PSA: Stop calling every plant that flowers a 'perennial'

I was at a garden club meetup in Portland last Saturday and this lady kept calling her marigolds perennials. They're annuals, plain and simple lol. I see it all the time on social media too, people posting pics of their petunias and tagging them as perennials. It matters because if you plant an annual thinking it'll come back next year, you're gonna be real disappointed when it dies in winter. I know the difference because I killed $80 worth of zinnias my first year assuming they'd return. Has anyone else noticed this mix-up floating around?

3 comments

3 Comments

milesbailey1mo ago

Wait, is this a real thing people are doing? My buddy thought he hit the jackpot when his "perennial" tulips came back, only to realize they were just bulbs he forgot to dig up.

morgan_martinez1mo ago

Jumping in here because I actually think people get way too hung up on what counts as a "real" perennial. Like, okay so tulips are technically bulbs and they act a little different than a plant that just lives forever in the ground, but if they come back year after year without you doing anything special, isn't that basically the same thing? Your buddy's tulips still showed up again, right? He didn't have to replant them, they just did their thing. I know some people get all technical about "true perennials" versus "self-seeding" or "bulbous" stuff, but in my book if it comes back it's a win, no matter what fancy word you slap on it.

jamesroberts1mo ago

Aw man, I gotta push back on this one a little bit! Tulips are tricky because they need a cold winter to bloom again, and a lot of the hybrids people plant peter out after a year or two even if you leave the bulbs in the ground. So your buddy might get lucky for a season, but it's not the same as a true perennial like daylilies or hostas that'll keep spreading year after year with no fuss. I'm all for giving credit where it's due, but bulbs and perennials are different beasts when it comes to long-term reliability.