It you’re like most gardeners, you probably get excited when spring comes and buy everything blooming you can get your hands on.  There is such an abundance of colors, it’s hard not to go wild and blow your budget in just a few weeks! Perennial gardeners learn to plan their gardens so that something is always blooming.  If you buy only what is blooming in the spring, you will miss out on some of the most dramatic colors of the summer / fall season.  Many gardeners do not realize that perennials all have their particular bloom times –it may be early spring or mid-summer or even fall.  Fall is a great time to plant perennials because it is cooler and the plants still have time to settle in before winter.

Among the later bloomers, here is just a sampling you might consider to add additional color to your garden from mid-summer to the first frost.  There is Blackberry Lily (Belamcanda) with its Iris-like foliage and bright orange blooms on tall stems that give way to clusters of black seeds that resemble blackberries.  Look for its distinctive flowers in July and August.   All varieties of Coreopsis start blooming in the summer and continue until frost.  Look for the tall double yellow-flowered varieties as well as the shorter pale yellow ‘Moonbeam’ and rose-colored ‘Rosea.’   Try a mid-summer brightener like a daylily (Hemerocallis).  Its bright green strap-like foliage is topped by fountains of trumpet-shaped blooms in a range of warm colors – yellows, oranges, and reds.  Red-Hot Poker plant (Kniphofia) is one of the more unique late bloomers.  The bright orange and yellow blooms stand 3 to 4 feet high during mid to late summer.

Most gardeners are familiar with the annual blue Lobelia, but very few know of the perennial Lobelia cardinalis.  Handsome deep red foliage is topped by bright red spires during late July and August.  If you want to attract honeybees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden, Bee Balm (Monarda) would be a great choice.  It blooms in red, pink and violet shades from mid-summer to early September.  The Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ shows off its handsome foliage throughout spring and summer and its late season pink to crimson blooms from August through October.

If you want something other than yellow, red or orange, try Gay Feather (Liatris) for its feathery purple blooms that appear in August through September.  Russian Sage (Perovskia) is a late season winner with its shrub like habit and light blue flowers, blooming well into fall.  The tall pale lavender or white spires of the Obedient Plant (Physotegia) is gorgeous from July through September.  It spreads easily and will fill in an empty space quickly!

There are so many different varieties of plants that wait until July, August and September to bloom.  Stop by Phelan Gardens to check in person for our available stock.  

For any questions you have on this article, or any topic of concern, email us—or better yet, come by and talk to one of our professional staff members.  Remember, Phelan Gardens is open year-round!  

For additional information, check the following links: 

• Perennial Gardening
• Perennial Garden, Gardening, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers