Just in time for planting season horticulturalist Jamie Dockery shares his favorite perennial picks for the central Kentucky area.
Be sure to keep your zone in mind when it comes to choosing and growing perennials. Here are 12 beauties to consider:
- Purple Cone Flower
- Daylily: Don't buy online; stick to those in the shop
- Butterfly weed or bush: food for monarch butterflies
- Rose Mallow: Colors and styles galore!
- Iris: Consider an heirloom for scent, sturdiness
- Showy Sedum: Grow in large groups; prune when needed
- Plumbago or Leadwort: Great groundcover; foiliage turns red in fall
- Hosta: Pick your foliage; watch for slugs!
- Alliums like Garlic Chives: Don't forget edible plants
- Yellow Yarrow: Cut blooms back in May for another bloom in the fall
- Japenese Anemone: Plant in spring, won't bloom till fall
- Summer Sun Heliopsis: Easy seeder, long bloomer
... and dozens more! Happy planting!
About Dockery
Jamie Dockery is the Fayette County Extension Agent for Horticulture in Lexington, Ky.
His experience ranges from retail horticultural sales and work for a well-established nursery. He speaks extensively on gardening to community groups and has provided gardening segments for a local television station. He earned Bachelor’s degrees in agriculture and biology from Berea College in Berea, Ky.