No garden should be without herbaceous perennials - flowering plants that return year after year.
Perennials offer many advantages.
You don't have to set them out each year, you can choose varieties that will give blooms year-round, and your extras can be shared with friends. They do, however, come with some disadvantages. Perennials need to be pruned, fed and divided as needed. But before ever heading to your local garden center to buy perennials, get your soil good and ready, says Khaki Whelahan, a Virginia Beach master gardener who specializes in perennials in her Great Neck gardens. After 10 years of gardening in soil that ranges from sand to loam to clay, Khaki has learned it's advantageous to move perennials around until they find a happy home.