 Let's talk about perennials. Perennial flowers, they are their prize for their natural beauty. And tonight, Harleen is going to introduce to us some of the more hard-eared types that require minimal care. So welcome again, Harleen, to the forum. Great. Well, I'm going to start off. Why include perennials instead of maybe something like angels? Because yes, of course, angels probably do have more flower color for you because they put all their energy into their flowers because they know they're going to die. Even the perennials are going to be there year after year. So if you don't want to plant every year, go with the perennials. You still can go and get color, but you might have to do a little bit more in design so that you have season on color when one finishes another, fills in, and takes over. And so your landscape may change a little bit with that. Of course, West Moline and therapeutic, I could probably talk another whole day about all the therapeutic aspects of just plants, period. But you can see those right there for benefits. And here are some more benefits, especially with youth. You can teach responsibility. That's what I'm going to do after this. I'm going to go over to Reed Johnson. We're going to go and plant up the dorm guys there. We're going to go and plant up flowers for their parents, for their mom to take home for afterwards. And so I got already small seedlings that are growing because I figured out of sight, out of mind, they'd never, if we planted a seed, they probably never water it. They'll go and see this plant. It's alive. It's growing. And hopefully they'll take some responsibility. But anyway, open. So what are the essential elements for a low maintenance perennials? Or, you know, I'd love a low maintenance perennials, but I don't think there is something like that. So because a perennial is going to die back down to the ground. So you're going to have to clean it up in the springtime. I wait until the springtime instead of in the fall because it's just so much easier to go and clean things for me in the springtime and let Mother Nature mat everything together. So first of all, it has to be hard enough for your zone. So I'll talk about that. And the ones I have tonight are hardy for all of North Dakota. They need to tolerate local summer conditions without supplemental care. So what that means is now if we have a little bit of a drought, they're not just going to die on you. They don't require any special soil type. And if they do better in a certain, you know, as far as moisture, you know, some will do much better in a more moist condition. So they're put, you know, as far as shade because they have more of a requirement for moist soil. So they grow well in the shade. Light requirements are appropriate for the location. So sometimes it's putting the plant in the correct location that makes it low maintenance. Because if you don't put them in the right location, you're going to have to do a lot of work to go and make them look okay. Some other things that you might want to have is that they're long lived. I mean, if they only last two years, that's not going to save you that much time over an annual. So, and also infrequent division. A lot of times we don't divide enough. We could really rejuvenate these perennials if we go on a three to five year division. I know my neighbors who really, you know, they're like, they see me in the summer out and dig in. They're going, oh, no, here she comes again. She's going to be bringing us a bunch of hostas or something like that or day lilies. Because my day lilies, I mean, they get so big. And if you don't go and rejuvenate that, they're going to start to go downhill or they're not going to flower as much. And so you just need to go and do some division on those. But generally, other care, you shouldn't have to stake them. You shouldn't have to go. And DH means deadheading. I mean, who has the time to do that? Not me. So if they're going to look ugly with that bloom after it's done, it's not for me considered a low maintenance plant because I shouldn't have to go out there and deadhead. We'll stand summer heat, occasional drought, slow growing. A long bloom period would be good. But even if they did have that long bloom period, they got to have some attractiveness to their leaves. And I'll have a few examples of some plants that really don't have the longest bloom period. But they have an attractive leaf. Or maybe that's the only thing they really have going for them is that. So we're going to get into the spring ones. And, you know, just the pulp, it may not be on everyone's list because first of all, it does kind of need that moist soil. But I have a nice area. And OK, I should set these up first. The P.S. needs part shade and or shade. You'll see a or if you're, you know, it's the pessimist versus the optimist. If you're the optimist, it needs part sun. If you're the pessimist, it's part shade. And so, and maybe you might be an FS, which is full sun. So this is just the light requirement. And then the flowering in the zone probably enough. And then your general height. And a lot of times if they're going to be one to two foot tall, they generally get about one to two foot wide. Some of them may be a little bit more clunger than others. But Jack and the pulp, it's really, it has a spath that is considered with a flower. And that then changes into this red fruit cluster, I guess. And so here you see it coming