GARDENING: PUSHING THE PERENNIALS.

This week I have a challenge for you all, that I hope at least some of you will take up.

Instead of primarily relying on those enticingly labelled, nursery-bought, seasonal, potted plants for your spring garden, dilute them with a brand new range of homegrown, perennial flowering plants. With care, you can enjoy watching as they thrive and multiply year after year.

People spend an absolute fortune on buying hundreds of potted seasonal flowers, such as linaria, pansies/violas, petunias and other old favourites, to put on a stunning spring display. Once this is over, and it happens quite fast, aside from a few hardy shrubs, many gardens are left basically colourless and devoid of interest until next spring comes.

Ratibida columnifera

Even at the mere mention of perennial flowering plants, people tend to envisage a few pots of straggly carnations, some struggling geraniums, perhaps chrysanthemums and very little else. But there are many gorgeous perennial flowers which, given a chance, will not be averse to a life in our somewhat fickle climate.

Unlike seasonal plants, which must be replanted each spring, fill your garden with plants that can give joy year after year

Ratibida columnifera or Mexican hat flower: This sun-loving, drought-tolerant, clump-forming perennial is a stunning wildflower native to the American prairies. Its seed, along with many other interesting seed varieties, can sometimes be found in stores selling seeds imported from China. It is sown in the plains areas, just under the surface of good quality, well-draining, preferably organic, seed compost from June to the end of October.

With care and attention, along with protecting seedlings from monsoon rain when applicable, seedlings should be large enough to plant out by early winter and will begin to bloom the following spring, through summer, until late autumn. The flower stems reach a height of about 20-30 inches.

Arranged around a tall, dark brown, central cone, the downward-flowing flower petals will be either brilliant sunshine yellow or a bright rusty kind of red. They resemble sombreros, hence their common name of Mexican hat flower. They do well in large clay pots and manage to smother themselves in flowers when grown in partial shade. Very easy and quick to grow from seed, they quickly form substantial clumps, which can be divided every three years or so.

Argyranthemum frutescens or Marguerite daisy: Picture the wild daisies of the Murree Hills that children weave...