
perennials
Perennials come up year after year with flowers that bloom during a specific window of time. With a little planning, you can orchestrate a beautiful perennial garden to have plants blooming year-round. We offer perennials for sun or shade, natives, a wide variety of special interest plants (i.e. hostas) as well as a large selection of ground covers, grasses, vines, and large perennials. Chat with one of our experts and start planning your perennial-filled garden!
These perennials are 2022's showstoppers! Plant vibrant, mounding color on borders and pathways with Dianthus, bring interest to shady parts of your landscape with uniquely variegated, bright Hostas, or add colorful height to containers and borders with Little Bluestem! Click below for more information on all of the plants of the year from the National Plant of the Year website!
Perennial
plants of the year
PROVEN WINNERS PERENNIAL OF THE YEAR
Dianthus 'Paint the Town Magenta'
This new type of Dianthus produces single, vibrant magenta pink flowers atop a low mound of glaucous blue foliage. Use it to edge sunny borders and pathways! These beauties are prized for their bright colors and increased heat tolerance. This translates to better performance nearly nationwide, even in the heat-loving states!
Little bluestem-
Schizachyrium scoparium
PERENNIAL PLANT ASSOCIATION
PLANT OF THE YEAR
Little bluestem is an ornamental bunchgrass with fine foliage that forms very dense mounds 18-24 inches tall. This mid-prairie species gets its name from the bluish color of the stem bases in the spring, but most striking is the plant's reddish-tan color in fall, persisting through winter snows. Color remains nearly all winter. Bluestem clumps grow to be up to a foot in diameter.

PROVEN WINNERS
HostA
of the year
Shadowland 'Diamond Lake' has been named the hosta of the year by Proven Winners! Use this large blue hosta to add color to your shade garden and even to attract hummingbirds! Attractive, heart-shaped, thick and heavily corrugated blue leaves have wavy margins, with pale lavender flowers blooming in early summer!
Why we choose
native plants
Plants should coexist, not compete.
conservation
developed landscape
reduce chemical fertilization
manage storm water
promote
wildlife
Planting natives allows developed landscapes to coexist, rather than compete, with nature. More and more Missourians are choosing to grow native to reduce maintenance, reduce chemical fertilization, manage storm water, and promote plant and wildlife conservation. By incorporating native, you are helping insects, birds, and other animals that depend on native plants to survive. To learn more about native plants, visit some of the links below or click one of our current plant lists for more information.
Garden Heights Nursery is proud to be a Grow Native! retailer. Grow Native! helps protect and restore biodiversity by increasing conservation awareness of native plants and their use in urban, suburban, and rural developed landscapes. For more information about native plants or educational programs, check out the links below.
A NATIVE LANDSCAPING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FROM THE MISSOURI PRAIRIE FOUNDATION
Grow
native!

Monarch Cafe and Pollinator Buffet are a series of specialty plant tags to help market the ecological services of natives that are especially important to monarch butterflies and many insect pollinators. Check out these lists of the featured species and associated pollinators native to the lower midwest.
For more help planning your pollinator garden, download the Pollinator Plant Menu below and keep your garden buzzing through Spring, Summer, and Fall!
WITH MONARCH CAFE + POLLINATOR BUFFET
promoting
pollinators


pollinator
pantry
A PROGRAM OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY PARKS
The Pollinator Pantry program is an education outreach program of the St. Louis County Parks that promotes creating pollinator friendly landscaping in the St. Louis County region. Follow the links below to learn about pollinator plants suitable for the St. Louis Landscape and landscape habitat requirements for promoting pollinators.
Perennials fight erosion! Due to their extensive root system they prevent soil erosion and out-compete weeds, making them an investment that will ensure a stable landscape for years to come.
fun
fact
Perennial gardening links
The St. Louis Audubon Society is an urban habitat restoration program with resources on how to preserve and bring wildlife conservation to your own backyard.

We're lucky to have the Missouri Botanical Garden right here at home. As a huge research institution, MOBOT is a great resource for plants and gardening. For a detailed list of all native trees and plant information visit their website, or better yet, visit the garden!

Grow Native! helps protect and restore biodiversity by increasing conservation awareness of native plants and their use in urban, suburban, and rural developed landscapes.