Question
we live in long island, ny, i am looking to make a one time investment for perennials, so that i can enjoy colorful flowers/bushes/trees every year without having to buy and plant year after year. what would you suggest for both shaded and sunny areas. both in ground and potted.
could you also suggest perennial hedges/bushes/trees, that would still have some color in the winter.instead of dead looking ugly brown branches,until they bloom in spring/summer

Answer
Hi Darlene,
Thanx for your question.  Bear in mind that I'm my expertise does not lie in landscape design.  But, I can tell you some of the perennials I would choose.

For sun:

Start off in the spring with crocus, daffodil, tulip, grape hyacinth, hyacinth and other spring bulbs.  Move to peonies and irises in late spring.  Flowering bushes, lilac, mock orange, wigelia, azalea, rhododendron.  Also, with irises, you can plan your blooming periods by using dwarf irises in early spring, Siberians next, German iris next, Japanese and Dutch iris next and end with spuria iris in early summer.  You can use various lilies too such as tiger lilies, martagons, Asiatics, Stargazer and in late summer, Iris formosanum which blooms from August to early September, depending upon climate.  Resurrection lilies or suprise lilies, Naked Ladies are a hardy member of the amaryllis family that will reward you with beautiful pink lilies in August.

For summer color, hardy hibiscus, stella d'oro day lily, daylilies, coreopsis, hollyhock, purple coneflower, Russian sage, knock-out rose.  For summer shrubs, I like crape myrtle and Purple Vitex.  Rose of Sharon will bloom most of the summer too.

For fall, use asters and chrysanthemums.  Liveforever or sedum is good fall color too.

Sedums come in all shapes and sizes, some growing low to the ground and good for rock gardens, others giving some height.  Usually, you'll find small flowers of red, pink, white and yellow.

Iceplants are in the same genre of Sedums.  Good for rock gardens and great for sun.

For shade, I use a combination of things that last most of the summer starting off with crested iris, wood poppy, hardy geranium, astilbe and then moving through summer with hosta, lungwort, Jacob's ladder, boneset, creeping lysimachia, ligularia, rheum.  Columbine is great for partial shade to full shade as I have used Mckana's Giants started from seed under my oak tree and had brilliant results.  Lady's mantle is another pretty lime-green plant with insignificant flowers.  You're not going to get a lot of dazzling flowers with shade plants but you can really find some interesting foliage to make the shade garden look awesome.  I've gotten many compliments on the shade garden I have beneath my oak tree.

As for trees, I'm not sure what to tell you.  Do you want something that grows quickly.  Do you want something that shades, just strictly blooming trees?  A design expert would be best to help you plan on what kind of trees to plant.  You'll want to make sure you don't plant trees to the point that you can't have a full-sun garden.

Another type of shrub you might enjoy in Long Island are the hydrangeas, snowball bushes and flowering quince and forsythia are beautiful for spring.

Well, I know I've roamed all over the place.  That's kind of how my garden looks.  Like I said, I'm not a landscape design expert.  My expertise is mainly in starting, growing and propagating perennials.  There are some landscape design experts if you want to consult one of them too.  Go back to Home/Gardening and click on Landscaping.  That will direct you to a Landscaping expert.  I hope this helps.
Tom