Perennials at
Reilly's Garden Center

Spring is upon us, and, with the arrival of this planting season, we are excited to bring you unique, unusual, and hardy perennials for your garden. Are you looking for a special plant for a spot in your garden, or do you wish to create an inviting garden where you can spend long relaxing summer days? Perhaps, you simply like to dig in the dirt.

At Reilly’s, we carry a vast array of shade and sun perennials, grasses, groundcovers, hosta, ferns, daylilies and vines for every style of garden. Dreaming of a butterfly or pollinator garden, an edible garden, a romantic cottage garden, or maybe a deer-resistant garden? No matter what your needs, we are here to provide the plants, horticultural knowledge, and design expertise to help make it a reality.            
Stroll through our perennials and you’ll find a palette of plants to create a complete native garden, or just the right plant to accent a special space in your garden. Native cultivars offer an opportunity to create a garden that is colorful, low maintenance, and disease and pest resistant, while providing food and habitat for wildlife and the opportunity to help restore our native ecosystem.     
 
With the rising interest in local foods and edible gardens, we will be offering a variety of edible perennials for your garden. Many, like asparagus and strawberries are perennials that return year after year to provide food in your own backyard. Many perennial herbs and perennial flowers like lavender, violets, daylilies, bee balm and primroses are also edibles that will add a burst of color to your edible garden.
           
This season at Reilly's, you’ll find a variety of new and exciting plants – many that you may not see elsewhere. Be mindful that if you can't find a desired plant, or do not see it on our perennial tables; please speak to a member of the perennial staff – we'll be happy to locate it for you.

Perennial Plant of the Year

Each year the Perennial Plant Association chooses one outstanding perennial as the Perennial Plant of the Year™. This year's well-deserving perennial is Amsonia hubrichtii, the Arkansas Blue Star or Thread Leaf Blue Star

Amsonia hubrichtii grows 36 inches tall and 36 inches wide in a mounded form. It is a native of the North American prairie and hardy to zone 4. Amsonia offers a variety of features throughout the seasons. In late spring or early summer, two- to- three-inch wide clusters of small, light blue, star-shaped flowers are borne above the ferny foliage. The alternate-arranged leaves are bright green in spring and summer, turning a stunning bright yellow-golden color in autumn to complement your fall garden.

• Light – Plants thrive in full sun to partial shade
• Soil – Amsonia performs best in average, moist well-drained soil but tolerates less moisture. Once established, it is drought tolerant.
• Uses – Amsonia is a three-season plant and can be used in sunny perennial borders, native gardens, cottage gardens, or open woodland areas. It is best when massed. Arkansas Blue Star is attractive when mixed with ornamental grasses and plants that have attractive seed heads.
• Unique Qualities – Light blue flowers in late spring are followed by marvelous foliage in summer.  Its fine, needlelike foliage adds a billowy texture to the garden. Golden-yellow fall color is second to none among herbaceous perennials.
• We will be featuring this plant on our perennial sun tables throughout the 2011 season. Come in to see it – it could be a wonderful addition to your landscape.

Source: Perennial Plant Association

See a list of award winning perennials from past years.

Looking Beautiful

A wide variety of plants are coming out of winter hibernation, showing their bright colors in both bloom and foliage. Any of these spring blooming perennials are sure to add vibrancy and color to your garden! Spring blooming beauties and ephemerals include: Bleeding Heart, Siberian Bugloss, Candytuft, Columbine, Coral Bells, Creeping Phlox, Crested Iris, Ferns, Lenten Rose, Lungwort, Pasque Flower, Peonies, Pinks, Trillium, and Virginia Bluebells.

Dicentra eximia - Bleeding Heart	Brunnera – Siberian Bugloss	Iberis – Candytuft
Phlox stolonifera - Creeping Phlox	Aquilegia ‘Clementine White’ – Columbine	Ferns
Helleborus - Lenten Heuchera	‘Miracle’ – Coral Bells	Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’
Saxifraga ‘Triumph’ – Saxifrage	Trillium grandiflorum – Great White Trillium	Mertensia virginica –  Virginia Bluebells

Plant These In Spring

 Spring is a great time to plant. The air is crisp, soil is cool, birds are chirping and plants are blooming! Perennials planted in spring can send out roots and establish themselves before the long, hot and humid summer days arrive. The beautiful variety of blooms and leaf color is enough to chase any winter blues away!

 It’s important to remember that though perennials can be planted before most annuals, some may still be sensitive to late spring frosts. Young annual, perennial, and vegetable plants that are started indoors with heat gradually must be acclimatized to the stronger light, winds, and cooler night temperatures of the outdoors before being planted in the garden.  This conditioning is known as hardening off, and it generally takes 7-14 days.  Start hardening off you plants by placing them outdoors for several hours in the morning sun in a location sheltered from the wind.  Return them to an unheated porch or garage for the late afternoon and evening hours.  Slowly increase the amount of time that the plants are left outdoors and increase the light they receive over a period of one to two weeks.  Remember to protect plants from frosts, freezing winds, and heavy rains that could dislodge the young plants from their pots.  After two weeks, plant these plants in the garden.  Should any frosts occur after planting, cover plants at night with a bath towel.

