Richard Poffenbaugh, In the Garden Published 5:58 a.m. ET Sept. 15, 2020

It would be helpful if plant breeders and growers would rate plants according to their maintenance level, such as low-medium-high. Any veteran gardener can quickly classify a plant according to a maintenance rating.

For example, my rating for the tall bearded iris is high, the peony low. But I must add the peony is an exception; not too many plants have a low rating.

The indoor plant like the African violet would be high maintenance. My mother grew them, and she spent hours caring for her plant collection.

The garden rose is another high maintenance plant. Gardeners spend many hours growing these special plants.

The peony is an unusual plant in that it has a short bloom period of only one week. I'm amazed some breeder hasn't come up with a peony that blooms for at least a month.

As I used to tell my biology classes, "The world is wide open for new ideas in the plant world." And this is certainly true in horticulture.

If you want a low maintenance plant for the landscape, the peony should be at the top of the list little or no maintenance. Deadhead the flowers and fall cleanup is all. It's a perfect plant for the lazy gardener.

A tall bearded iris displays exceptional colored flowers in late May. Some are rebloomers with another flower in the fall.(Photo: Richard Poffenbaugh Photo.)

Then we come to the tall bearded iris; a very high maintenance plant in the garden.

The tall iris stem with large colored flower on top puts on a strong color display. But the thick roots grow fast and require frequent attention to prevent crowding. Generally, this plant is a fast grower, which means extra labor. Most of this work is best done on your hands and knees, which is no easy task. There are few iris growers working beyond age 80-85.

My active iris growing was from age 45 to 60. The later years included growing reblooming iris. These plants had two bloom periods during the year spring in late May and a second bloom period in September into October.

I remember one year there was a very late iris bloom and also late watermelon ripe in the garden at the same time. Timing was not right for both of these plants, but it did happen.

Reblooming iris are gaining in popularity. I visited a grower and breeder of them named Earl Hall in 1995. He grew hundreds of them at his home at West Alexandria, Ohio (near Dayton). It was the only time I saw gravel used as mulch in his fields of iris plants. Normally you do not mulch iris, but he said the gravel had great drainage and helped control weeds.

One of Earl's colorful pink rebloomers he named Pink Attraction, and it had a beautiful pink color.

A favorite catalog with assorted plants for fall planting, this large catalog has 103 pages with a wide assortment of plants. Call 1-800-803-9624.

It includes all the typical bulbs for fall planting plus, rarely found in catalogs, rebloomer iris like Immortality and Pink Attraction; also organic fertilizers from Espoma in New Jersey.

Richard Poffenbaugh is a retired biology teacher and active home gardener since 1960. He is a member of the Mansfield Men's Garden Club and was editor of the club newsletter (The Greenhorn) for 21 years. He resides in Ontario with his wife, Barbara. Reach him at 419-529-2966.

Poffenbaugh, Richard(Photo: NJ file photo)

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In the Garden: Peony is the perfect plant for lazy gardeners - Mansfield News Journal