With perennials, there's such variety, it's almost hard to know where to begin. To me, this is a great advantage. It means I'll be adding new plants for years to come, without any danger of exhausting the vast selection in the nursery trade (not to mention rare varieties from specialty catalogues). For novice gardeners, it can also be a bit imposing. Annuals, just by their nature, take a lot less consideration. Most people are familiar with the basic bedding annuals. They're cheap, available everywhere, and it's a throw-away decision, because they're throw-away plants. Perennials take more consideration, if for no other reason than they can live for a long time in the garden. Choice perennials will cost a little more to buy (but will pay for themselves many times, in comparison with annual bedding flowers), and they usually take a couple of years to put on a great display. Above: I took a division of this bright orange Alstroemeria from my parents, who in turn scavenged it from the garden of my grandmother. If divided regularly, many perennials can live virtually forever. So how does one choose?  First of all, I'd say don't get too hung up on it. Nobody is going to sic the perennial police on you because you've planted something that turns out to be too big, or too small, or even too purple for the location. Every gardener makes mistakes. Sometimes, they're even good mistakes, and you end up with a plant combination that you wouldn't otherwise have planned. Sometimes you'll move one of your "mistakes" to a new location where it works out perfectly. Sometimes you'll rethink your whole plan for the area, and end up planting something entirely new. There's no other way to learn about plants than to grow them, and with the wide variety of perennials available, I'm going to be learning something about them for a long time to come. So take your pick. Try something showy (but sometimes quite floppy) like delphiniums. Or put in a variety or two of hardy geraniums - no, not the annuals, the perennial kind. Try something you've never heard of before. I'd never heard of agastache before I saw it in a Heritage Perennials book, and now I wouldn't be without it in my garden. Mertensia Virginica (Virginia Bluebells) in the back shade garden in early April 2007. This whole garden comes up blue and white in the early spring. It's still early in the front garden, but here is Brunnera Macrophylla (left, with the little blue flowers), Pasque Flower in the front, a Helleborus Orientalis in the background I'll add more pictures of perennials in my garden and in gardens I visit in the coming season. In the meantime, one of the best resources around is the Heritage Perennials web site. They definitely lead the pack when it comes to perennials, and they're located right here in Abbotsford. For some other unusual perennials, I often look for Red Barn plants when I shop. I was able visit the nursery in Maple Ridge that puts out Red Barn plants a few years ago, but they've since become a wholesale only nursery. Their web site isn't as comprehensive as Heritage Perennials (it'd be hard to match), but it looks like they're working on it. For other sites of interest (and I only give them quick mention here, as I've written about them elsewhere on the site), check out Fraser's Thimble Farms, Free Spirit Nursery and Pacific Rim Native Plants Nursery. (left) Periwinkle in the "wild side" of my garden. This area gets very little attention aside from fighting the ivy. (right) More spring flowers. Here, Wood Anemone is beginning to take over a shady spot on the north side of the house. Like the Mertensia (pictured further up on the page) this Anemone will disappear completely after the blooming season, so I pair them off with other plants to take over their space when they die back.