How to Choose Perennial Flowers

Perennial flowers are plants that grow year after year without replanting.  These varieties of flowers are available as seeds to plant, bulbs to plant in autumn or spring, or as a start or cuttings that are planted into the ground.  Choose flowers based on their zone hardiness, soil requirements, and how much sun the plant needs to thrive.

• Research a zone hardiness map on the Internet or look in a book or magazine.  This map indicates the numbers of zones from one to ten.  Zone one is the coldest climate of approximately negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  Zone ten gets down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the coldest temperatures. Find your zone by locating your region on the map.  The flowers you can grow largely depend upon this hardiness zone.


• Choose flowering plants to grow in full shade, partial shade, partial sun, and full sun locations on your landscape.  Full shade plants thrive in the shadows of your home, other plants and trees.  Partial shade plants need a little more sunlight in either the morning or the evening.  Direct sunlight in the hottest part of the day can wilt partial shade flowers.  Partial sun plants can withstand the sun slightly better than partial shade plants, but should be shaded during the hottest part of the day from 3pm to sunset.  Full sunflowers need as much sun as they can get and will not thrive in shady areas of your landscape. 


• Select some plants that are shorter, and some that grow taller.  Shorter growing flowers, such as tulips and coreopsis encompass the front edge of the garden.  Choose a middle growing plant such as the Black Eyed Susan to bring yellows into your landscape.  Choose a taller flower, like the hardy Echinacea plant more commonly referred to as cone flower. 


• Mix and match flowers based on their flowering time so you can enjoy blooms all season.  Some flowers bloom as soon as the first frost is over in very early spring, like winter crocus. Combine this plant with early spring, middle spring and late spring bloomers, such as peony.  Choose summer blooming plants, like the lilac and chrysanthemum.  Autumn perennials, such as some lily varieties and amaranth bloom well into the cooler fall months.