If you’re looking for blooms that come back each Spring with a burst of colour, here are ten of our favourite flowering perennials and ground covers.
Plant These for a Spring Show!
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra)
Height: 30-120 cm, Spread: 45-90 cm
Flower Colour: white, pink, red, purple
Blooms: spring, summer
Growing: While Bleeding Hearts will tolerate full sun or full shade, they prefer the protection of light shade. This perennial is fairly drought tolerant, but it will thrive in evenly moist soil, and blooms will last much longer if the soil is moist.
Hellebore Christmas Rose (Helleborus)
Height: 30-45 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm
Flower Colour: white, green, pink, purple, yellow
Blooms: late winter to mid-spring
Growing: Moist, humus-rich, well-drained soil in lightly dappled shade is where hellebores do best.
Primrose (Primula)
Height: 15-60 cm, Spread: 15-45 cm
Flower Colour: blue, red, orange, white, pink, purple, yellow
Blooms: spring, early summer
Growing: Full sun or partial shade and moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil.
Anemone Windflower (Anemone)
Height: 8-150 cm, Spread: 15-60 cm
Flower Colour: white, yellow, pink, blue
Blooms: spring, summer or fall
Growing: Anemone does best in moist soil and partial or light shade, but they will tolerate full sun. While Anemone can take a while to become established, they’re worth the wait!
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Height: 45-90 cm, Spread: 30-60 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, yellow, pink, blue, purple (The colour of the spurs is often different than the petals)
Blooms: spring, summer
Growing: Columbines love full sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil. This plant will self-seed and seedlings can be transplanted.
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
Height: 30-60 cm, Spread: forms groupings
Flower Colour: blue, pink, purple
Blooms: spring
Growing: Plant in partial to full shade with humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil. This woodland plant has blooms that are attractive to Hummingbirds and pollinators. Foliage dies back right after it blooms.
Moss Phlox or Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata)
Height: 10-15 cm, Spread: 60 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, lavender, pink, bluish purple
Blooms: early spring
Growing: Plant in sun to partial shade with humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil. Spreads horizontally as it grows and creates new roots where the stems touch the ground. Do not prune in the fall as Spring’s flowers will already be forming on these plants.
Lungwort (Pulmonaria)
Height: 20-60 cm, Spread: 20-90 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, pink, blue
Blooms: spring
Growing: To avoid root rot, grow Lungwort in moist, humus-rich soil that’s well drained. They prefer partial shade to full shade.
Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla)
Height: 10-30 cm, Spread: 20-30 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, purple, blue
Blooms: early to mid-spring
Growing: Very well drained soil is important for Pasque Flower, which does not like to sit in wet soil. It will grow well in full sun or partial shade.
Peony (Paeonia)
Height: 60-80 cm, Spread: 60-80 cm
Flower Colour: yellow, pink, red, purple, and shades of white
Blooms: spring, early summer
Growing: Humus-rich, moist and well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade is where peonies do best. Adding lots of compost and planting at the proper depth is very important for peonies to bloom. Be sure to plant potted peonies at the same level as the soil around them, not higher.
In this case, the plants Hens and Chicks, not the feathery friends.
Sempervivum, also known as Hens and Chicks or Houseleek, are a group of succulents that are becoming very popular in Southern Ontario. Here’s why these cold hardy perennial plants are gaining attention.
Low-maintenance
Low-maintenance is the item on everyone’s checklist, right? Hens and Chicks are known for being no-fuss. Sempervivum require very little soil, fertilizer or water. They’re sun-loving, hardy, resilient, and drought-tolerant. When you don’t have a lot of time to garden, you’ll be grateful that your Hens and Chicks need minimal care once they become established.
Versatile, and Did We Mention Low-maintenance?
Sempervivum will grow in full sun to partial shade, and average to poor soil as long as they have good drainage. They will manage just fine in poor soil and harsh conditions like heat and cold! This makes Hens and Chicks the perfect candidate for that spot in the garden where nothing else wants to grow. The spot that’s too hot, or too windy, the soil is rocky or gritty and not ideal or it’s eroding, like on a slope.
These rugged warriors can be grown on rooftops, ledges, walls, in rock gardens, hanging baskets, troughs and containers. Just make sure there are drainage holes. Too much water is their only enemy and will result in their roots rotting.
Chick Charms
While most Hens and Chicks are low-growing, 8-15 cm tall, they will all spread 30 cm and more - as much as you like, really. This is because they produce small plants, known as “chicks” or offsets around the main plant. The “Chick Charms”. Chicks can also be transplanted to start a whole new plant.
Tough and Beautiful
As a ground cover, Sempervivum can add visual interest and contrast to a border of annuals or perennials.
While they’re known for their pretty rosette-shaped clusters of foliage, you may not realize that Hens and Chicks also come in a variety of colours, and produce stunning blooms in summer.
Once a plant blooms, deadhead the flower and pull up the soft parent plant with it. The plant dies when it blooms, but new chicks will grow and replace it.
Hens and Chicks fleshy leaves make them less attractive to many garden pests and they are generally resistant to diseases. Tough plants for sure, and worthy of a spot in the garden. The next time you’re in Eising Garden Centre, we recommend that you peruse the Sempervivum section here in Simcoe and give these outstanding succulents a try!
