Easy perennial flowers to plant now?

[rosiecotton19]

Any suggestions for easy to grow perennial flowers I can plant now (or soon)? Either from seed or from plant? To let you know my climate- some daffodils around here have put out flowers, but not many. The ones at my house (I have a row in the front of the house) are about 8 inches or so high and some have pre-flower bulbs. It's supposed to get down into the 30s tonight, but up into the 50s today (we had highs in the 70s yesterday).

 

[granjera]

I know little about flowers, let's get that out of the way. I have grown some successfully from seed, though.

I'm starting a few perennial flower seeds on my window seat now for transplanting in a month or so. I think our zones are only a week or two apart. If we're just talking seeds, I'm quite willing to be experimental.

 

[aquaticneko]

Maybe you could try some peonies, asters foxgloves? These are some my friend has in her garden and she has various daffodils as well. She has more but I'm unsure of what they are called.

 

[rosiecotton19]

daffodils are the one thing I do have! I planted them a couple years ago (they were leftover favors from our September wedding) and this is their second year . I'd like to do some tulips, too, but I'll have to wait til fall to plant those.
I'd like to put in some daylilies behind the daffodils, but I'm not sure if fall or spring is the best time to plant those.
peonies are a great idea! I had some at my old rental house and I was just amazed at how big they got.
Asters are so pretty, that's a great idea. I love foxgloves.
All great suggestions. Thanks so much!

 

[Pat]

I found a site with good information on easy to plant perennials, hope there are some here that you like.
http://www.finegardening.com/10-perennials-easily-grown-seed

 

[Greenhorn]

How about English Lavender? Lavender is quite beautiful, fragrent, can be cut, with some varites being suggested as edible and or medicinal. I have a couple in my front yard, as some are very drought tollerent also. I do little to them and they grow great. I have 1 lavender that I grew from seed, but from seed is a bit if a challenge.

Seeing your zone it looks like English Lavender might work. Below is in reference to 'Vera'

An heirloom variety from England, this outstanding Lavender has been a top rated performer in varietals tests.
'Vera' has proven itself to have superior winter cold hardiness and sweetly fragrant flowers suitable as cut flowers, for sachets and lavender oil production. The compact plants bloom in early summer with an abundant crop of thin, highly fragrant flower spikes with dark blue calyxes and lavender corollas (flowers). 18" tall x 24-30" wide.

Below is a link that has a lot of good information about English Lavender.
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene9108.html

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I recommend planting Orange Milkweed. Probably little early to plant it, but in your zone I imagine it won't be long before you can. It's highly attractive. Stays much smaller than other milkweed species, and doesn't spread like aggressive milkweed does. You can also cut off the pods to prevent the seeds from blowing in the wind, & they take about two months for the pods to develop, so you'd have plenty of time to remove them. Of course, you could always leave them on and let nature do it's thing.

This is about as easy as a plant gets. It needs full sun, and prefers dry to average soil. Once it's established, there isn't really anything you need to do with it. Blooming will last two months, even three months once it's in the ground a year or two. There's also two highly important reasons to add this plant. The first is that it's native. Nothing is better than planting native species. The second is that Monarch Butterflies need it to survive. The caterpillar will eat the foliage until it's ready to crawl off somewhere and form a chrysalis.

 

[LIcenter]

Everything in the photo below are easy to grow perennials. Just remember, most perennials require a good amount of sun for healthy growth. I can't remember everything in this bed, but to name a few we have, Dianthus 'Sweet William, Coreopsis, Bee Balm, Yarrow, Black-eyed Susan's, Hosta, Sage, Blanket flower, Milkweed 'Tuburosa', Swamp milkweed 'Incarnata', Balloon flower, Blue Butterfly Delphinium, and Salvia. The only plant not perennial for my area in this bed is Tropical milkweed. Everything in this bed will grow in your area with no problem.
Hope this helps in your quest. Gotta say, I had a lot of fun putting this bed together.

Here is a good view of the Swamp milkweed at it's pique.

 

[rosiecotton19]

such great ideas! thank you everyone! I love the idea of english lavender, the orange milkweed, and just a lot of the other ideas on here. My house faces south so sun isn't really a problem. Now I just have to decide where to put everything!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

such great ideas! thank you everyone! I love the idea of english lavender, the orange milkweed,

My mom grows lavender and orange milkweed together along with black-eyed susans and they really go well together.

 

[Jonathan Tebbutt]

There are so many perennials to choose from making the choice can be hard, you can start the seeds off in the early spring for most, some differ slightly but most are the same. Once big enough to handle pot on and plant out as required, you can either plant potted plants during the autumn or in the early spring as most perennials are quite hardy,
The ahrd part is choosing what you want to have, the majority of my garden is full of perennials and you can have a look and get some ideas looking at the gallery on my website, www.jonsgardenblog.com and see what you like, if your not sure drop me a message and I can let you know

 

[Autumn_Hearthwitch]

Oh that Orange Milkweed is lovely, I'm going to have to plant some of those. I've never heard of them. I usually grow peonies, asters and foxglove. The lavender is pretty as well, I've never thought to plant them either. My climate is pretty much the same as yours @rosiecotton19, I'm in Eastern Canada and these are all great ideas. When I first started planting flowers I went by "Ooh, that's a pretty color?" as opposed to climate/time of year and such.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

Rose Campion