By choosing long-blooming perennial plants, you can capitalize on the best of both worlds – plants that come back from growing season to growing season, and those that bloom for an extended length of time. This also means you’ll have more time to appreciate the gardens you create!
Here is just a sampling of long-blooming perennial plants perfect for the sunny summer garden:
- Monarda (Bee Balm) is a great addition to a pollinator garden. Beside attracting pollinators, the seed heads will attract birds in the fall and winter. Flowers have an open, daisy-like shape, with tubular petals in shades of red, pink, purple, and white. If you like the idea of a native flower and a touch of old-fashioned beauty to your flower garden, think about Monarda.
- Coreopsis (Tickseed) is one of the easiest and most rewarding garden flowers. The thread leaf varieties are usually the longest blooming, typically from June through fall. The pale yellow, bright yellow or rosy-pink daisy flowers smother the slender stems and thread-like leaves. Plant height, from 15-24″, is variety dependent. A mid-summer shearing of the seed heads will keep these plants blooming for many more weeks.
- Echinacea (Coneflower) are popular perennials with good reason. These fast growers reach 2 to 4 feet in height, flower from midsummer through fall frost, and self-sow prolifically. Coneflowers have raised cone-like centers (hence, their name, which attract butterflies and bees. After bloom, the seed heads attract songbirds, such as goldfinches.
- Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan) is an old-fashioned garden favorite. It is hardy, reliable, insect and disease-free and an exceptionally long-blooming plant – typically from July through fall. This medium-green, bold-foliaged plant grows to about 3′ tall and bears golden yellow, daisy-like flowers with dark brown centers. Both Echinacea and Rudbeckia flowers make excellent cut flowers and a wonderful place for butterflies to sit and eat.
- Gaillardia (Blanket Flower) is an American native plant which thrives in the hot sun and has beautiful yellow-orange flowers, marked with red. Height varies according to variety. Some favorites include ” “Goblin,” a 12-15” grower, and one we usually have in stock.
- Penstemon (Beardtongue) is extremely resilient when matched to a good spot in the garden, and are excellent naturalizing plants when encouraged to re-seed themselves. Beloved by pollinators, these tough perennials produce dozens of tubular flowers arranged on a tall stalk, which are perfectly shaped to accommodate hummingbirds, who spend their time at the Penstemon snack bar.
- Veronica (Speedwell) has neat, attractive foliage and abundant flowers in densely packed spikes. Look for the cultivars ‘Goodness Grows’ and taller ‘Sunny Border Blue’ for a beautiful addition of blue to your summer garden, and pair it with red or white favorites for a patriotic theme.
Remember, this is just a brief glimpse of the long-blooming perennials available to choose from. Stop by to see our wide selection of perennials so we can help you determine which plants are best suited to your garden.