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This herbaceous ornamentals chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook reviews the selection, bed design, planting, and maintenance of annuals, biennials, perennials, flowering bulbs, and wildflowers. It also discusses common insect and disease problems of herbaceous ornamentals.
It can be a challenge to manage a perennial garden to look tidy and maximize benefit to wildlife. To benefit native, solitary bees, we recommend trimming perennial stems in their first winter to a create a 12"-24" stubble. Bees occupy these cut stems as nesting space over the following year. Recommendations are based on participatory research conducted with Extension agents and Extension Master Gardener℠ volunteers in North Carolina.
Identification and management of Phytophthora in annuals and herbaceous perennials in greenhouses and in the landscape is discussed in this disease fact sheet.
