On June 19, co-owner Marsha Hunt, led the most wonderful garden tour at her home in Edina, MN. Each workshop attendee was led on a 1.5 hour tour of her extensive gardens where Marsha shared fool-proof gardening tips for growing hardy perennials, how and when to divide your plants, and to how to achieve color in the garden all-season long. She also shared surprisingly simple techniques for creating espaliered walls of climbing garden roses and walls of wisteria vines. As an added bonus, everyone got to take home a hardy perennial division to plant in their own garden. And now, Marsha is sharing those tips with everyone. Read below and check out a couple video clips from the Haute House Garden tour. Enjoy!

Haute House Studio Top 3 Foolproof Perennial Selections

These perennials (pictures below) are so hardy and carefree, they are almost guaranteed to grow in your garden year after year:

Hosta - there are literally hundreds of varieties but Patriot is one of our favorites. While hosta is one of the best choices for the shade garden, it thrives even more in part sun, and it also does well in nearly full sun if watered.
Stella D’Oro Day Lily - This compact beauty has profuse golden blooms in early summer. Perfect for garden borders and driveway borders, it seems unaffected by road salt.
Autumn Joy Stonecrop Sedum - A perfect choice for nearly all growing conditions - it loves full sun and doesn’t need much watering, but it does equally well in part shade and we have even had success in very shady locations. The lovely gray-green foliage gives way to pink and then to burgundy heads in the fall.

Growing Tip

The soil in our part of Edina and many other metro areas is heavy clay that even these hardy plants have trouble thriving in. To plant, buy a bag of topsoil, dig your hole at least twice as big as your root depth, fill with some topsoil, place your plant on top, and then cover with the remaining topsoil. It will give your roots room to grow.

Dividing Perennials

All of the above perennials can be divided every 2-3 years if desired to fill your garden. Treat them almost like a ground cover - they can be planted close enough together and divided frequently to fill in bare spaces to eliminate the need for annual mulching. Dividing these hardy plants is extremely simple - take a garden spade and in a minute or two, you have multiple plants to for your garden. Check out our video here.

Garden Tips & Tricks: Haute House Studio's Top Three Foolproof Perennial Selections