Perennial plants are those which endure or persist from the same root part year to year, meaning they regrow every spring. In contrast, annual plants live for one growing season and then die off.
Let’s talk about the difference between the two types.
Perennial Plants
Perennials are plants that can live for three or more growing seasons. Once a prominent part of nearly every Texas landscape, perennials are often overlooked by modern gardeners. Most perennials are easily propagated by division, seed or cuttings. This is why these plants are often shared among friends and neighbors. Division is particularly successful since it not only provides new plants but is often necessary for the continued vigor of plants. Perennials can be highly useful and attractive in home landscaping. They also often require less maintenance than annuals. Perennials can provide long seasons of color and cut flowers while enhancing overall landscape development.
Local perennial favorites include:
Hinckley’s Columbine (Aquilegia Hinkleyana)
German Red Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus)
Summer Phlox (Phlox paniculata)
Mexican Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia)
‘New Gold’ Lantana (Lantana camara)
Rock Rose (Pavonia lasiopetala)
Firebush (Hamelia patens)
Mexican Mint Marigold (Tagetes lucida)
Mexican Petunia (Ruellia Brittoniana)
Mealy Cup Sage (Salvia farinacea)
Ox-Eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
To learn more about these local perennials and more, visit the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
Annual Plants
While annuals live for only one season, they tend to have a long bloom season. They are usually brightly colored and used by gardeners to add bursts of bright color to flower beds and container gardens.
Popular annuals for South Texas include:
Angelonia
Zinnias
Bluebonnets
Globe Amaranths
Petunias
When planting annuals, carefully prepare your soil with fertilizer as it helps get the plants off to a good start and will keep them growing well all season.
Don’t Forget Biennials!
Biennials are plants that grow for two seasons, yet don’t bloom until the second year. Biennials drop seeds during their second season and in two years your garden will have blooms from a new generation! Gardeners often develop a schedule to stagger biennials in order to experience blooms every year.
Choosing the right flowers, plants and trees for your yard can be difficult and time consuming. Let the experts at Gulf Coast Landscaping take the work out of it for you! We can advise you on which plants and flowers would grow best on your property. Give us a call today at (361) 582-6570 and let us give you a free estimate. At Gulf Coast Landscaping, we are dedicated to bringing joy to our clients by transforming their grounds and bringing their landscaping dreams to reality.
It may seem a little too early (and HOT) to be thinking about winterizing your lawn and garden, but fall in South Texas is right around the corner and those cold fronts will be here before you know it.
Read some helpful tips to winterize your South Texas lawn and garden.
Perennial plants are those which endure or persist from the same root part year to year, meaning they regrow every spring. In contrast, annual plants
Have you noticed that, as time goes by, your yard just doesn’t look at good as it did when you first put in all that effort? Has your enthusiasm for landscaping waned? Don’t fret. This happens to us all. It is easy to lose sight of your original focus and to start making mistakes when it comes to decorating and up keeping your yard.
Read on for some of the biggest landscaping mistakes you should avoid.