out of the ground in the spring. Those are that typical leaf and your spath. And then that changes with time into this cluster of red berries. And really you see these growing a lot in shade. And now I have someone like I said on the north side and they just kind of come up amongst some of my other stuff. They're just kind of there. I never do anything to them. And so we'll maintenance that way for sure. Blue star flowers in the middle. And I kind of, I like because everybody's flowering. You see a lot of flowers. And you really, it doesn't have any kind of pest problems. It tolerates drought. And it probably is best and most so. But I've seen it in just, I mean, we have one on the east side of Lofscar out in full sun. And it does fine. And they don't do any watering around on that area. And it's just looking great. And so where I have less flowers under part sun, you might not see as many flowers. It's pretty easy to care, get that name because the flowers do look like a star. And here's some of those, some cultivars that you might find in the available. So wild ginger, Canadian wild ginger. There's also European wild ginger. And really if you need something as a ground cover, I think these work quite well. Really doesn't have anything for a flower, makes though a good thick ground cover. And something that gets that nice and thick as a ground cover, you don't have to worry about pulling weeds in between. And so does quite well as a ground cover and, and hardy. So there it's coming up in the spring and you can see that little flower very small. And then it, you know, disappears and leaves open up more and you don't even see it close up of that flower, not too attractive. So this is more for those heart shaped leaves that just, you know, really do a wonderful job of making a ground cover and filling in an area. Now a lot of these that you're going to see are really native prairie plants, forbs. And so false indigo is one of those. And, you know, it gets rather tall, but it's one of those plants that you can just, you've got a spot for it. You don't have to have a rather large spot for it, because you can see three to four foot tall, three to four foot wide. But it'll be as contentive as it can be and it doesn't spread. And the worst thing about, you know, some of these primials is they become the hitlers of the world. They want to take over that spot, that spot, that spot and just keep on going. False indigo, just happy, cool pea-like flower that then becomes a seed capsule that is used. A lot of times you'll see it used in dried arrangements. The leaves, the flower, you can see a little bit there. It was 2010 prairie plants of the year. You can see some of the clusters there. There's the seed capsules. And then in the fall, the dried ones. So now, bleeding hearts. So fringe bleeding heart is much better than any other, you know, your common bleeding heart. Because your common bleeding heart, if you get any kind of little fluctuation in your soil moisture, it'll just go dormant on you. And then you have, you know, your common bleeding heart so much bigger, so you have this big gap. Middle summer. What was there? You know, oh, that's my common bleeding heart. You don't have to worry about that with the fringe bleeding heart. And so much more petite, smaller. And it doesn't go dormant when you have any kind of a little drought come. And so there's also the western bleeding heart. I don't know anyone who can really tell them apart unless some botanist really wants to. But the western bleeding heart, you'll see a little bit different colors. Now, here, the Siberian iris. This is one of those things that is, you know, they don't flower a long time. But then when they're done, they're very easy to clean up and you don't have to do anything. I got this clump in this area that gets a little bit more moist. And so I've gone through a number of other perennials. Boom, this one's just happy there. If we get those rings and water collect, it doesn't die. And they've got the flowers, then you have these sword-like leaves. And so that's what I think it's really nice about. But then you get all different kinds of colors and there's like a thousand different colors of that. And last for the spring flowers, so then would be South Dakota State Flower, the past flower. Comes up very early in the spring in flowers. Again, then as it's, when it's done, its seed capsule is kind of like your climatic. A little wispy. And hopefully, you know, maybe I don't have an example of that, but you can see how early, this gives you some color really, really early. And there's the seed capsule in the corner there. And so moving on, if there's one year old that I think has, now it would be the firmly feral because again, only that thing, it only comes in yellow. But unlike the other year old, there's no soil which creeps all over. This is very content. So, you know, it'll stay into this clump. It won't take over. There's been some on campus probably for 20 years staying clump. And I'll make it a little bit bigger, but it isn't trying to go all over the place. See deer and rabbit resistant. They're really good. So let it yellow. Pretty yellow though, bright yellow. Ladies mantel. Another one that, you know, I think ladies mantel is more for the leaves. You get these fuzzy leaves that you can see on this picture while they're holding on those little beads of water because of all the little hairs on the leaf. I don't