8 Perennial Flowers with Long-Lasting Summer Blooms
By Chris Edmunds
Fill your summer garden with colorful perennial flower blooms with these 8 beautiful choices.
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Is there anything more lovely to see than a garden or yard that’s full of blooming flowers, from Spring right through to the fall? Many gardens with that kind of color rely on perennials to keep the garden looking bright and cheerful for the whole growing season. Perennials are great, but it can be tricky to get the planning right to make sure you have something that’s always blooming.
If you choose perennials that have a very long blooming season, you’ll have a better chance of keeping your garden full of flowers from May right through to the first frost in the fall. We’ve picked eight perennial flowers that bloom all through the summer to help keep your yard looking fresh and colorful all season long.
Perennial Flowers that Bloom All Through Summer
Stella de Oro Daylily is a medium height flower with yellow or gold petals. They like full sun to part shade, start blooming as early as May and will last right through to the end of July. They’re suitable for zones 3-10. In general, daylilies are a great perennial addition, but the Stella de Oro’s are some of the earliest and longest blooming varieties.
Coneflowers or echinacea have perennial flowers that bloom through summer in pink, purple, white, orange, red, or yellow. Butterflies and other pollinators love coneflowers! Coneflower likes full to part sun and will bloom steadily from June through August.
Coreopsis, also called tickseed, is another perennial that provides color in the garden for several months. The saucer-like flowers are usually shades of yellow but other varieties include double blooms and tinges of red to the petals. From late spring into early fall bright blooms of coreopsis make their appearance. Plants perform best in a sunny spot and are easy to care for, but will bloom most profusely when deadheaded.
Shasta Daisies are perhaps one of the most iconic flowers, with their sunny yellow centers surrounded by bright white petals that stand out from a distance. Not only are Shasta Daisies a classic, they can keep blooming for up to two months. The blossoms are frequented by pollinators and also make great cut flowers. Give them a place in the garden where they will receive plenty of water and full sun, though they do perform best when given some protection from late afternoon sun.
Black-Eyed Susans are tall classic perennial flowers that bloom all summer. They have rich yellow to orange daisy-like petals with cone-shaped dark centers. Black-Eyed Susan flowers bloom from June through September, and if you keep up with deadheading, you’ll get even more flowers.
Sunset Hyssop has spikes of bold salmon-orange flowers with a purple calyx. They are one of the longest bloomers, going all summer long. These eye-catching flowers add texture and personality to the garden, and hummingbirds love them. They are drought tolerant and prefer dry locations.
Russian Sage are tall perennial flowers that will bloom through the hottest parts of summer. They have long stalks covered in tiny purple lavender-like flowers. Russian Sage prefers full sun and will bloom from July through to the first frost in October.
Salvia is also a member of the sage family and features spires of beautiful flowers for most of the summer. Salvias have a sophisticated and classy presence in the garden. They come in a wide range of colors that range from bright red to pink to purple to blue to white. Salvias are popular with all sorts of pollinators.
Plan Your Garden for All-Season Perennial Color
With a little bit of planning, you can have a garden full of beautiful flowers from early Spring, right through until the fall. You can create a fully perennial garden if you like, for low maintenance care, or you can strategically add perennials here and there. Perennials make sure you always have something in bloom, even if you don’t have time to tuck in your favorite colorful annual flowers. Of course you can encourage most perennials to rebloom with a little deadheading, or removing old flowers, but with these long blooming options in your landscape there isn’t much need for the additional effort.
Whatever you decide to do this year, stop by our garden center locations to find the long-blooming perennials you need to add to your yard.
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