Check out these great articles for ideas on spring bloomers to plant now:
 
Spectacular Spring Bloomers: These perennials are the light at the end of the long, wintry tunnel by Dave Demers
 
Early Spring Blooming Perennials by Iowa State Extension

Cool Events & Hot Specials

Have you seen Reilly’s bed of stunning and colorful reblooming irises that bloom both in spring and early fall? Join us on May 21 for our first-ever Iris Dig, in which you can take your pick from several selected irises in Reilly’s own garden beds! (Several of them rebloom in the fall) And, visit the Garden Center for additional varieties not found in our garden beds. Stay tuned for more details in the E-News newsletter.

Iris germanica ‘Immortality’

Iris germanica ‘Sugar Blues’

Iris germanica ‘Gay Parasol’

Continue to check back throughout the season for specials and promotions. Many of our specials and promotions happen around the major holidays like Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day. Come see what’s on special!

Just Arrived, or soon to come 

 We have an exciting year ahead of us! We're expanding our perennial offerings this year to include more of the newest plants available. Check back for recent arrivals as the season gets started. New plants arrive almost weekly beginning mid April. If you can't find what you're looking for, just ask – we'll do our best to order it in for you so that you can have the garden you've always dreamed of!

Tips for the Season

Spring is upon us! The warmer and longer days are just what we need to get our green thumbs back in action. Here are a few tips to get started back into the season:

• Cut back ornamental grasses to 6” from the ground as new growth emerges. Tying the grasses together with twine about 6' above the ground will make it more manageable.
  
• Cut back perennials that were left standing in the winter for structure, wildlife food, or because you didn't have a chance to cut them back in the fall.
  
• Add perennial and grass clippings to your compost pile. If you don't have one, why not start one this spring. You'll be rewarded with fresh organic-rich compost next season, for free!
  
• If your Clematis paniculata (Sweet Autumn Clematis) is overgrown, cut it down almost to the ground. It will grow rapidly through the spring and summer, ready to re-bloom in fall.
  
• Feed spring-blooming bulbs with an organic fertilizer rich in potassium, like Espoma Bulb Tone, as soon as they break ground... After bulbs finish blooming, let the foliage turn yellow before cutting back to the ground. We at Reilly's specialize in deer-resistant bulbs, so if you've caught deer chomping your tulips this year, stop by in September for some beautiful deer-resistant alternatives.
  
• Conduct a soil test to check the pH and nutrient levels of the soil. Stop in to Reilly's to pick up a test that will provide quick results. Take steps to amend the soil to provide healthier growing conditions throughout the season. - Apply 3-4” of organic compost to your garden beds. Not only will it provide a beautiful finished look, but it will also provide the long-term fertilizer you need for the season. It will help improve soil structure, aeration and water retention.
  
• Prepare new beds by mixing the compost into the top 10-12” of the soil with a rototiller or digging fork. This will break up clay, increase organic matter and make a more suitable environment for plants to succeed. Wait until the soil is dry before you try this.
  
• Remove any winter mulch back a few inches away from newly sprouting perennial beds. This will encourage the growth of young perennial shoots.
  
• Spring is a great time to add new plants to the garden. Do you recall any bare spots in last year's garden, or do you want to add spring interest? Look at your garden from all angles, even if snow is still on the ground, to see if your garden has the desired winter interest.
  
• Spring-blooming perennials are wonderful gifts for a gardener or for holidays like Easter and Mother’s Day. A perennial is a gift that comes back each year! Stop in to see the wide variety of colorful, fresh plants for any special occasion.
  
• Divide summer and fall-blooming perennials when they first start showing signs of growth in spring. Wait until fall to divide spring and summer-blooming perennials. Use a knife or spade to help with the splitting. When replanting, be sure to add organic matter to the hole to give the new roots a healthy start. Look for a short seminar on this subject in the coming weeks.
  
• Tread lightly in the garden when doing your spring clean up. Be aware of new sprouting perennials. Place a stick or plastic utensil in the soil to mark plant locations.
  
• Visit our Monthly Garden Tips for recommendations on gardening tasks for each month of the growing season.

Services to Make Life Easier

Need help in choosing the right plant for the right place, interested in revamping your garden, or just need help with delivery or planting? Reilly's offers a variety of services to help you achieve the beautiful garden you're dreaming about. Call us to schedule a free 30 minute design consultation at Reilly's with one of our designers and plant experts. We'll ask you to bring in photos and measurements of your site, and in return, we will help identify some plants or planting combination that can work for your garden.

For larger spaces, we offer two at-home fee based services: a 1 hour design consultation for ideas and suggestions, and a full landscape design service that includes scaled planting plans created by our landscape designers. Reilly's also offers delivery and planting services to ensure that your plants make it to your home and into the ground safely.

Contact the Perennial Manager

Feel free to contact me, Kelly, by stopping in, emailing or calling at:
perennials@reillyssummerseatfarm.com or 412-364-8662. Elise and Kathy are also here to assist with your perennial plant needs.

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