Hi,

It depends on the perennial how far apart I space. I plant them just a little closer together than the tag says, because I'm impatient too! I'm always moving things around to get the best look. It may take 2, 3, 4 years for a perennial to look its best, full large and healthy. Annuals are great for bare spots and bloom all summer. I dont always follow the "rules" of the books either, I just plant what I like in the spot I want.

Jen

Like Jen, spacing depends on the perennial, but I, too, put them a little closer than the tags recommend. Things can always be moved around if they crowd something else or outgrow their space. Annuals really fill the bill for bare spots and/or for continuous splashes of color - I make good use of pansies, statice, and snapdragons for sun and impatiens for shady spots. Though perennials are my first love, I can't imagine my gardens without an annual or two (or many!)

Sue

Perennial gardening is not static. Knowledge of the ideal spacing for each plant species is important (know its mature size), but most perennials can be separated as they over grow their locations.

Most of the perennials that I grow from seed bloom the very first year. You don't have to be 'too' patient!

I have a small garden that is absolutely jam-packed and heavily layered with nearly 400 varieties of perennials, grasses, shrubs and small ornamental trees plus thousands of bulbs. I never met a plant I didn't want. :~)) I also like order and a bit of structure in my garden as I think the many pictures I have posted on the forums indicate. So what do you do to have both?????

Plant new plants of the same variety 1/3 closer than recommended, but leave a little extra space around the edges of each grouping. This helps give definition.

Use mulch. Helps keep down weeds, enriches soil, and makes a neater effect.

Plant ephemerals. They grow, bloom & disappear quickly. Lots of spring blooming perennials (not just bulbs) work this way. This leaves room in the beds for later flowers coming on. My favorites are oriental poppies for sunny areas and old-fashioned bleeding hearts for shade, followed by or paired with later arriving flowers.

Prune - lots and often. Read the Tracy Di-Sabato book The Well-tended Perennial Garden for lots of perennial pruning info. Also keep in mind also that lots of perennials can be cut back hard after blooming - even if they won't rebloom for you. Why look at declining foliage? Many perennials will put out short fresh foliage, but the pruning will always makes more room in the bed. Example, Jacob Kline monarda can be cut back immediately after bloom (fairly early bloom for a monarda) & it will regrow fresh foliage (only occasional rebloom) but another later blooming monarda variety can take over, or you can plant something like Pearly Everlasting (a grey-silver foliage plant with small white flowers that likes a bit of damp) to take the JK spot.

Use early and late varieties of the same plant in or near the same area. After the early ones bloom, wait for the later bloomers to take over. I do this all the time with things like daylilies. Example Barbara Mitchell DL followed by Secondhand Rose DL, sort of squashed together into one foliage mass. (In cold areas the foliage of early blooming dormants diminishes somewhat after bloom and real hardy old ones or species can take having their foliage cutback or can easily be pulled out. Semi & Evergreen DLs need their foliage space, but will recede from the eye after bloom, and can be planted closely with other later blooming DLs.) BTW, the DLs work well with the clumps surrounded by daffodils which bloom in spring & then recede (the strappy DL foliage also hides the dying bulb foliage). Add a Rozanne Geranium or two, which get going really well around high summer, and will help hide the declining DL foliage. They will bloom until frost. If you work this right, you can have almost continuous bloom in a small area and still keep it neat.

Place a few small shrubs in your perennial beds. Gives structure and adds winter interest.

Put a few small evergreen shrubs in pots. Great for openings in pathways, for focal points, or punctuation. Also can be moved around when an area needs help. Try a topiary for a small touch of the formal look. A birdbath or statue also can add structure to a bed. Try taking a photo with and without one, if you aren't sure.

Direct sow easy annuals like coreopis, bachelor buttons, or poppies into pots. Use them in empty places in the garden. This works better for me (with my wet soil, crowded beds, & mulching) than direct sowing into the ground. Somehow, the pots also look more orderly and have more impact than a stray seedling here and there. I also get some self-seeding right in the pots which I consider a nice bonus.

Prune up your shrubs/trees. Make things see-through. Messy underplantings look great against the clean lines of bare branches.

Use cutback shrubs. The perfect example is Smokebush (Cotinus). Another example is Goldflame or Goldmound Spirea. Goldflame can be cut back to 8 inches or so in late winter or early spring, will put up orangish leaves in spring, that look great with Princess Irene Tulips, follow that with a soft Salmon or shrimp colored Oriental Poppies, the spireas will eventually get 2-3 ft H&W, after the spireas bloom (pink) follow them by a big swath of summer garden phlox, like David (white), and then a dwarf helianthus (yellow) and a cream white Sweet Autumn Clematis along the fence, while the spirea leaves are going orange again for the season end. Except for the SAC, all this can be done in a tiny area, say 3ft X 5 ft, and have great impact.

Make really clean edges on you beds. No matter how messy your beds are, if they have a good edge, they look good!

