Iris in the spring, daylilies & lilies in the summer, mums & asters in the fall. All the rest of my perennials are backdrops or accents. I like perennials that bloom strongly and have a nice variation of leaf color & pattern when not in bloom.
Germanic Bearded Iris do well for me: Dwarf, Intermediates, Border Bearded, Tall Bearded, Minature Tall Bearded etc. Siberians do well too, but judegement is still out on the Louisiana & Japanese.
Daylilies? Easy to grow--just pop them in the ground. I prefer spiders and big UFOs (unusual forms). I have to toss out some of the evergreens that have a difficulty adapting to our Iowa weather.
I prefer to plant my lily bulbs in the Fall. The Lily stalks have time to root properly and are stronger by the time the summer droughts come than spring planted bulbs. My biggest problem is rampant bunnies who love to eat the shoots faster than they can grow. Asiatics do the best for me and Orientals are the most delicate. Orienpets, LAs, LOs and trumpets do well. I'm now branching out to species lilies like martagons. We'll see how they do in my clay.
