Over the last 60 years I have planted a lot of perennials. Most have thrived. Others have died. Most have lived up to expectations. A few were big disappointments. That temps me to list my five favorite perennials.

I'll start with amsonia. I like the thread leaf species better than the wider leaf one. It is one of the few perennials that have fall color. Height goes above the knee but seldom reaches your waist. Somewhat willowy, it produces clusters of blue star-shaped flowers in the spring.

I have a 10 or 12-year-old clump in full sun that seems extremely happy. A similar clump planted in the shade was happy until the shade became so dense that you needed a flashlight to see it in broad daylight.

My last effort put amsonia between a low wall and a viburnum with reddish fall foliage. That will improve as soon as the viburnum realizes that it is taller than the amsonia.

Next is the low growing perennial geraniums. There are a huge number of cultivars that I like. Perhaps the best is 'Rozanne', a blue purple form that is quite vigorous.

In my garden I have 'Jolly Bee', which appears to be identical to 'Rozanne'. It's a blooming machine that weaves around other plants without overrunning them. Mine are in near full sun but light shade also works well.

Pulmonarias or lungworts rank high on my list. They generally have spotted leaves and blue flowers that fade pink with time. I wouldn't put them in full sun, but the eastern side is great as well as is light shade.

About ten years ago I planted three cultivars along the walk leading to my kitchen door. Today I have a nice well-behaved patch of lungworts. The patch is probably the great-great grand children of the originals and are a jumble of cross-pollinated plants, but I love them.

Number four has a long name. It's Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, or plumbago or leadwort, for short. Leadwort is a ground cover with glossy green leaves that turn bright red in the fall. It also produces one of the bluest flowers I have seen.

It's virtue (or fault) is that it is very slow to wake up in the spring. I have this great urge to plant about a mile of spring bulbs interspersed with leadwort.

I promised five and now the hard part has come. Quite honestly, the first four came about as fast as I could type. Number five is a difficult process of elimination.

The decision is to pick a blue form of the native grass, little bluestem. As I implied, the green forms are fine but the bluer ones are preferred to my thinking.

It is a willowy grass that might reach your waist. Mine are smaller. It has reddish brown fall color and an unusual seed-head that looks like the feet of a crow. It grows best in full sun away from the water hose and fertilizer bucket. Overly loved grasses tend to flop.

I am sure that I cannot find a perennial in the garden that can match my sixty plus years, but some are proving surprisingly long-lived, well behaved and beautiful. That recipe fits my gardening cookbook well.

Top photo is Amsonia hubrechtii lower photo is Pulmonaria longifolia.