A herbaceous perennial will live in the border for years, the leaves and stems dying down each winter and new shoots appearing each spring. It is a permanent resident - the basic ingredient of the herbaceous border, island bed and mixed border. A hobby plant is a genus with sufficient variety and complexity to warrant a specialist national society and one which calls for considerable skill in maintaining a representative collection in peak condition. A half hardy perennial is not fully hardy and needs to spend its winter in a frost-free place. Included here are the true bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes.
Some bulbs are permanent residents.
They can be left in the ground for years, producing flowers each season. Lifting is only required when over crowding threatens the quality of the display - examples are Crocus, Snowdrop and Narcissus. The remainder are regular visitors, growing in the garden for part of the year and resting indoors as dormant bulbs until planting time comes round again. Examples are Gladiolus, Tuberous Begonia and Tulip. Several border perennials form bulbs like storage organs below ground - Agapanthus and Kaffir Lily are examples.