Have you been saving a picture from a magazine of a glorious garden as an example of how you would like your garden to look?

Probably that garden is full of blooms and rich in color and texture. “If only my garden could look like that,” you are thinking. But that garden may have had a professional designer and possibly full-time caretakers as well.

Translating those pictures into reality without the benefit of professionals may seem daunting, but with a little help from some well-chosen perennials, your garden can look more like those pictures.

Perennials are the answer to the gardener’s prayers for color, length of bloom and easy maintenance. Properly selected and placed, they can make the gardener look professional while saving both time and money. They are the workhorses of the garden. Unlike annuals that last only one season and must be purchased again, perennials need planting just once. And when they have matured, you can divide them to produce many more plants.

For most gardeners, the most time-consuming part of gardening can be the siting of a new plant. Where to put it? Will sun or shade work best? Is it thirsty or drought tolerant? The soil must not be too wet for digging, and it may need amending with organic material, such as mulch or compost.

When planting perennials, dig a hole wider than the plant but no deeper than the root ball. If the perennial has been in the pot awhile, it may be root bound. If so, tease the encircling roots loose. After planting, tamp down the soil so that there are no air holes. Water well.

Some of the easiest perennials to grow are also some of the best for Napa Valley’s Mediterranean climate. A combination of nepeta, hardy geraniums and erigeron would make a great display in a fairly short time.

Nepeta forms a gray-green mound perfect for adding form and structure to your garden. Its blue-purple flowering spikes resemble lavender spikes, but nepeta is much easier to maintain than lavender. Many varieties reseed, providing lots of new plants. ‘Walkers Low’ and ‘Six Hills Giant’ are two great nepetas for our area.

Hardy geraniums come in many colors and types of foliage. They form a lovely, soft mass in the garden and are especially good grown as a companion to roses. ‘Johnson’s Blue’ has been especially popular in the area. Look for it and the new ‘Rozanne,’ a dark blue-violet geranium which blooms from early spring to fall. Hardy geraniums are easy to care for and look wonderful in formal beds or mixed borders. Every garden should have some.

Erigeron is the perfect easy-care perennial for Mediterranean gardens. It is a favorite of many designers in the South of France. Erigeron, also known as Santa Barbara daisy, sends out tiny daisy-like flowers covering the entire plant for months and months. Some young reseeded plants are already blooming in my garden, and the blooms will continue until frost. The blossoms are white with some pink coloring and the familiar daisy-yellow center.

When planning your perennial garden, resist the urge to go to the nursery and start buying. Measure the square footage of your planting area, then calculate the number of plants needed to fill that space based on the plants’ full-grown size. A good reference book such as “Sunset’s Western Garden Book” will tell you how big plants tend to be when mature. Then prepare a shopping list with 30 percent low-growing plants, 40 percent medium-height plants and 30 percent tall plants. This scheme will guide you in making choices at the nursery. Cluster plants for the greatest impact. One of this and one of that will not create your dream garden.

On June 3, several Napa County Master Gardeners will open their own dream gardens to the public. On this self-guided tour of six Upper Valley gardens owned and maintained by Master Gardeners, you will see many inspiring examples of designing with perennials. Garden books and plants will be for sale, and Master Gardener docents will be staffing each garden to answer questions. Tickets are $20 prior to the event, $25 on the day of the tour. Buy tickets at cenapa.ucdavis.edu. Click on Master Gardener.

The Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden at Connolly Ranch is open on the first Thursday of each month through October, 9 a.m. to noon. Master Gardeners are on hand to answer gardening questions. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter at the Thompson Avenue gate.

Contact Master Gardeners at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 253-4221, or toll-free at 877-279-3065. E-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on their Web site www. master gardeners.org. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions?