Tips for buying perennials

WHAT'S IN STORE
When choosing a garden centre, here are some things to look for:
- Well-maintained plants arranged logically according to growing requirements
- Labels with photos of the plant in bloom, how-to-grow information and expected height and spread
- Nursery wagons or carts to hold your purchases while you shop and aisles wide enough to manoeuvre in
n Staff who can answer gardening questions and make suggestions-or will take the time to find someone who can
Display gardens are a bonus-great garden centres often showcase choice perennials in demonstration gardens.

OVERALL SELECTION
When buying perennials, look for:
- balanced, healthy-looking leaves (abundant new growth indicates a vigorous plant). Browned, stunted or slimy foliage is a sign of damage caused by insects, wilting, frost or disease
- short and sturdy over tall and spindly
- healthy roots. A soil surface covered with weeds or moss usually indicates the plant has been in the same container too long and may be pot-bound. Such plants may struggle to get established

BEAT THE RUSH
The busiest time at any garden centre is a sunny weekend in May-and Victoria Day weekend is usually the worst. If you like to take your time and ask for advice, go at off times: during the workweek, early or late in the day; during the dinner hour; or try a cool, rainy day when you can't putter in the garden.

EASY-CARE PERENNIALS
For Sun
Daylily (Hemerocallis) midsummer
Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) early summer
Blazing star (Liatris) midsummer
Peony (Paeonia cvs.) early summer
‘Goldsturm' coneflower (Rudbeckia var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm') midsummer
Stonecrop (Sedum cvs.) late summer

For Shade
Barrenwort (Epimedium x versicolor) blooms in spring; attractive foliage all season
Ferns attractive foliage all season
Hostas bloom in summer; attractive foliage all season
Deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) early summer
Solomon's seal (Polygonatum cvs.) spring
Lungwort (Pulmonaria cvs.) spring

Read more in Plants and Perennials