think so much of the flower cluster, but the flowers actually are long-lived. And I've seen them used. They'll put them into little vases and they'll last for a long time. And so there you see that close-up of the leaf. That's really, I think, what is great about this plant. I have had it go and actually seed occasionally, but usually you don't have it self-seeding. Prairie grasses, of course, prairie grasses are all going to be low maintenance in which basically you just let them grow in the springtime. They'll go and chop off down to, you know, give about four to six inches and remove the rest above and it'll go and sprout out. And so big blue stem is one of those. Another rather tall plant is goat's beard. And, you know, this one, well, this one's kind of marginal as far as, you know, you kind of have to work a little bit more with it if you want to go and keep it from getting some leaf margin burn. And so, but it has male and female flowers. You can see the one up on the above. That's male flowers. That's showier. They've got to strut their stuff better than the female flowers. Another grass. Now, this one, if you don't see this one on every block in the neighborhood, then they're not into grasses too much because feathery grass is probably the most common ornamental grass I've ever seen. Because, especially the Carl Forester, it's gorgeous. And it's so, it just has, it's self-care free, easy to take care of, and has an attractive flower or seed head to it. There's the Carl Forester. Flower's a little bit two weeks earlier. It's a little bit shorter. So, it works into a lot more of your landscape. And it has then, as it ripens, you get that nice yellowish gold color. There are some variegated ones that probably, they aren't near as hard. But if you continue to get variegation into a species, you give that something. And a lot of times, it's winter hard enough. So, with a lot of these, if you see variegated, think about it's not going to be as hardy. Of course, there's another native forb, prairie forb, butterfly weed, in which it's a milk weed and has those orange flowers. We're getting a little bit more of the breeding to get some other colors. But, you know, as far as the monarch butterfly loves the milk weed and so, one of those. And very slow growing, never have to worry about it. Doesn't transplant those. So, don't try to transplant it after you've gotten it established. It just doesn't do well. You know, I'm going to skip over. I love to say some of the suffuga, but blacks may correct. Because it really does require a lot of, it's best in moist soil. And if you don't have moist soil and don't do a lot of mulching to keep it moist, you're going to see a lot of leaf marchin burn. It's not going to look so attractive. But, otherwise, you wouldn't have to do much with it. Now, they have a lot of these purples that are really attractive. So, of course, another prairie, forb, echinacea, purple cone flower, probably is seen in everyone's ornamental planting. But, you know, recently they've come out with a lot of these double flowers and like that. They're white. The pink is, you know, your typical one. You get something like that, rasmutaz. But, they've also come out with other colors. Now, a lot of these aren't as hard to either. So, you have to be careful with that. Another grass, a blue fescue. Now, I cut off the seed heads because you just like those little, narrow, bluish-green, whitish-blue leaves that you see there. Hostas, of course. You know, you got a good spot for, you got shade. Hostas are great. They come with all kinds of variegated colors. So, not that you need this flower that you see here. The plantagenae is supposed to be the fragrant one with the flowers. But, they don't have as much color, variegation in colors as some of these other ones. You get the wavy leaf, hostas, and like that, the blue ones. You know, they've got that giant one that's supposed to have size. It doesn't have leaves like, you know, something else. Of course, peonies, hybrid peonies. Very traditional. Been around for a long time. I don't think I need to go. And I think everyone knows, well, they're pretty darn hard to even kill. I mean, if you're trying to kill them. My mom's neighbor, every summer, after they were done flowering, she'd mow them down. And just weekly mow them down. And 30-some years later, they were still there. They weren't flourishing, but they were still there. So, pretty amazing. You know, the doubles aren't as clean as the singles. The singles, you don't have to worry about doing anything with. Then you have the doubles for the flowers. And then you get a rain. That's when it gets a little ugly. So, if you really want low maintenance, go with the singles. I think they're gorgeous. That huge cup, you know. But everyone's like, oh, we can get all the extra petals with the doubles. Selvia, please. The last few years, Selvia, perennial. Selvia has just been amazing. You're driving along, and you see this purple just jump out at you. And sure enough, it's perennial Selvia. I don't know what happened these last two summers, but it's just been gorgeous. The most robust purple. And again, very easy to take care of low maintenance type of plants. I really like Selvia, perennial Selvia. Not a lot of different colors, though. Okay, just three more, I think. Blazing Star, unique. Again, it's a parade for it. But most of your flowers will go and they'll send up this flower