It’s likely every gardener’s dream to have beautiful flowering plants in bloom all season long. Still, there is a bit of an art to design that dream garden, particularly when planting perennials. Perennials are excellent because they return year after year, but the downside is that they often have a much shorter bloom period than many annuals. The keyword here, though, is ‘often,’ not always!
You might be surprised to learn that plenty of multi-season flowering plants give color from spring until fall. Check out this list of perennials that are sure to provide you with the multi-season interest you’ve been longing for.
Autumn Stonecrop
This hardy perennial sedum emerges with rounded, gray-green foliage, which looks great as a filler in garden beds and borders in spring and early summer. However, it comes in handy in late summer and fall, blooming right after most of your garden flowers have faded! The 3-6 inch pink flower clusters open in late summer to fall and gradually deepen to rich shades of red that complement the autumn foliage immaculately. Grows best in full sun.
Coral Bells
A plant’s flowers are rarely second to the foliage, but coral bells break this rule (also known as Heuchera). The delicate pink spring flowers are certainly cute, but the main appeal of this fascinating multi-season plant is its captivating foliage colors. Available in a stunning range of tones, from deep purple to vibrant peach and even intriguing shades of silver, coral bells are ideal for creating contrast in the perennial bed and lasts from spring to frost. Does well in part shade to full sun.
Hostas
Like coral bells, hostas are known for their foliage. While hostas are a flowering perennial, this multi-season plant is typically grown as a foliage plant for shadier landscape areas. The leaves can vary greatly in size from a few inches tall to over a foot in length and are also available in a broad range of green shades and variegations. Since their rugged foliage is their claim to fame, they provide beauty, color, and texture to the landscape from the time they emerge in the spring until they die back in late fall. Thrives in part sun to full shade, depending on the variety.
Japanese Painted Fern
Like hostas and coral bells, Japanese painted ferns are another foliage plant—and in fact, the three of them make for a fabulous combination in the shade garden! The fronds of this multi-season perennial are so gorgeous with their light texture, silvery-green hues, and purple midribs, and you won’t mind at all that these plants are not the flowering type. You’ll love how they look in your garden all through the growing season, especially if paired with plants featuring purple foliage or flowers! Grows best in part to full shade.
Ornamental Grass
In North Dakota, we’re fortunate to grow many varieties of ornamental grasses, yet these texture-rich perennials are often overlooked. While we tend to think of grasses as foliage plants (or simply as grass), these are, in fact, flowering plants with multi-season appeal, thanks to their long-standing tuft-like blooms. Ornamental grasses also provide excellent winter interest, as the flower stalks tend to arch gracefully above shallow snowbanks. Most ornamental grasses perform best in full sun.
Milkweed
The only host plant of the beloved monarch butterfly, milkweed, is native to the Midwest and makes a fantastic garden plant. Several varieties exist to suit different growing conditions (such as swamp milkweed for damp areas and butterfly weed for well-drained soils). Each features clusters of attractive flowers that bloom throughout the summer. The plant produces large and visually interesting seed pods in the fall, which allow the plant to self-seed for the following year. However, a significant part of milkweed’s appeal is the sheer volume of monarch butterflies they’ll attract to your yard! In the fall, you may also see newly adult monarchs departing from your garden to begin their winter migration. Requires full sun.
Virginia Creeper
A vigorous climber, Virginia creeper can quickly cover a trellis, fence, or wall with its serrated leaves. In the summer, dark blue berries resembling miniature clusters of grapes make for a fantastic food source for birds. But the real show comes out in fall when the whole plant lights up into an inferno of fiery-red color! Performs best in full sun but tolerates part shade.
These are just a few of the many multi-season flowering perennials available that are sure to beautify your landscape all through the year! If you’re on the hunt for multi-season flowering perennials for sale in Bismarck, stop by Plant Perfect soon to see what we’ve got in stock!