coneflowers and black eyed susans (echinacea & rudbeckia)
Image by Sandy Repp

Monarda, Echinacea and Rudbeckia

Perennials

Perennial flowers come back at least two seasons, often for generations. Their leaves die back but their roots persist. Perennials can be bought as plants or seeds. Sometimes they do not bloom in their first year, these are known as biennials. Planting perennials lessens the workload of future planting season since they do not need to be replaced each year.


Resources

CCE Suffolk’s Perennials Guide includes information on soil preparation, propagation, recommendations on easy-care perennials, and recommended publications for more information. (https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce.cornell.edu/attachments/5540/Perennials.pdf?1420562568)

Cornell University’s Perennial flower trials is a database on hundreds of perennial varieties from the test plots at Bluegrass Lane (https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/cornell_herbaceous/)

CCE Chemung’s Dividing Perennials is a 5-page handout that covers how and why to divide some common perennials. (http://chemung.cce.cornell.edu/resources/dividing-perennials)

Cornell Horticulture offers an illustrated list of their top 15 perennial-and-bulb combinations on their website at: (http://www.hort.cornell.edu/combos/FeaturedCombos/Best15Combos/)

Perry's Perennial Pages offers information on perennials and related horticultural topics. (https://www.uvm.edu/~pass/perry/

Last updated July 13, 2022