(gentle music) - I'm Eric with Landscaped Garden Centers, and today I'm gonna talk about some of my favorite flowering perennials.

(gentle music) - [Eric] The first one we're gonna talk about is a Hardy Hibiscus, it's an amazing plant, and it looks very, very similar to the Tropical Hibiscus.

The unique traits of this one is the flowers are much, much bigger.

The flowers will actually be, in some cases, the size of dinner plates, and they are absolutely beautiful plants to use around your landscape.

The amount of sunlight is critical for these.

These can do partial shade, but do not expect as many blooms.

So full sun, morning sun basically, would be the best for this plant.

It wants to have moist soil.

You'll notice on these is that they'll have great, awesome buds that are showing up.

And these are going to be one of those plants that the more fertilizer, the more buds, and the more flowers, and the more impressive foliage.

Some things to consider is these can be from anywhere from two to four foot tall.

If you want to kind of control them as they're growing, before they start putting their buds on, you can kind of nip them back and keep them closer together.

What that will give you, as long as you are also providing extra fertilizer, is more buds and blossoms.

These are gonna be blossoming this time into probably the end of August.

And then their blooms will just fall apart, and then they will be putting their energy back into the root system.

Once we get a good, hard freeze, you'll notice that the foliage will just kind of, it'll just shrink down to nothing, and you'll be left with some of these sticks and these stocks.

Just leave those up in the winter time.

And I think the best time to trim these all the way back is probably more in the early spring.

They like to sleep a little bit longer into the spring than your typical plants.

So you may not see them starting to wake up as early as the other plants in the- that they're next to, so don't worry.

But once they start to show, they really show they like warmth.

They need that soil warm, but they do need to have some good, well-drained soil like we've discussed on other segments.

Again, put some mulch around the base of the plant to help keep the roots moist, and we keep 'em cooler.

But then you should have a very successful Hardy Hibiscus.

(upbeat music) Now, the next one we're gonna talk about is the Phlox.

So there's quite a few different varieties of the Phlox.

The one down here, this is a- they call it a Creeping Phlox, and it's almost prickly like an evergreen.

And sometime they call it Moss Phlox.

But these are really impressive to use around rock beds and boulder walls, 'cause they'll just kind of create a carpet.

And the unique thing about that is they come in different colors, purples, pinks, and whites.

The awesome thing about this, these are gonna be blooming in the spring, but they will remain almost like a Hardy Evergreen, throughout the winter time, and into the next spring.

So they're kind of- they'll hold their place, they'll hold their shape, and they don't really curl back like a typical perennial would be.

(gentle music) There's another Phlox that is blooming right now.

And that's the Tall Phlox or the Garden Phlox.

This Phlox right now is extremely fragrant.

And it is doing very, very well.

These will get also for that, two to three feet tall.

They bloom later, but these plants, these taller Garden Phlox, you'll actually see these wild.

Maybe along- when you're driving along a highway, that's right along a grove of trees.

And these like to have, again, East exposure.

And then they are allowed to cool off in the afternoon.

They come in with lots of different colors, very fragrant.

It's one of those plants definitely to use in your landscape at this time of the year, because most plants and perennials right now are blooming and their flowers are spent.

So this just kind of makes for a better use of plants.

And if you're looking for something that's gonna be blooming, of course the Hibiscus.

But then this Garden Phlox, or this Tall Phlox, is a great one.

(gentle music) I'm Eric with Landscape Garden Centers, and keep it growing.

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