Gaffney Group Wildwood, NJ Real Estate

  • Home
  • Search for Homes
    • Featured Listings
  • Island Homes
    • Search All Cape May County Homes
    • Avalon Homes
    • Brigantine Homes
    • Cape May Homes
    • Diamond Beach Homes
    • Longport Homes
    • Margate Homes
    • North Wildwood Homes
    • Sea Isle City Homes
    • Seaville Homes
    • Stone Harbor Homes
    • Ventnor Homes
    • Wildwood Homes
    • Wildwood Crest Homes
    • West Wildwood Homes
  • Rental Search
  • Market Watch
    • Avalon Closed Home Sales
    • Brigantine Closed Home Sales
    • Cape May Closed Home Sales
    • North Cape May Sold Homes
    • West Cape May Closed Home Sales
    • Diamond Beach Closed Home Sales
    • Longport Closed Home Sales
    • Margate Closed Home Sales
    • Ocean City Closed Home Sales
    • Seaville Closed Home Sales
    • Sea Isle City Closed Home Sales
    • Stone Harbor Closed Home Sales
    • Ventnor Closed Home Sales
    • Wildwood Closed Homes Sales
    • Wildwood Crest Closed Home Sales
    • North Wildwood Closed Home Sales
    • West Wildwood Closed Home Sales
  • Resources
    • Biweekly Email
    • Wildwood Market Summary
    • Cape May Market Summary
    • South Jersey Shore Market Summary
    • What is My Home Worth?
    • Financing
    • Homebuyers Guide
      • Planning
      • Shopping
      • Offer to Buy
      • Money
      • Protection
      • Closing
    • Sellers Guide
      • Getting Ready
      • For Sale
      • Paperwork
      • Offers and Contracts
      • Showings
      • Walk-Throughs
  • The Gaffney Group
    • Testimonials
  • Contact

Perennial Flowers: A Little Care Says ‘Encore! Encore!’ Each Year

perennials

Don’t take your old garden friends — perennial flowers — for granted. A little routine love keeps these stunners growing for bloomin’ ever. ROI, anyone?

You don’t need a calendar if you grow perennial flowers, which return each year like clockwork. But home owners often take these Old Faithfuls for granted. We don’t divide, deadhead, or cut back like we should. Before we know it, our lush hydrangeas are barren, and our salvia has run amuck.

Luckily, perennial flowers are a forgiving bunch; and with a little love, will keep on blooming — a nice ROI. Here’s how to care for your perennials and protect your landscape year after year.

Chose varieties, location wisely

Growing perennial flowers is all about planting the right flower in the right spot. In other words: Know thy garden, and read thy plant label.

“I’ve had couples in here fighting about whether a spot is sunny or shady,” says Alison Caldwell, buyer for Hicks Nurseries on Long Island, N.Y. “You really must know your site — sunny, shady, clay soil, or sandy — and then pick the appropriate plant.”

Grow labels tells you everything a plant loves — partial shade or full sun, a lot of water or a little drought.

“Succulents favor droughts, so don’t plant them next to a sprinkler head,” Caldwell says. “And hostas don’t want to be in full sun — their leaves burn.”

Some hardy perennial flowers that grow from coast to coast, Florida to Maine, include:

  • Ornamental grasses
  • Hostas
  • Daylilies
  • Iris
  • Mums
  • Salvia
  • Yarrow

Most perennial flowers appreciate well-drained soil; so, if necessary, amend your compacted or clay soil with leavening organic matter like compost, peat moss, and manure. This will create tiny pockets that contain air, water, and nutrients — the building blocks of healthy plants.

Warning: Never try to break up clay soil with sand alone. Sand + clay + water = cement.

Mulch miracles

Mulching perennials gives them a fighting chance of surviving climate swings — frigid winters, blistering summers. After planting, mound up to 4 inches of mulch around the plant base. This insulation will keep soil temperature and moisture levels relatively constant, and protect plants from surprises — plants don’t like surprises — like record-warm winters and summer heat waves.

Divide and nurture in spring

Perennial flowers return each year bigger and better … until they don’t. Overcrowding could be the culprit, and dividing the plant is the answer.

You know it’s time to divide when blooms are fewer and smaller, and when the plant’s center is open or dead.

“When it comes to dividing, every plant is a little different,” says Lance Walheim, author of Roses for Dummies and an expert at Bayer Advanced Garden, which makes lawn and pest products.

You can break daylilies apart with your hand, but you’ll have to divide salvia’s hard root ball with a shovel or other sharp landscape tools.

Plant and fertilize divisions in bare spots around your yard. Or have a perennial swap with neighbors — your daylilies for their hostas.

If you decide not to divide, stake drooping stalks to protect against disease.

Deadhead in summer; cut back in fall

After blooms are spent, lop off their heads to direct energy to a second bloom, rather than a seed head. When the growing season is finished, and you’re cleaning up your garden for winter, cut off dead stalks and foliage. This will help plants get a good rest and return healthier and happier in spring.

By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon
Published: February 10, 2012

Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/articles/perennial-flowers/preview/#ixzz312dH9bgl
“Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.”

Quick Search

$
$

We Are Short Sale Specialists!

Looking to purchase a Short Sale or sell a home as a Short Sale? Contact us now! We are Atlantic County and Cape May County Short Sale Experts.
Jackie Bada-Gaffney SFR
Powered by NJ Interest Rates
Wondering What Your Home is Worth? Click to Request a FREE No Obligation Market Analysis!
Request a Free Market Analysis on Your Home's Value

Access All MLS Listings, Search for Your Dream Home and Save Your Results!

Property Search

Email Alerts

Login to Your Account

Sign-up For Our Shore Newsletter!

Connect with us!



Gaffney Group Wildwood NJ Real Estate Agents

Long & Foster Real Estate Wildwood NJ

The Gaffney Group

We began with a mission: to define the real estate business for what it is…the art of matching people and places. Everyone wants a real estate agent who will get the job done with as little hassle as possible, but most want something more, and that’s what we’re good at. Read more...

Jackie Bada-Gaffney Wildwood Realtor
Jacqueline Bada-Gaffney
O: (609) 729-8840
C: (609) 408-1627
Contact Jackie
Mike Gaffney Wildwood Realtor
Mike Gaffney
O: (609) 729-8840
C: (609) 408-1354
Contact Mike
Aaron Bada Wildwood Realtor
Aaron Bada
O: (609) 729-8840
C: (609) 338-7599
Contact Aaron

Copyright © 2023 Jackie Bada-Gaffney · Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc · Wildwood, NJ Real Estate

Jacqueline Bada-Gaffney | Licensed NJ Realtor® | jackiegaffney55@aol.com | Cell: 609-408-1627
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc | 100 W. 1st Avenue - North Wildwood, NJ 08260 | Office: 609-729-8840
All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.
Equal Housing Opportunity

website by marketme