft pastels to vibrant hues. Peonies can thrive for decades with minimal care. Once established, they grace the garden with their exquisite blooms year after year, making them a valuable investment for gardeners seeking enduring beauty and reliability.

Peonies lend themselves well to a wide range of gardening styles and aesthetics, to charming cottage garden displays and formal garden layouts, whether planted as focal points in mixed borders.

Heuchera

Heucheras are prefect for those shady spots in the garden and are prized for their colourful foliage and delicate flowers. They come in a variety of hues, including purple, green, silver, and many shades in between, they bring texture and contrast to garden borders and containers.

Heucheras offer year-round interest, unlike many flowering plants that have a limited bloom period, its evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage persists through the winter, providing structure and colour to the garden during the colder months when many other plants are dormant. Some varieties even change colour with the seasons, adding further dynamic appeal.

Heuchera is an excellent choice for both beginner and experienced gardeners. Once established, it requires minimal maintenance, needing only occasional watering and fertilising.

Geums

Geums have beautiful flowers which typically last from late spring through summer and sometimes into early autumn, depending on the variety. These abundant blooms of red, orange, yellow, and pink are nectar-rich and attract essential pollinators, contributing to the health and biodiversity the garden.

Geums are versatile plants that can thrive in various garden settings, including borders, rock gardens, containers, and cottage gardens. Geums are relatively low-maintenance plants that require minimal care once established. They prefer well-drained soil and full sun to partial shade, but they can tolerate a range of growing conditions.

There are so many reasons to add perennials to the garden from their enduring beauty and low maintenance requirements to their vital role in supporting biodiversity. These resilient and versatile plants, offer vibrant, ever-changing hues and structures to the garden that delight the senses and contribute to the health and well-being of not only us, but to the wildlife as well.

Perennial Plants Have Arrived!