Why Didn’t My Perennials Come Back? Effective Planting Techniques
Many gardeners have experienced the same question. We plant a beautiful flower bed, enjoy it for awhile and then the flowers begin to die off. Other gardeners may wonder why they have perennials at all, while others continue to plant annuals year after year with absolutely no results.
Most perennial flowers have what is called a self-sustaining bloom. What this means is that they bloom again after they die off. Spring in your garden is the best time to dig up your flower garden and start replanting. Perennial plants will bloom again in the fall or early winter, depending upon the type of plant. Annuals can survive the winter, but they won’t bloom again until the following spring.
Why do I have a garden full of beautiful, lovely flowers, but the perennials are gone in a matter of months? If you have a good gardening soil, and your perennials get the proper amount of water and nutrition, they should last for several years. The main problem with the garden I mentioned above was that the water levels were too low for the plants to survive. If your water tables are not high enough, you will find that your flower garden is never blooming. If your perennials can not tolerate low water levels, you might want to consider adding a fountain to your garden.
Most perennials do not need to be watered very often, just once or twice a year. They also don’t like extreme cold temperatures, so you will want to dress your flower garden for spring. Frost will kill most perennials, so take this into consideration when choosing plants for your flower garden. You will probably want to avoid planting perennials in the coldest areas of your yard, as they will not survive. If you do want some in the colder areas, use a cool covering, such as wood chips or crushed stone in between the flower beds.
Another question you should ask yourself, when wondering why did my perennials come back, is if they are doing something to attract more bees to my flower garden. Bees play a vital role in the pollination process, and without them flowers may not bloom. One of the reasons that bees are attracted to a garden is because they tend to spread pollen from one flower to the other. If you have a lot of insects eating the pollen, this will bring a lot of them to your flower garden, and this means more insects for you to get rid of.
If you are wondering why did my perennials come back, but the flowers are not growing very fast, it could mean that you have over-seeded them. Over-seeding occurs when you are trying to plant a long-lasting group of flowers and tend to plant too many at one time. Usually this happens with groupings of three or more flowers, and the resulting mass of plants can often be quite thick. This mass of plants does not have enough foliage to remain healthy, so the flowers begin to slowly deteriorate. Over-seeding should be avoided if you want to see your perennials come back in full and gorgeous bloom.
Another possibility for why did my perennials come back? Sometimes flowers just simply stop blooming for no apparent reason. A lot of factors can play into this, such as a pest infestation, disease, or simply a change in season. If you want to make sure that your garden blooms again next year, it may be time to dig up those plants that you have been waiting to grow and replant them somewhere else. Try to plant them in the same spot, just move them a bit to ensure they get the same amount of sun and moisture as they were before.
Most perennials like to grow in full sun and in well-drained soil, but you should check with local nurseries or gardening stores to see what conditions are best for your type of flower. Did you know that your perennials can even help control erosion? They may come back in the following year if they are planted in areas with good drainage.