Here are six more of my favorite garden perennials. These
plants have all passed
through the University of
Georgia evaluation program.

They’re essential plants for any garden. I chose them for
their vigorous growth, garden
center appeal and unusually good landscape performance over
a range of soils.

You may have to search for the cultivars, but they’re all
in the market in Georgia.

Chrysanthemum
coreanum ‘Ryan’s Daisy’

The first perennial in the Thomas garden was “Ryan’s
Daisy.” I’ve added many
mums since then. None compares to the original.

Ryan’s daisy was discovered by Ryan Gainey, a well-
versed garden designer with an
incredibly fine sense of color coordination. This specimen
has spellbinding pink flowers
laced with a pale yellow eye.

It has been used here in Georgia as the mid-planting
between Helianthus
angustifolius and deep purple, sun-lover coleus
cultivars, patched with Salvia
leucantha. The yellow, pink, crimson and purple
combination is stunning in September,
and it goes on into November in south Georgia.

Pink is a rare color in fall gardens, and by itself
this plant is a must. It forms
wonderful 2- to 3-foot-high mounds. And it’s solid color
by September.

Pinching in June helps produce a bushy plant. But it
doesn’t flop-out like other mums.
Water and fertilize it often to get fast growth.

Lantana camera ‘Miss
Huff’

You know you have the real Miss Huff when you see a
fast-growing, huge lantana, profuse
blooming with extreme tolerance to heat and drought — and
no black seeds. This cultivar
is sterile. It’s also deer-resistant.

Miss Huff regularly gets to be a 5-foot mound with
thousands of flowers in Georgia.
Once it starts blooming, it attracts butterflies like a
magnet.

The flowers are bright yellow with orange, usually two
or four per stem. It needs no
pinching, except to control growth.

It grows exclusively in full sun — the warmer, drier
and sandier the soil, the better.
It’s perennial through Zone 6 if you take three steps.

• Don’t cut the frost-killed stems back. Pile up
  leaves within the mound of branches once
  they’ve dried off.
• Don’t remove the leaves until May.
• Don’t expect new shoots until late May or early
  June.

It’s a slow starter. But once it comes up, stand
back.

Gaura lindheimerii (Swirling
Butterflies)

This is a relatively new plant to Georgia gardens. A
sun-loving perennial, it sends up
tall, thin branches with hundreds of pure-white
flowers.

This heat- and drought-tolerant plant gets 3 to 4 feet
in diameter within two years.
It’s a great plant for hot, sunny places.

It will rebloom all summer if you cut the old flower
stems less than halfway back.
Cutting the flower stems close to the main stem caused
most of my gauras to die from
disease. Once I stopped cutting so far back, my garden was
aglow with gauras.

A new cultivar on the market called Siskyiou Pink has
pink flowers that cascade rather
than stand tall. It looks fantastic in large containers
and as a highlight to a perennial
border.

Be sure to plant this wonderful genus in fall or within
the next few weeks. Gaura does
best when it has time to get its roots established.

Dianthus
gratianopolitanus ‘Bath’s Pink’

I’ve had
this plant in my garden since 1990, and I’ve yet to become
tired of it. Every spring it
sends up fresh blue-grey-green shoots, followed shortly by
scads of pink blossoms. It
survives our summer heat and looks spectacular in the
fall.

Bath’s Pink is a sandy-soil, high-drainage plant. Don’t
fertilize it heavily or water
it often. In summer, be sure to pull debris and cut off
any dead flowers or stems to
reduce chances of disease.

It’s so easy to propagate it’s almost embarrassing. You
can simply pull 4-inch tufts
away from the mother plant and bury half the length of the
stems in garden soil.

Kept moist and slightly covered by pine straw, the
tufts root quickly and take off. I
prefer to propagate them in early fall, or late spring,
several weeks after the blooms are
gone.

Physostegia
virginiana ‘Vivid’

“Obedient plant” flowers in mid- to late summer, with
white cultivars
flowering earlier than pink ones. Tubular flowers,
arranged in rows on the spike, remain
in place when pushed aside — hence the name.

It’s easy to grow in most of Georgia and prefers moist
soil. Plants grow 18 to 30
inches tall. Put them 15 to 18 inches apart in full sun.
In southern Georgia, they may
benefit from late-afternoon shade.

I just love the cultivar called “Vivid.” It has bright
pink flowers. It’s
shorter, less aggressive and flowers much more abundantly
than the others.

I must tell you, this plant is anything but obedient.
It grows more like a Sherman
tank. Physostegia is good for large areas you want to
cover with a tall, low-maintenance
plant.

One plant can fill in 3 square feet in one year. For a
spot of sunshine where nothing
else will grow, here’s a beautiful solution.

Hosta
sieboldiana ‘Patriot’

Hostas are the No. 1 perennial in the country. And they
should be. You can’t kill them,
they look great and they’re real easy to propagate.

Hundreds of cultivars cover a range of colors, shapes
and sizes. Leaves may be smooth,
ribbed, seersuckered, flat, wavy or twisted. Colors
include light green, dark green, gray
or bluish-green.

As a bonus, it has lily-like flowers on stalks above
the 1- to 3-foot foliage during
the summer. There is a hosta for everyone.

My pick? “Patriot” is the finest cultivar I’ve ever
grown. Clean, bright,
white borders on dark green leaves make a stunning garden
display. It’s worth looking for.

Hostas are great for shaded areas with moist, rich
soils. However, certain varieties
need some sun to get proper foliage color. Plant them 24
to 36 inches apart, depending on
the variety.

One word of warning — deer love this plant more than
life itself.