Members of the Butler Garden Club tend to the garden on North Main Street in Butler Township. Submitted photo

Perennials are a good beginner option for new gardeners, as they are able to regenerate themselves spring after spring, season after season.

The Butler Garden Club uses perennials in the gardens on North Main Street, which the club tends to plant with the help of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Intermediate League of Butler. Pat Montag, who is a member of both organizations, said the garden club follows recommendations by the Western PA Conservancy, but the perennials don’t need much attention to thrive in an outdoor garden.

A number of perennial flowers and annual flowers have been planted and are growing at the gardens on North Main Street in Butler Township. Submitted photo

“Any time you get a greenhouse plant and put it in the ground … you have to pay attention to is whether it likes sun or doesn't like sun,” Montag said. “That's the key, besides having good soil and drainage. The sun is a big factor in the plants you have.”

Then, gardeners’ focus should shift to keeping the weeds out, Montag said.

The perennials the Butler Garden Club tends to at the North Main Street gardens are echinacea, winterberry, red twig dogwood, two colors of false indigo, switchgrass and rudbeckia. The garden club also started working with some annual plants last year as well — zinnias and celosia — which need to be replanted each year, but also don’t need much attention.

Mickey Stewart, who is also a member of the Butler Garden Club and the Intermediate League of Butler, said the annuals are going to become a yearly undertaking by the club.

Denise Ejzak, a member of the Butler Garden Club, shovels mulch into the gardens off North Main Street in Butler Township. Submitted photo

“The annuals, they'll be ripped out at the end of the summer because they are planted every year,” Stewart said. “As long as you water them, that pretty much takes care of them. Perennials come back every year, and we make sure they're watered and weeded.”

The perennials are the opposite, according to Montag.

“When we put them up, we found that almost every perennial made it through the winter,” Montag said. “Nothing had died on us. Some of them were blooming.”

Whether a homeowner is looking to start a garden in their yard, or even a bigger project like a greenhouse, perennials are a good option. Montag said there are plenty of places in Butler County to get perennial flowers and annuals, and most of them include information on how to best care for them right on the tag.

“Read those little tickets inside those pots that you buy,” Montag said.