Top 20 Long Blooming Perennials
By David Salman, High Country Gardens Chief Horticulturist
Many perennial plants have a specific window of flowering, typically 3 to 6 weeks during the growing season. Good garden design requires selecting perennials that bloom in early spring, late spring, summer, and early fall to provide a changing tapestry of colors as one plant goes out of flower and another comes into flower.
However, some perennials flower for an extended length of time, as long as 2 to 3 months at a time. These long-blooming perennials deliver major impact with little effort. See our top picks for flowers that bloom for weeks on end for a non-stop show.
Perovskia ‘Lacy Blue’ - A true dwarf cultivar discovered in an English garden and recently introduced to the US. Its smaller size makes it very useful when space is an issue. Blooms from mid-summer through the fall.
Agastache 'Ava' - One of High Country Gardens' very best plant introductions, renowned for its tall spikes of deep rose-pink flowers held by raspberry-red calyxes. This vigorous hybrid Hummingbird Mint blooms for many months beginning in mid-summer. 2005 Plant of the Year.
Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ - A European hybrid known for its vigor, cold hardiness, and adaptability to grow across much of the US. Highly attractive to bees and butterflies.
Salvia greggii ‘Furman’s Red’ - Furman's Red is one of the most cold-hardy of the native Salvia greggii family. Blooming in late spring and again in the fall, the plant covers itself with bright red flowers that attract the hummingbirds from miles around
Salvia sylvestris 'May Night' - An outstanding perennial with excellent cold hardiness, vigor, and tolerance of heavy clay soils. Blooming in late spring with a profusion of flower spikes, it reblooms later in the summer when deadheaded.
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead Violet’ - A bee favorite, our chief horticulturist, David Salman, discovered the plant as a chance seedling in a Santa Fe, NM garden, featuring some of the darkest purple flowers you'll find for Lavender.
Delosperma ashtonii ‘Blut’ - With its vigorous growth habit, durable evergreen foliage and summer-long display of deep magenta-red flowers, it is an invaluable groundcover.
Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' - A distinctive, vigorous and large growing coneflower cultivar. The bright reddish-pink petals of its huge flowers are held flat as they radiate out from the cone.
Penstemon mexicali 'Red Rocks' - A superb hybrid variety that blooms most of the summer with large rose-pink flowers. The plants are vigorous and have attractive glossy green foliage. A 1999 Plant Select winner
Phlox nana ‘Perfect Pink’ - Blooming in late spring with hundreds of large deep pink, white eyed flowers, it continues to bloom off and on throughout the summer.
Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' - The world's most popular ornamental grass, 'Karl Foerster' has a strong upright habit and blooms with showy flowers that ripen to tawny seed heads that decorate the plant through the fall and winter months.
Aquilegia chrysantha (Columbine) - Blooms for months beginning in late spring with a profusion of large, cheerful yellow flowers that attract hummingbirds. Allow the plant to reseed itself to form colorful long lived colonies.
Anthemis tinctoria 'Susanna Mitchell' (Marguerite Daisy) - Blooms most of the summer with large, creamy white daisies. Vigorous and easy-to-grow, its attractive, fine-textured foliage shows off the flowers to great advantage.
Diascia integerrima ‘Coral Canyon’ - Native to South Africa, it blooms all summer with salmon-pink flowers held over finely textured stems with bright green foliage.
Nepeta fassenii ‘Select Blue’ - A fantastic xeric perennial with dramatic lavender-blue flowers and handsome gray-green foliage. A recurrent bloomer, the first flush of flowers comes in late spring, and again later in summer.
Coreopsis lanceolata 'Sterntaler' - A robust, long-blooming Tickseed with showy golden-yellow petals with a reddish-brown center. The flowers are continuous over the summer when deadheaded.
Callirhoe involucrata (Poppy Mallow or Wine Cups) - A native wildflower with a summer-long display of bright magenta-pink flowers. A sprawling grower with long branches that spread out across the ground to create a colorful mat of flowers and foliage.
Caryopteris clandonensis 'Dark Knight' - One of the best Blue Mist Spirea varieties, 'Dark Knight' has the deepest blue color of them all. Its tidy, upright growth habit and profusion of flowering spikes make it an essential part of the summer landscape. A fantastic nectar source for bees and butterflies.
Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’ - A vigorous tall growing yarrow with large flat deep golden-yellow flower heads. This non-reseeding variety blooms all summer and thrives with heat and sun in any soil including clay.
Sedum 'Autumn Fire' - This is a larger growing, longer blooming version of the older variety Autumn Joy. This plant also holds its flowers much longer into the fall and winter providing an extended season of color and structure. Autumn Fire is one our best low care, high color perennials.