Looking for great ways to spruce up your yard for the summer months? Try these great flowering plants which will bring a unique look to your home or business.
Aster
Few plants can brighten a tired corner like these tough perennials. They thrive through summer and bloom nearly nonstop into fall if you keep the spent flowers picked. Starting in late June, you’ll find the plants at nurseries, usually in 1-gallon cans (though the best selection of dahlias is available in spring when you can plant them from tubers).
Gaura
White flowers cluster like butterflies atop tall spikes on these airy 2½- to 4-foot-tall plants. Selected forms include ‘Siskiyou Pink’ (to 2 feet tall), with rose-pink flowers, and ‘Whirling Butterflies’ (to 3 feet tall), with white flowers.
Moonshine
One of the most carefree and generous bloomers and a classic perennial to plant in the fall, yarrow has tight clusters of deep yellow flowers on 2-foot tall gray-green plants; leaves are feathery and fragrant, one of our favorite combinations. It does well in full sun but can take a little dappled shade and loves well-drained soil, especially if the soil is poor (we have it growing in a tight soil next to red maple, where it’s thriving). Here it’s paired with blue-flowered catmint; both plants make lovely additions to a homegrown herbal tea.
Penstemon
Also known as Beardtongue, these bushy plants are fairly short-lived, but they produce lots of trumpet-shaped blooms over a long period to make up for it. Deep purple ‘Midnight’ and scarlet ‘Firebird’ are standouts for their vivid, south-of-the-border colors. Pink and white ‘Appleblossom’ looks fresh and springlike.
These drought-tolerant hummingbird favorites are practically made for rock gardens; pair them with thornless prickly pear (Opuntia ellisiana) and a red-flowering rock rose (like Helianthemum ‘Fire Dragon’) on rocky, well-drained soils with full sun.
Thanks to Jessica Govorko of Nature Care Services for providing information on this subject.