stock. And from the bottom, they'll keep elongating. And so your most mature flower is at the bottom. And your least mature one is at the top. Liatras, they're gave the other Blazing Star just the opposite. It starts from the top down. And so that and legularity, I think, are the only two that do this that I can remember. But there's a lot of different species, but I see these used. The flower lasts a really long time. I see them even used for cut flowers and some of the different colors. But usually, you'll see that in the purple. And there's a whole bunch of different fords and species that have just difference in their flowering characteristics. Sedum, or Shoei Sedum. Again, this is one of those things that if you can't grow a Sedum, don't try anything. And now you can get some of those that like the purple one that tends to get over too bushy and then it kind of flattens out. But a lot of these, if you divide every three to five years, you shouldn't have any problem with them starting to lose their mound and split open. But, I mean, if the dog runs through and knocks off a few stems, stick them in the ground, they'll run, and you'll have more plants. They're just so easy to take care of. The only bad thing is they flower really late, and so you get that freeze and cut up three days of nice color, and then that was it. So that's the worst part about Shoei Sedum. So, and they have some variegated ones, but, you know, all the ones with the variegated leaves have such a pale, ugly flower that it's like, oh, jeez, you know. So, but I really like the, well, Indian chief, I like it because it's a deeper red. I don't like the blue-screened leaves and then something like starburst white. It's just I don't see the kind of contrast with that. Some of these other ones. So, not too bad. Not too bad. Where did you train? Okay, let's get it going though. Okay, first of all, a question. Do you have a recommendation for a crinial that would do well in a moist area? Well, no, low-spotty. Low-spotty? How about a low-spotty? You can go raspberries on it, so wet. Well, you know, I do think there would be a number of irises that do really, really well. And so you can get into your Japanese irises. You yellow irises, they actually plant them right along the margin or in the water. So irises, I think, would be not your bearded irises. You know, I wouldn't go with a bearded iris. How about, do you have a professional opinion about Lillie of the Valley? As I did in my Colorado moist area. Be careful. It will take over the world. I started with a cloth like this. Now it's bigger than that table and I keep digging it up and I think that I'm just spreading it more. And so... Well, I didn't know that was a bad thing. I don't see something spread here in North Dakota. How about a... When's the best time to divide a P&E? Spring or fall? Or do you have some general recommendations? We get this question a lot about when should you divide a perennial? I like to go and do it in the springtime because then you're not taxing... Okay, get it established and then it goes into winter. I wait and do it in the spring so I know... I don't have to worry about it trying to survive the winter. And that, you know, did I do it early enough? So, I like to do it in the springtime. I know what I'm working with. And, you know, like my hostas. They start to have their little combs poking up. Good time to go and divide it. And then I don't have to... You know, when you do it in the fall, you got leaves and then you're damaging leaves. You're damaging a lot of roots. You got transpiration. And so you're losing moisture and you may not have enough of a root system there. And so you're really stressing it. And then it goes into winter. You do it in the springtime, you avoid those kinds of things. Okay, thank you. How about as a general rule, never divide a perennial when it's blooming? What can you do with thinking about that? Well, why would you want to divide it? Because I don't know anyone who could go and divide something and not make a mess of things. At least I, you know, I try to divide something when it's flowering. I break off this stock, that stock. And so enjoy the flowers while you can. Okay. How about what's the best way to tell the difference between salvia and lavender? Well, lavender is not going to, isn't going to last very long. Because the snow, yeah, different. And salvia, just like that crinkly leaf that I don't see necessarily. What's the difference between salvia and veronica? Oh, veronica. Okay. The question was, what is the difference between salvia and veronica? Now, those might look a little bit more similar. But veronica stays, a lot of them stay smaller and send up a single spike. And so salvia, again, veronica doesn't have that kind of crinkly whole leaf on it. And what veronica, yeah, spicata, it stays small. And then you have some other veronicas like blue, blue, something. And those are hybrids. And so they'll get a little bit taller. But they have different flowers. They have more of a cone type flower. And your salvia is more of a spike. Okay. Thank you. And we're going to have to cut the questions now. I know there's some more questions to be asked. But we do, we want to stay on schedule as best as we can. And we will do our best to address these extra questions during our overtime session at 8, or approximately 8.30 tonight. So let's thank Arlene for the perennial presentation. Thank you, Arlene.