Spring Clean Up in the Garden

One of the most exciting things in the Spring garden for me is to see which plants have sprouted from fallen seeds or sent out roots to start new plants. I love getting new plants without having to buy them. One way to do this is by dividing perennials. There are three main kinds of flowers, annuals, biennials, and perennials. An annual is a flower that completes its life span in one season. It sprouts, grows leafs, then flowers, which produces the seeds, and dies. These are the flowers we buy in the nursery each Spring to add instant color to the garden. They're great, but can be expensive because you have to replace them each year. A biennial takes two years to complete its full life span. A perennial comes back year after year and produces flowers and seeds each year. They usually die back to the ground in winter but not always and can live for many years. After about two to five years they are full size. They can spread and get larger, but they may begin to look unhealthy. They may have a dead circle in the center or their leafs and flowers are looking smaller than you remember from the year before. These are signs that it's past time to divide the plant. The best time to divide is in cool weather either early Spring or Fall. Some people prefer to divide in the fall because the plants energy is not being used to produce flowers but working more to strengthen the roots. I found a really great website with instructions on the process. If you're interested in dividing perennials I highly recommend visiting it. Click here to take a look.