Perennial plants make green spaces more appealing and affordable

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20 Mar 2008
Unit: Praktijkonderzoek Plant en Omgeving

 Applied Plant Research, an institute of Wageningen UR, has published a ‘manual’ that enables managers of public areas to use perennial plants to create appealing and affordable greenery. The manual illustrates how perennials result in prettier and more varied green spaces and often lead to reductions in maintenance costs.
 
Although perennials are among the most popular plants for private gardens, they are often absent in green spaces. This can be seen as a missed opportunity because perennials are ideal for creating variation and colour in urban environments. Using a range of plant species enhances the positive value of public areas. Especially in residential zones, patches of green can be brightened up with perennials. 

In the Netherlands, perennial plants disappeared from parks when the specialised park departments were closed down by many local authorities. Local councils are now mainly responsible for coordinating green areas and often subcontract this work to external parties. To give perennials their true value and use them well demands considerable expertise. The necessary know-how is now spread among growers, designers, planning and maintenance companies and the local authorities. A revival of these perennial plants is visible wherever these parties decide to work together and exchange expertise.

Two reasons for councils not to use perennials are the high purchasing price and the cost of properly preparing the soil. Many perennial plants are very well-suited to low-maintenance management, however: The low costs offer economic benefits in the long run. Taking all the costs for plants over a period of ten years into account, a patch of perennials can be cheaper than an equivalent patch of grass or shrubbery.

Low-maintenance management is possible for perennial plants that are strong, healthy and suppress weeds. This is why it is important when choosing these plants that there is a match between the needs of the plants and the properties of the location. Due to the large variety of perennial plants, there are plants available for almost all public green environments. 

To stimulate the use of perennials in green spaces, PPO has made a poster in English that gives examples of their use in urban green areas: "Low-maintenance perennials for amenity plantings".

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Contact
Erik Toussaint
Head of Communication PPO
+31 6 5156 5949
erik.toussaint@wur.nl
 
Margareth Hop
scientific researcher
+31 6 3057 1743
margareth.hop@wur.nl
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