PERENNIALS & GROUNDCOVER

Unlike annuals, perennials return year after year to brighten our gardens. Fresh shipments arrive each week!

 

Pink, winter blooming hellebore

HELLEBORES

The queen of any winter garden is the hellebore, with glossy evergreen foliage and showy flowers in a variety of colors. Available year round, but best selection from November - January.

Heuchera leaves of green, red, purple and pink

EVERGREEN PERENNIALS

These plants stay leafy and beautiful, even through our dreary winter weather. A few favorites include heuchera, (coral bells) Euphorbia, cascading vines like ivy and vinca, liriope and more.

Wintergreen

WINTER ACCENTS & BLOOMS

Winter gardens/containers can be a challenge. What to plant when there are so few flowers? We carry cheerful, hardy plants like wintergreen, primrose and cyclamen coum to brighten gray days.

Heather

HEATH, HEATHER & HEBE

The best time for heather and heaths is fall and winter, when these plants have their strongest color and flower. Hebe are generally available year around, but supplies can be limited.

PNW native plants including redwood sorrel

PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIVES

We love native plants and recognize their vital role in local ecosystems. Look for native iris, camas, ferns, shade plants, ground covers and more. We carry PNW natives whenever they are available.

Lavender blooms with bees

LAVENDER

The fragrant, beautiful woody perennial that's beloved by bees (especially Spanish varieties!) and humans alike. Plant in a dry, full sun location, these plants love the heat, once established.

Dark red hardy fuchsia blooms

HARDY FUCHSIAS

A classic shade to part sun shrubby perennial that adorns itself with fairy flowers in shades from red to white to purple. Hummingbirds love to visit wherever hardy fuchsia grows!

Hosta leaves: green with a white edge

SHADE PERENNIALS

A beautiful shade garden is more than possible with plants like hostas, ferns, ligularia, epimedium, hardy fuchsia, etc. Explore our shade perennial aisles in the greenhouse to make shopping a breeze.

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FERNS

Underappreciated ferns offer texture, shape and balance to more fanciful plants. Visit March - June for best selection; evergreen varieties available year-round. Plant in shade - part sun.

lavender-purple aubretia

GROUNDCOVERS

Whether you are preventing soil erosion, filling a bald spot, or adding cascading interest to a container, there's a plant for the job! Also, look for PNW natives like salal, redwood sorrel and more.

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GRASSES

Many evergreen grasses like fescue, black mondo are available year round. For the best deciduous selection, shop April-June for Hakonechloa, Japanese blood grass and more.

Hens & chicks, & sedum

SEDUM & SUCCULENTS

We carry sedum year round, with the best selection available from April-August. These rock-garden favorites thrive in sunny, dry spots, and come in an amazing array of colors and shapes.

White and blue delphinium stalks in bloom

SUMMER BLOOMERS

The warmth of summer brings a riot of blooms to our perennials section. Shop June - Aug. for delphinium, gaillardia, hardy geranium penstemon, salvia, lilies and more at peak performance.

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COLLECTOR'S PERENNIALS

If you're looking for something you've never seen before that might offer more of a horticultural challenge, seek out the collectors table in the greenhouse for unique and newly available species.

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TRAILING PERENNIAL VINES

Cascading creeping jenny, vinca, slow-growing english ivy, and wire vine etc. make great additions in container arrangements. Find these in the ground covers section of the greenhouse.

red bleeding heart blooms

EARLY SPRING BLOOMERS

Bleeding hearts, aubrieta, candytuft, anemone, saxifrage and more. All of your early-blooming favorites start to arrive in early March and continue throughout the springtime. 

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4" POT PERENNIALS

We carry a great selection of younger perennials in cost-saving 4” containers from late February and into May. If you don't mind waiting for them to mature, this is a great way to stock up

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PEONIES

Itoh peonies, a hybrid of tree and garden peonies, begin arriving in May with classic garden varieties. Limited availability, visit early for best selection. Look for bare root peonies in October.

bunch of guara stems with bright pink blossoms

DROUGHT TOLERANT PLANTS

Tired of watering? Maybe it's time to create a drought tolerant landscape! Once established, these plants grow with little or no need for supplemental water, even in the later summer!

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POLLINATOR PLANTS

In spring and summer, we stock tons of plants for butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. Shop our Nectar Bar starting in June for neonic-free plants grown locally with pollinator health in mind. 

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FALL BLOOMERS

Rudbeckia, Japanese anemone, asters, perennial sunflowers, and cyclamen are among the special flowers that will thrive while summer blooms start to fade. Shop Aug. - Oct. for best selection.

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PERENNIAL BULBS

Feb - March, we carry summer blooming, bare-root bulbs like iris, lilies, peonies, dahlias, hostas, daylilies, bleeding hearts & more!

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PERENNIALS A' PLENTY

Divide your mature perennials to keep them in excellent health, and create more plants for your garden! Learn more in our blog post below.

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PERENNIALS ON THE BLOG

We receive a HUGE selection of apples, plums, cherries, and other fruits every February. Get the details on these and other edibles below.

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Our selection is always changing, with fresh shipments arriving throughout the week. Please give us a call to check availability.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Most perennials bloom for about one month, although some are especially long-blooming. We recommend planting both long-blooming perennials and ones with shorter bloom times that are staggered from each other. That way, there will always be something fresh and seasonal blooming in your garden. Check out our perennials by bloom time info sheet to learn more about which perennials bloom in each season.

Most herbaceous (non-woody) perennials can be divided once they reach a mature size, simply by cutting through their roots with a sharp shovel. Many perennials benefit from being divided periodically, and you can transplant the newly-divided pieces elsewhere in your garden or give them away to friends. Typically, the best time to divide or transplant is in the fall or early spring, when the weather is cool and damp. It’s always a good idea to do some research before dividing any particular species, since each one is a little different.

It might sometimes seem like every plant tag says, “Full sun, well-drained soil, and even moisture.” If you don’t have any or all of those conditions, you’ll need to search specifically for plants that suit your space. Don’t worry — we have them. Our perennial section is divided into sun vs. shade plants, so that’s one way to start narrowing your search. We have plant lists with some ideas to start with for drier conditions, especially wet soil, and shade gardens. Of course, we’re always here to offer personalized recommendations.

Many perennials are great for wildlife, whether you grow just a few in a container or integrate them into a larger wildlife-friendly landscape.  During the spring and summer, our “nectar bar” display is a great place to start for pollinator-friendly perennial blooms. Try to choose several plants with different bloom times, so to provide a long-term nectar supply. Besides nectar plants, choose plants with woody branches for shelter, nutritious berries and seeds, or even narrow leaves that birds can use to build nests. Native plants are often the best of all for native wildlife, but many non-native plants and cultivated varieties of native plants still provide excellent habitat and resources. Check out our plants for butterflies, birds and bees for some ideas to help you get started.

We love natives, and recognize their vital role in native ecosystems. In fact, they're a key group of plants that we like to carve out space for, both in our nursery beds and aisles, and in our online messaging. We carry natives like Iris tenax, Mahonia nervosa, Kinnickkinnick and more whenever they are available to us, but unfortunately, local wholesale native growers can be few and far between.

If you're looking for more natives then we have at the moment, we recommend Go Natives, MsK Nursery, Hima Nursery, or Oxbow Farms. Happy planting, and thanks for doing your part to contribute to our local ecosystem!