Make spring garden exciting with perennials

Although the tulips and daffodils featured in last week's column are extraordinarily beautiful, they are not enough to create perfect, long-lasting spring flowerbeds.

Spring bulbs offer stunning but fleeting beauty and are highly subject to the whims of nature, including spring rains, high temperatures and wind.

Most emerge with rather nondescript rosettes of foliage that finally sends up a flower stalk that is, in most cases, topped with a single glorious bloom.

If it is hot, rainy, snowy or windy, the flowers might last a day or two. Even under the best conditions, an individual bulb flower might look great for a week, acceptable for two weeks and horrible after three. Face the fact that bulbs look bad for much longer than they look good.

After the bulb petals drop, the long, gangling flower stalks rise like gargoyles in your garden. Showy spring gardens need plants that bloom and look good for a much longer period.

Although these other flowers might not be the stars, they certainly get the awards in the best-supporting roles. They provide the underlying beauty for the prima donna bulbs. Included in this group are a wide array of winter annuals, biennials and spring blooming perennials. Plant these in the fall, and you will be amply rewarded with their beauty next spring.

At the top of the list are the pansies. These are stellar performers because they survive our winters to cover the soil next spring. These flowers provide much of the "flesh" or understory flowers that cover the garden soil and provide a backdrop for the bulbs. Next week's column will focus on these essential spring plants.

Some of the best flowers for spring are the perennials. My top three that cover the soil with evergreen foliage include Arabis, Aubrietia and creeping phlox.

All of these are dependable spring bloomers. Arabis — or rock cress — produces an abundance of white blossoms on dark green groundcover foliage. Aubrietia — or purple rock cress — is a similar low-growing spring plant. The bright pink, purple or rose flowers are among the showiest in the spring garden.

The creeping varieties of phlox also fill out this group. All of these are very winter hardy and work well in rock gardens, mixed beds and naturalized areas. Add basket-of-gold if you prefer bright yellow colors in the mix.