A perennial plant is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials.
Perennials, especially small flowering plants, grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, and then return in the spring from their root-stock, in addition to seeding themselves as an annual plant does. These are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigors of local climate, a plant that is a perennial in its native habitat, or in a milder garden, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings or from divisions.
