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.

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 into wreaths and garlands and triple the flowers in size, adding more layers of glistening white petals as you do so and you get the idea.

These perennial daisies, attaining a height of about three feet or so, have dark green, shiny leaves and the plants are quite dense in structure. Flowers can be single or double and, in some cases, whorled. They are dazzling white with bright yellow centres and flourish in rich, well-drained soil, in light or dappled shade.

Not quite as drought-tolerant as the Mexican hat flower, they are not particularly thirsty plants and can be had in bloom from late spring through to late autumn, from seed sown the previous June to October. Established plants can be divided up every two to three years, and they can also be multiplied by stem cuttings taken from the new growth on established plants, during early spring. Chinese-packed seeds of this lovely flower can also be found in the market from time to time.

Stachys byzantina or lamb’s ears: Yet another beautiful perennial plant that every garden should have. Native to Armenia, Iran and Turkey, and easily grown from seed, this is a very attractive plant both in and out of bloom. It has the most fascinating, visibly velvety leaves, which are a silvery sage green and one simply cannot resist reaching out to stroke them.

Ladybirds/ladybugs find them irresistible too and can often be found curled up in their gentle softness, to sleep the night away. Carpet forming and, at around four inches tall, these plants send up tall spires, between 12-18 inches high on average, studded with soft pink flowers which bees adore.

Seed, again usually Chinese-packed, can be sown June to October, with resultant seedlings ready to plant out from early winter onwards. They are multiplied by root division, whenever plants appear to be getting overcrowded. Fairly drought-tolerant and at home in sun or partial shade.

We will look at more perennial flowering plants in future columns. Perhaps you can try growing some and a friend could propagate different ones with the intention of swapping the resultant plants so that, eventually, they get spread around.

I generally push indigenous species over imported ones, but we have so few native perennial flowers that are suitable for garden cultivation that I feel justified in making a few exceptions. 

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 19th, 2022