Perennials in Garden Containers Keep Things Fresh and Exciting!

Gardeners often plant annuals in containers for patios and other outdoor living spaces. Container gardening is such an integral part of garden design for it adds dimension to the outdoor living experience.

Annuals are relatively easy to manage and oversee. The selection is vast and offers an abundance of glorious colors, textures and fragrances.

To keep things fresh and exciting, you may consider planting some perennials in containers on your patio. Here the Hemerocallis (Daylily) adds a natural element with its stunning, fragrant flowers and long, linear, arched leaves. Perennials offer different options that complement the annuals and can also often be drought tolerant and require low maintenance.  

And there is more added benefit—at the end of the season, you can plant your perennials in your beds eliminating the need to over-winter your container plants. And now, you’ve added a perennial to your garden that will return annually and grace your garden for many more seasons.

Adding, switching up and changing, keeps your garden looking beautiful!

Visit Hundreds of America’s Private and Public Gardens in the Hudson Valley

The Garden Conservancy's Open Days program announces an exciting new lineup of garden tours from coast to coast for its 2016 season. Many of these gardens are right here in the Hudson Valley, as well as throughout the neighboring states of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Garden Conservancy shares outstanding American gardens to teach and inspire the public. The Open Days program is America’s only national private garden-visiting program. Each season hundreds of newly nominated gardens are added to the Open Days portfolio, bringing the total number in the program’s history close to 4000.

Here is just a small sampling of upcoming garden tours:

Rockland Farm comprises a variety of areas that flow one from another over about ten acres of property with a sequence of garden rooms behind the house. Garden Tour: Sunday, July 17, 10:00am - 4:00pm, Canaan, NY

Recognized as one of the “World’s Ten Best Gardens, Innisfree is a powerful icon of twentieth-century landscape design. Garden Tour: Saturday, July 30, 2016, 10:00am - 5:00pm, Millbrook, NY

A Tea Garden in Tivoli—A Japanese-inspired tea garden that won Gardenista's 2015 Best Garden Design Award. Garden Tour: Saturday, August 6, 2016, 10:00am - 4:00pm, Tivoli, NY

Steepletop, Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's Garden, provided her with space to create gardens that satisfied her earth-ecstatic nature and gave her endless inspiration for some of her most beloved work. Garden Tour: Saturday, August 20, 2016, 10:00am - 4:30pm, Austerlitz, NY

Admission to each private garden is $7; children 12 and under free. Proceeds support the Open Days program and a variety a partnering non-profits nationwide. Open Days are rain or shine and are self-guided, no reservations are required for self-tours.

Call 1.888.842.2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for Open Day garden details, maps, directions and ticket information.

For a listing of all gardens by location and date, click here

The 2016 Open Days Directory features hundreds of private gardens, along with public gardens and arboretums across the country. The limited edition volume is the only national guide of its kind and is an in-demand resource for thousands of garden and arboretum visitors across the country. The directory includes a free admission ticket that never expires. Order your copy today!