On brand new beds with all new perennials plant a small flowering groundcover type annual throughout the bed. In my wettish soil I like to use Bacopa. (This is a plant that will crisp quickly, & not recover, if it does not get enough water, but works well for me.) In drier areas I use Lantana (usually a soft yellow). Using one flower in one color (as neutral as possible) shows off the new perennials well, acts as a unifier, & the vining effect holds the soil well. In shade areas mimulus (wet) or impatiens in a single color work well, but have a more competing clumping effect in the bed. Adding the groundcover look can make an unfinished (new) bed look more polished/finished.

Oh yes, at the end of the season, try to set up a couple of areas of winter interest, and remove stray/messy foliage from the scene. An area with a columnar evergreen, a squaty evergreen, a grass or two, and some spiky/tufty perennial remains which will hold snow, makes a pretty winter view, especially if you have cut back areas in between to highlight them.

Best of luck with your gardens. I'm sure you will find that this all gets easier as you become more experienced. Remember too that gardens aren't built in a day or a season...and that they are almost always more process than finished project. One day you will look out into your garden and say - that looks great (& pretend you don't see or photograph the part that's still a mess)! LOL. Again, my best wishes and hope all my jabbering gives you some ideas.

As a winter sower, I find myself starting far more plants every year than I can use, sell or give away. From the start of my gardening life, I've always used nursery beds for perennials, from flowers to shrubs.

In these nursery beds, I grow the plants to maturity, cull out unsuitable ones, practice size and flowering control pruning, and generally get to know how the plants react to my garden's environment. Because of space restraints, most of these plants are grown more closely together than recommended.

When I install a new display bed, or redo a foundation bed, I shop in my nursery beds, and bring out relatively mature plants, with which I am already intimately familiar. I know their habits, colors and preferences. I can plan the new bed with much more precision because I have been growing the plants, and know how they will behave and look.

I've always found this to be the best way to create gardens. If something in a display or foundation bed croaks, or for whatever reason becomes unsuitable, I have backups in the nursery beds. This is particularly important since I concentrate more on ornamental grasses than any other plant group. Small OG's vary widely within genus, species and even cultivars. It helps continuity to have a couple of dozen different plants of the same sort, from which to select display specimens. It also helps me provide specific plants to a small number of client gardeners and landscapers who require a particular specimen or 3.

Densely planted nursery beds are surprisingly low maintenance, especially if they've been installed correctly. I bury soaker hoses or use drip systems, depending on the plants in each bed. The density keeps weed growth down, and makes seed collection much easier.

I also make extensive use of nursery pots, which reside on non-soil areas like my boardwalk and the pathways between my nursery beds. These require more maintenance, but they help me to maximize my small space.

I've found, in 50+ years of gardening, that the more you know about the subject, the less you know about the subject. Nursery areas, in private parts of your garden, can give you a little edge. They enable you to learn a plant before you show it to the world as a part of a highly visible bed.

Thank you sooooo much everyone. You'll help make me a happy and sought-after gardner yet! :-D

As suggested above there are many ways to approach this.
Picutred below the "swept clean" approach where you have clumps of showy perennialy surrounded by vast expanses of nice mulch (this was some great stuff we got from a tree service).
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Below photo of annuals filling in around tiny daylily.
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Below a bunny and some potted annuals holding space.
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My old standbys for "filling in" are bearded iris and daylilys. They give you some green when not blooming.

oooo! ooooo! oooooo! bean counter! lovely examples!

my further question i guess is this -- if for instance, i have a new garden bed this year with small plants. the new transplants usually don't do much until their third season -- small plants with small amounts of blooms. I've spaced each plant at their suggested planting space apart. but they look so forlorn during their first two seasons and it usually in these time frames that I can't wait and plant in between. But I get it now, I should plant annuals, ground covers or mulch around these tiny plants and just wait -- my new mantra is "i will just wait, I will just wait ;-)"

but my other problem is that when my plant grow to their mature size they still have that "squished together look". I guess it's just a matter of experimenting and moving things about. or even practice and experience.

I think you're right donn, the more you know, the less you know. still it's nice to be able to talk with others about gardening. I'm in a neighborhood where everyone is intimidaed by the deer. And the one gardener in my neighborhood who doesn't let the deer stop her from planting isn't receptive to talking about gardening at all -- sigh . . .

jxa44

I really like the pot with heliotrope. Thank you for posting :-)

Don't despair. I'm never completely happy with my beds either. The trick to a good border is finding the right mix of plants. When you say "messy" maybe you need to be planting different types of plants - try using more foliage plants or plants with texture that last for more than one season. Maybe you're too fixed on summer blooms and with perennials that's a big mistake. There are so many that bloom at different times, you have to find a good balance to keep things going from spring to fall.

While you're waiting for your beds to mature, try shifting the focus. Every garden needs "bones." A mixed bed has a lot more interest and keeps the seasons going longer. I've always incorporated annuals in my beds because I love cut flowers. Flowering shrubs, evergreens, roses and grasses complete a perennial garden. But you have to be a little more careful about their placement as they're not as easily moved. A fun and easy way to "fill in the blanks" is to use statuary. Or grow annual vines on pretty obelisks and trellises. I love birds, so I always add small feeders, bird baths and houses for them. Even containers work well to add color -- these all add vertical interest. Perennial gardens are always evolving and you can alter them from year to year. That's the fun! And if you can find someone to share plants with, dividing is even more fun (and cost saving).