Perennials for Northeast Florida
Perennials are plants that live for more than two years. They normally give the best display when grouped in clusters. Consider height and color and light level and spacing when planning your garden.
Perennials can also enliven your landscape:
- many are attractive to butterflies, and other pollinators
- some are favorites of hummingbirds
- some are fragrant
- a number bloom all year
- many require less fertilizer and water
- they tend to be pest tolerant
- some readily reseed and resprout
- they often can be used for cut flowers
Prepare your planting bed carefully. Sandy soils should be amended with liberal amounts of organic matter within the top 12-15 inches. This can be compost, aged manure, leaf mold, peat or a combination. A pH range of 5.5 to 6.5 is ideal.
Plant potted perennials so the top of the root ball is slightly above the soil surface and mulch with 2-3 inches of organic materials such as pine bark made from lumber by-products, or recycled sources. Do not pile mulch up around the base of the plants. The mulch will moderate soil temperatures, conserve moisture and add organic matter to the soil as it breaks down over time. Water liberally during the first few weeks of establishment.
Many perennials need little fertilizer and supplemental water once established. If the plants go off-color or the flowers become stunted, then application of a balanced fertilizer with equal amounts of nitrogen and potassium and less phosphorus such as a 10-5-10, 12-4-12, 13-3-13 analysis with at least 30 percent of the nitrogen and potassium in "slow release" form may be applied. The fertilizer should also contain magnesium and micronutrients such as iron and manganese.
Most perennials that have become established can be propagated by division during mild times of the year.
Pests are not usually serious problems. Spot treat with insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or Bt mixtures. If you provide good drainage and do not overwater the plants, disease problems should be minimal.
Here are a few horticulturists favorites to try first:
Pentas (Pentas lanceolata): These prolific bloomers head the list. They come in colors from red to pink to white to blue and are unequalled as butterfly attractors. Pentas flower in sun or partial shade year-round and can be cut back for renewed more dense growth.
Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.): These plants do not look much like the wild milkweed with the sticky, milky sap. They bloom fast and continuously and attract butterflies in sun or partial shade. They readily resprout and reseed.
Firebush (Hamelia patens): Blooms May through fall. Hummingbirds love it. It can be trained lower as a ground cover or as a taller screen. Successful in full sun to shade.
Dianthus ‘First Love’ (Dianthus caryophyllus): Opens white, turning to pink then lavender. Fragrant. Very cold hardy. Blooms all year on 25-30 inch plants. It is resistant to a fungus disease that affects other Dianthus.
Salvia (Salvia coccinea): Likes full sun and blooms throughout the year. Red Coral, white or colored flowers are very-graceful. They are visited by humming birds, and other pollinators.
Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp.): Needs full sun. Only the locally found native varieties live as perennials in Florida. Good for butterflies.
Jacobinia Flamingo Flower (Justicia carnea): Will do well in shade with bright rose flowers most of the year on 2-4 foot plants.
Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.): Each plant can produce up to 50 blossoms, each blooming one day. Flowers in spring months with many outstanding colors in sun to partial shade.
Other Information:
Selected from Picture Perfect Perennials by Michael J. Holsinger, former extension agent specializing in horticulture at the University of Florida Extension, Sarasota County
