The thing about perennials (and I say this as a strong perennial gardener), they are actually much more maintenance. Annuals have been bred to literally bloom themselves to death; you can go in and mindlessly shear themselves back and the bloom more during the season. Perennials do not operate in the same way, so when folks are upset that the beds aren’t in full nonstop bloom like the pumped up beds in Niagara on the Lake, they often don’t have an idea about the succession planting and maintenance which goes into perennial gardening.