Cheap Perennials

by Doug
(Somewhere in his garden)

So want to buy perennials. There are several options that you have: you can buy cheap perennials based on price, you can buy brand-new perennials that are heavily advertised, you can buy old standards that are inexpensive, or you can buy previous generation good perennials.

You can also make your decision about buying perennials based on the size of the plant. That about sums up your options, let's look at them a little more closely.

Size of plant

Smaller plants are cheaper, but they will take more time to establish themselves in the garden and if too small, they may not flower in the first year in your garden. Larger plants, those in 1 gallon pots or larger, that have been overwintered in the nursery should blue the first year in your garden but they will be more expensive. Your choice then comes down to whether you have patience to allow the plants to grow up or whether you want to see flowers in the first year.

Options

The the sexy new perennials in your local garden shop are not going to be cheap perennials. New introductions take a few years to drop the prices and be superseded by even newer perennials. It all depends on whether you need the new introductions or whether your garden will look equally good with older varieties.

The trick here is to select award–winning perennials or those that have the characteristics you want such as long blooming time, fragrance, color or height.

Day lilies are a perfect example, where the newest hybrids are very expensive but a plant that is only 2-3 years old will be half the price. On the other hand, a hybrid that is 5 to 10 years old is going to be found on the box store cheap perennial shelves at a heavily discounted price. The trick to having a good garden is to find the middle ground between the very expensive and the cheap perennial.

This is where a good garden center will help you out by being able to direct you to the middle ground, while a big-box store can only offer the cheapest and oldest varieties.

Bottom Line

Don't look for cheap perennials (unless you're looking at the ads on this page) :-) but do look for the middle-ground - in a size that meets your garden needs.

In perennials as in most things, you get what you pay for.