Perennial plants: The perfect plants for commercial landscaping

The ideal plant is something that is high performance and low maintenance, looks great over many seasons, and is colorful and full. Perennial plants are great for all of these reasons, and the best thing about them is that you plant them once and they bloom year after year. 

Especially when you’re working with commercial landscaping clients, you want plants that can last. Perennial plants need much less watering and care than annual flowers, and are more self-sufficient, which means your clients will be happy with how they look all year round. 

Worry-free plants

Perennial plants are great because as they mature, they get more and more self-sufficient. They can handle a lot of different elements, and require a lot less upkeep. When you’re working with commercial clients, they want the most bang for their buck. If you sell your clients plants that need a lot of expensive maintenance, chances are your customers will start to question the cost of your services.

Many perennials only require a spring check-up for cutting and pruning, and another visit in the fall to prep them for the colder months. 

Also, many commercial properties such as hospitals, college campuses, public areas, and large office properties are seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people each day. Perennial plants look great longer, and can last throughout hot summers and into the fall. This means that people can enjoy them longer and even when they’re not in season, they don’t completely die off like annuals do. For private clients with small or large properties, perennials are still the way to go as clients love how easy they are to care for. 

Add some color with perennial plants

You don’t have to stick with trees and shrubs! Perennials come in tons of gorgeous colours and can really make a property pop. 

Here are some colorful perennial plants to add some color to your landscaping jobs:

Peony: Peonies are known for their colorful, fragrant flowers. You can plant them in the spring or fall, and they produce massive flowers on top of lush green foliage. They require almost no care, and can live for over 100 years.

Daylilies: While daylilies require a bit of know-how upfront as you plant them, the pros know that these bright flowers will pay you back for years to come. They come in a variety of colors, and flower in both the spring and the fall.

Salvia: These colourful bloomers can take the cold and the heat, and often bloom in a deep blue that is eye catching and rare. 

Bearded Iris: These flowers grow easily, and have a unique crown-like flower that grow tall. You may often see them in a pure white with a pop of yellow, but they come in a variety of colours. When the flowers are not on display, the foliage remains standing all growing season adding lush to the garden. 

Hosta: These are perfect for spaces that don’t always get a lot of sun. Hostas are almost impossible to mess up, and they thrive in the shade. They come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors and you can plant many in one place and people won’t even notice they’re the same plant! They take up a nice amount of space, without being overwhelming. They’re great for the city and backyard alike.

Think big for big spaces

Perennials are great for big spaces, as they can often cover a large amount of space with repetition without looking fake or too unnaturally places. Shrubs, such as Barberry are colorful and dense, allowing for you to place a ton side by side or mixed in with other shrubs and foliage to give a pop of color. Astilbe comes in a wide range of colors, and thrives in shade like areas while producing fern-like flowers. The bushy leaves take up a ton of space, and the pop of color when they flower make them beautiful for big spaces.

Ornamental grass is another easy perennial plant that you can set and forget. Karl Foerster is easy to plant and long lasting, with nice lush grass that thrives well next to offices with partial shade. Fountain Grass is produces long, feathery flumes that move freely in the wind. It can grow up to five feet tall and is perfect to mix in with some colorful flower perennials. 

Zebra grass is another bold grass that is easy to plant and thrives anywhere. The tufts of leaf blades has bright yellow bands on them, and stand out while also filling in space

Shrubs and grass allow you to add to large spaces while providing plants that need practically no maintenance. When you’re working with a big space, likely coming to mow your commercial property, you want to ensure that your plants are grouped together in a way that makes it easy for your crew to care for the property. Perennial shrubs and grasses require almost no pruning, so they can live freely and your clients can enjoy a lush landscape.

Cost saving planting

Perennial plants offer not only cost savings to the client, but also to you as a landscaping business owner. You want to make sure that not only are your customers happy with the value they’re getting working with your company, but also that your commercial clients are ones your crew can care for efficiently.

The great thing about perennial plants is that they are easy to plant and thrive under a variety of elements, but they’re also cost-effective since they last year over year and get stronger as they come back each year. With some careful landscape design and planning, you can get a lush, colorful property that lasts every year and goes from spring into winter. 

By selling these services, you can win other commercial landscaping clients by showing them the value you can bring with your services. Take photos of your best properties each season, and show them year one to year five. Use this as a case study and empower your sales team with the images and sales pitch. Commercial clients want to know that what they spend on their landscaping will be a good investment, and with perennial plants, you can do just that.

Practise perennials

Perennials come in so many different kinds, and some do better in different spaces and environments than others. What works on a sidewalk might not work in a lush golf course, but trial and error will get your company expert status when it comes to making perennials work. Understanding which ones bloom when, and which provide color and lush foliage, will help you plan and design gorgeous long-lasting landscapes.

Once your company has a list of perennial plants that are your go-to, you can work on getting contracts with suppliers to make your overhead cost even cheaper. Invest in your team and make them perennial experts, because although perennials will last a lifetime, they do require knowledge in how to plant them to get them off to the right start.

Investing in perennials is an efficient way to make happy commercial and private customers, optimize your landscaping business, and enable your team to make choices that are the best for your customer base and company.