Start by defining your goals and gathering information. Monitoring and record-keeping are critical to develop an effective IPM program. Focus on monitoring key plants and key pests . Key plants are those perennials with the highest dollar value or those plants that are susceptible to serious and persistent problems every season. Key pests are those pests which are serious, persistent problems year after year.
Many key pests have rapid generation times and attack a wide range of herbaceous perennials.
The following chart is not an exhaustive listing of key pests or their potential hosts. For simplicity sake, frequently only the genus name is included because of the large numbers of perennial cultivars and species. For more detailed information, consult the references listed at the end of this handout. Key pests will also vary depending upon your production method. In greenhouse perennial production aphids , fungus gnats , greenhouse whiteflies , western flower thrips , two-spotted mites and slugs are of concern.