Two in the backyard are a HUGE mess. DH wants to clear them out and replace with SOD!!! If I can't figure out how to care for these beds, they will be "going". The beds have the potential of being BEAUTIFUL but I'm a novice with gardening. My only experience is watching my grandpa care for extensive rose and peony gardens about 20 years ago and of course with container planting and annuals.

Is there anyone who can help me? I have identified most of the flowers, but don't know how to care for them and have no clue about some of the flowers. I can attach pics if you can help. Here are my preliminary questions and my first priority concerns.

Bed #1 is an 8-10 ft circular bed in middle of back lawn--full sun. There is a range of spring-summer bloomers in here. I've identified the following so far in order of bloom out.

1. daffodils
2. tulips
3. Some sore of blue bell shaped spring bloomer with foliage like a tulip.
4. What I think are oriental poppies (bloomed for 1 week--gorgeous)
5. Bearded Iris (I think) in blue
5. GORGEOUS hot pink peonies
6. A woody green plant with thorns on bottom of stems that is now flowering white.
7. what looks like a small rose bush with a little bud not yet opened
8. A small decorative tree.
9. a couple other miscl green small round bushes with varigated stripes on spiky foliage (not hosta)--browning but not dead
10. what might be blue salvia
11. a green plant of some type.

PHEW!! yes that's all in one bed.

Here's my question. I cut back the tulips/daffs and other blue things that bloomed in spring. The poppies and their foilage is a HUGE mess. What to do there? What should I do with this whole area? It's such a mess, but so many pretty things are coming up and I cannot stand the thought of it becoming SOD.

Other stuff is just messy, needs to be staked andd I made the booboo of pulling up one of the peony roots to try to move it, felt remorse and learned you shouldn't move it and then returned it..now it's not blooming and basically laying on floor.

I really need help. Should I hire someone to come and walk through this yard with me in hopes of teaching me how to maintain? If so, who would I hire and how would I go about getting someone reputable.

I'm a quick learner and if green thumb is genetic, I probably have it--it's just dormant like the daylilly's in my other flower bed!

Can anyone help?

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/perennials/03/care.html

http://www.almanac.com/content/perennial-garden-care

lots of advice out there
google: perennial garden care

Yes, and all the other advice is good too.

I applaud you - no, I give you a standing ovation - for letting the gardens be this year and just seeing what comes up. Oh, how I hope someone like you buys our house if we sell someday. :) It may be that you live with it for this year and decide you don't care for some of what's going on, in which case you shouldn't feel bad about removing it. But it is good to give it all a shot, because there may be something there you love!

When we moved into our current house it was the dead of winter, right after Christmas. No one had ever done much in the way of gardening (which was fine with me - blank canvas and all), but there were a few shrubs. One of the first things we did was build a fence. As it worked out, there was a shrub (completely dormant) right on the new fence line. The fence guys asked if I wanted it removed, or if they should try to save it. I had no idea what it was, but opted to keep it to see what it did.

The following spring it flushed out in the most gorgeous tiny pale yellow rosebuds. Oh! A climbing rose! It turned out to be a very mature Lady Banks rose, which I'm now training to drape over the fence. It is a showstopper for a month every spring, and I just love it. I'm so glad we waited to see what it would do!

When I closed on my home, I mentioned that the south facing front porch and large, sunny backyard sold me on the house. The wife had planted a few "family heirlooms" in the yard over the years. And, she was overjoyed to tell me the history and placement of most of the plants - along with the people and pets they memorialized. Without a doubt, gardeners are great people. Someone loved enough to do the planting and will care that it lives on.
DD

Extensive perennial plantings are high maintenance. Not sure how large your assorted perennial beds are but maintaining 8 of them, 3 of which are very visible, is going to take a lot of time. Based on your screen name, I assume you work for a living? And no doubt, so does your spouse. Do you want to spend limited free time doing a lot of gardening or would you rather have more time to just enjoy your outdoor space? And if you are new to gardening, there is a high learning curve involved with an extensive, existing garden,

I'd suggest that you slowly convert the perennial beds to lower maintenance plantings, focusing on small trees and shrubs. These will not be maintenance-free but will require less attention than a heavily herbaceous perennial bed. You can certainly keep whatever perennials you find very appealing, but include them as only a portion of the plant selection, not the focus. There is a horticultural rule of thumb - the larger and longer lived a plant, the less ongoing maintenance it will require......a sliding scale with annuals and perennials at the high end and shrubs and trees at the lower end. Also, the more evergreen, the less maintenance required (generally).

You may want to hire someone to help with this. Garden coaching/consultation is a pretty active business segment in many parts of the country. They can help you both identify the plants you have, determine which might be appropriate to keep and help to select others to replace and offer lower maintenance and a longer season of interest. At a modest hourly rate, this may be an excellent investment.

FWIW, most Master Gardener organizations do not provide for this type of onsite, individual/personal attention, at least under the auspices of the program. Their mission is community outreach via plant clinics, community gardens, answer lines, etc., not a one-on-one approach. Checking with your local program office or county extension should clarify.

That's right, the Master Gardeners do not formally, as part of their program, offer consultations to homeowners. But as I said, if you got either my mom or I on the phone when you called or emailed we would be more than happy to help. :) I think most of them would feel the same - gardeners *are* good people! I think it would tickle them to know that you were trying to work with the plants rather than mowing them all down - I'd do it for that reason alone. But true, you cannot absolutely count on that they will volunteer to help.

Even if they didn't offer to personally help you, I'm sure they would be a great resource to point you in the direction of someone who could. Many of the upper-end nurseries here offer landscape design services. I'm sure for a consultation fee you could get their landscape designer out to take a look at what you've got and offer some tips.

There may very well be one or two who know as much about what you have growing as the previous owner did, and be willing to give you pointers. Or, even take some of the plants off your hands should you decide to go with a less high maintenance theme to the yard. If you were new in my neighborhood and I were your neighbor, I'd be happy to help you - surely I'm not that unique ;-)

One point you can make to your hubby if you decide you want to keep the flower beds is that more grass = more time spent mowing.