How to Grow Perennial Flowers Organically

Fall in love with perennials, the queens of the organic flower garden. But take good care of their crowns - that mass of stems and roots at the heart of each perennial plant - with classic organic gardening practices!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Organic Compost
• Balanced Organic Fertilizer
• Beneficial Insects Such As Lacewings
• Fish Emulsions
• Gardening Tools
• Metal Plant Support Garden Stakes
• Organic Mulch
• Perennial Plants

1. Take special care to build organic soil for perennials' special, long-term needs - they grow rapidly, use up lots of nutrients each season and will likely be in the same soil for three or more years. Consider a raised bed if drainage problems plague your garden.
2. Act locally. Choose perennials with track records where you live, and shop and swap for them or sprout them. Their history makes these plants most resistant to your area's pests and adverse weather conditions so you can grow them organically, that is, without inorganic fertilizers or pesticides.
3. Think globally. Consider perennials native to areas with climates like yours. They'll acclimate to your area more easily than those from very different zones.
4. Plant perennials in groups of three for a pleasing design in any setting. In any case, avoid mass groupings of one type of plant to keep insects and diseases from spreading rapidly through all your plants. Space each crown for its mature size, or plant closer to shade out weeds, but know you'll have to take some out next year.
5. Mulch between plants right up to the crown - but not over it - to control weeds. Use leaf mold, pinestraw or bark nuggets.
6. Water in new crowns with compost tea or diluted fish emulsion.
7. Mix 3 parts compost to 1 part cottonseed meal, and put one cup of mix around each crown in early spring and again after the plants flower.
8. Plan for the crown to live for years in the bed. Watch as the crown sprouts, grows flowers and goes dormant to resprout again next season (if you take care of it!).
9. Divide most perennials after three years to keep them healthy and well-spaced in the garden. Dig up the whole crown and chop it in thirds after any season when fewer flowers and smaller leaves indicate overcrowded perennials.

Tips & Warnings

• Clean around crowns in fall to prevent overwintering insects - don't compost infested plants.
• Dig up offsets - those little plants that sprout up at the edge of the crown - anytime, but dig the whole clump up to really divide.
• Snip flowers off (known as deadheading) as they fade; some perennials will rebloom.
• In subtropical zones, cut back perennials in early spring if they haven't gone dormant yet.
• Leaf mold consists of those half-composted leaves you piled up behind the shrubs last year, while pinestraw is the term for brown pine needles you can buy in bales anywhere there are enough pine trees to harvest them. Dig this mulch in at season's end for its soil-building organic matter and nitrogen fertilizer.
• Bark nuggets provide a longer-lasting blanket that suppresses weeds organically, but decomposes more slowly so you don't have to replace it as often.

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