Instagram live: Lesser known perennials for Cutting

PlantsIG Live

Apr 30

Hello! Welcome back and thanks for joining us. Here is some info about this month’s Instagram live session about lesser-known perennials.

You’ll find the content from our discussion about unique and underutilized perennials that can add variety, interest, and reliability to your flower offerings.

There is a short list of varieties that have already been covered in previous Pro Platform posts. and an extra list of plants I suggest for foliage use.

Scroll to the bottom for vendor lists.

First, here are some of the common cold climate perennials that did not make it on to my list for the session about “less common” varieties. These are all wonderful and we work with them here as well.

Aruncus (Goat’s Beard)

Astilbe

Astrantia

Baptisia

Bee Balm

Columbine

Daisies

Delphinium

Dicentra (Bleeding Hearts)

Echinacea

Globe Thistle

Hellebores

Hosta (great foliage)

Lavender (Phenomenal)

Lupine

Mint

Peonies

Tall Garden Phlox

Sea Holly

Yarrow

And now for the main event! Here is the big list of the perennials discussed in the video:

Lesser Used Cold CLimate Perennials:

Alstroemeria: Clever designers are removing the spotted petals to revel branching stems of flowers that look like dogwood blossoms. Give alstroemeria a try!

Amsonia: Look for the taller varieties to take advantage of some better stem length. Beautiful chartreuse foliage turns a rich golden color in the fall.

Anaphalis (pearly everlasting): these clustered flowers are great fresh or dried. They are sort of like white paper daisies or mini strawflowers, but perennial!

Perennial (fall) anemone: beautiful and floaty flowers in late summer and early fall before frost. White and pink varieties. Double petaled varieties are also available.

Asclepias (Butterfly weed): a pollinator-friendly plant. Red, orange, yellow, or pink flowers.

Perennial Asters: Tall bushy habit and flowers that bloom well after the first frost. Pinks, purples, and blues. Super useful plant. It’s a must grow for us - is thriving and blooming when everything else is dying back.

Blackberry Lily: unique spotted flowers resembling lilies, but unrelated. It is actually a species of iris. Orange, red, yellow flowers.

Boltonia Snowbank: Massive hedge of tiny white flowers in late summer/fall. Useful as an impact element for large installations.

Bush Clematis: These lower-growing varieties don’t require a tall trellis and they bloom in their first season when grown from plugs.

Catmint (nepeta): A great cut flower in a variety of colors from lavender to pink to white.

Hardy Chrysanthemums: Many mums can over-winter. Check out Bluestone Perennials to choose some that are hardy to your zone. Or - take a leap and leave some from your own collection to fend for themselves outside next winter. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Cimicifuga (deep purple foliage): the flower is pretty, but not very long lasting. We wait until the foliage hardens up in late summer. Beautiful.

Dianthus (mini carnations): mini carnations are a go-to for flower crowns, corsages, and boutonnieres. Check out the many colors they come in from white to cream yellow to soft pink, coral, orange, fuschia, red, and bicolor. Don’t forget to build some effortless, wilt-free flowers into your gardens for time-saving personal flower work (for you or a florist you sell to).

Eryngium Yuccifolim (rattlesnake master): A relative of sea holly. Silver pom pons without the spikey sepals of the sea holly you may be used to working with.

Euphorbia: An early spring foliage. Watch for milky sap. Harvest in the early morning. Strip only a few bottom leaves. Allow to hydrate in cold water before use.

Perennial Foxglove (Strawberry Foxglove, Milk Chocolate): Some foxgloves are TRUE perennials. The Strawberry is most similar in color and form to the types we’re used to working with. Milk Chocolate is a super tall variety with smaller florets. Unique bronze color.

Helianthus Flore Pleno: A double petaled, fluffy, perennial sunflower with multiple flowers per stem. Tall, 4-6ft, and impressive.

Henry Eilers Rudbeckia: We recommend this tall variety and not “Little Henry”. Quill shaped petals are unappealing to insects. Harvest long stems (5+ feet) if you like.

Heuchera (Coral Bells): Sweet flowers, but the foliage are the stars. Harvest the leaves for personal flower work. Discerning florists will swoon.

Hypericum: Common to the floral world, but not to small US flower farms yet. These relatives of the natural St. Johns’ Wort should do well for us in cold climates and their familiarity to florists could make them an easy sell. Many different kinds of berry colors.

Lady’s Mantle: one of the earliest greeneries available. Also sports little yellow flowers similar to bupleurum.

Liatris (Gayfeather): fluffy purple spires of tiny florets. Can be divided over time. Ensure well-draining soil.

Maltese Cross: red-orange or coral colored globes of florets. Easy to grow from seed.

Monk’s Hood: Purple spire flowers. Unique color. Toxic like larkspur and delphinium.

Northern Sea Oats: a favorite here. Use fresh or dried and in any type of arrangement or personal flower design work. Grow from seed. Bump up early. Once established, plant clumps can be divided.

Oregano: useful in flower or before as foliage.

Painted Daisy: pink, purple, or red with yellow centers. Look for “Robinson’s Mix”

Penstemon: great for use as a fresh flower or as seed heads. These also self-sow and produce more plants that way or may be divided. Grow from seed, plug, or plant.

Pieris Japonica: beautiful clustered bell-shaped flowers for floral work and non-wilting greenery. Different varieties have different colors of flowers and fall foliage.

Porcelian Vine: invasive in some areas. Unique blue and purple berries prized by florists.

Russian Sage: tall, productive and airy— this is a good alternative to lavender.

Sanguisorba - look for the taller varieties, as opposed to ground cover, if you want bouquet length stems.

Scabiosa Fama - These large blue or white flowers grow on strong stems over a long season and have much larger flowers than the scabiosa that are being grown from plug (like the Scoop series).

Scotch broom: invasive in some areas. Spires of yellow, red/orange/yellow, or coral colored florets. Airy long fronds.

Snowberry / Coral Berry: useful foliage all season long and foliage with sturdy berries in the fall.

Solomon’s Seal & False Solomon’s Seal: long stems of green or green and white variegated leaves starting in spring

Trollius: globe-shaped flower in the buttercup family. A sort of perennial ranunculus. Yellow or orange.

Perennial foliage:

Amsonia (look for taller varieties)

Boxwood (we cut sparingly from ours and use them mostly for small personal floral work like boutonnières, corsages, and flower crowns)

Cimicifuga (late summer)

Coral Berry (Proud Berry) - beautiful foliage all summer. foliage with berries in the fall.

Forsythia (foliage is nice and hardy in the summer after the flowers pass)

Honeysuckle offers some of the first deciduous leaves in the spring. These are often a go-to for us for the earliest season arrangements.

Hosta (foliage)

Lilac (we use the leaves in centerpieces and design work after the spring flowers)

Lily (we use lilies, pre-bloom and even before they really bud up as foliage if we’re desperate. Lilies have great, straight stems and glossy green foliage. Because we have a continuous supply of lilies with our practices from The Lily Workshop, we can always go to the lilies as foliage if needed.

Oriental Poppies: leaves (Oriental poppies have some of the first leaves to emerge through snow. Seed heads are great, too. Flowers don’t hold up well.)

Ninebark (green and red varieties)

Peonies (fall foliage)

Viburnum- various kinds, including the wild arrow wood variety.