A few of my favorite perennials…
People often ask me what my favorite flower is, which is an impossible question for a flower farmer to answer. It’s easier for me to tell people what my least favorite flower is: cleome. I tried it once but the combination of spiky, sticky stems and smelly blooms with long feral cat-like whiskers was so unpleasant I quickly abandoned it. Back to what I like though…
I love, love love perennials! Especially easy to propagate and move herbaceous perennials—perfect for my small scale farm on leased land. One of my favorites is ‘Henry Eilers’ rudbeckia. It’s a 5’ tall rudbeckia with sprays of small gold quill-like petals. The sprays are nice and stiff and perfect for bouquet filler while adding structure. I love anything with quill petals—they add such a funky flare to arrangements.
I first saw this flower in the Von Trapp bouquets at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier, then saw the plants growing at the Von Trapp display garden before it closed. Many people have them in landscaped beds in their yards around here. In fact I got all my plants from people giving away divisions in the spring or fall—for free!—and have been increasing my patch each year. Just ask around town and volunteer to dig up divisions from peoples’ yards in the shoulder seasons. I’ve been expanding my garden area just so I can keep accumulating perennials.
Yarrow
I think yarrow is an under appreciated perennial. I’m not crazy about the standard off-white medicinal type for bouquets, but I found a beautiful ruby red colored variety called ‘Paprika’ that I love and use a lot in my work. I bought one plant and have been dividing it each year to increase the patch. It spreads like mad and provides a stunning, vivid contrast next to any other color in arrangements, especially blues and golds. The stiff, straight stems with umbrella blooms are great for filling out bouquets and the color draws people in. I cut the plants back after the first bloom and got a second bloom but they got infested with aphids. I planted two other varieties of yarrow that I’m excited to try this year: ‘Terra Cotta’ (a sunset-hued color) and ‘Pomegranate’ (a more fuchsia/purple colored variety).
Northern Sea Oats
These are one of the coolest grasses I grow! The flat, fish scale panicles are green when fresh then mature to bronze as they age on the plant. They’re great dried and add a beautiful arching, airy element to arrangements (either fresh or dried). Since I just have 3 plants in my garden I use them very sparingly for special occasions or one per CSA bouquet. I also make sure not to harvest all the seed heads on my plants so hopefully they’ll spread by seed. I’m going to divide my plants and increase the patch this year because I always want more sea oats.
I’ll include more of my top plants (perennials, annuals, and bulbs) in future blog posts. So many favorites, so little time!
