Perennial Trial Spacing
New Perennial Planting Strategy
One strategy that we employ when sampling new perennials on our farm is to use closer than appropriate spacing. For perennial plants that take a while to mature, we will often temporarily plant them at very close spacing. For example: hydrangea plants (ordered from Spring Meadow Nursery) that may grow 5ft wide are planted just 1 foot apart for the first couple of years here. We’ll then replant them into the appropriate planting scheme and interplant them with complimentary plants until they fill in.
This close spacing strategy prevents a new (and unknown) crop from taking up a large area on our farm while we are “testing it out.”
It can also buy us some time to determine where we’d like the plants to be planted more permanently
And lastly, a smaller area for a trial can allow you to help young, weak perennials to grow on a bit in valuable covered growing space in order to be planted elsewhere when they are a bit stronger.
This method is similarly applied to late sowings of perennials that we grow from seed. For example- we are able to start plants like perennial scabiosa Fama series, globe thistles, sea holly and more in August and see those plants through the winter by planting the seedlings very close together into an unheated tunnel in September. They will be moved to their new homes outside in the spring, but this way we don’t have to babysit them all winter long and watch them get root bound. They root in and go dormant just fine. The shelter and warm soil provided by the tunnel give them time to adjust before the harshest temperatures reach us.
We order our perennial seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds (link to full perennial offering) and Swallowtail Garden Seeds (link to full perennial offering).
In the video below I also talk about pieris Japonica. We ordered our plants from Northern Nurseries. They offer large landscape-appropriate plants. The price is quite a lot more than small liners, but they will reach maturity very quickly.
Resources added to the Recommended Vendor List page for this post: Spring Meadow Nursery pricing, order form, and Dec. 2022 availability.