Gardening With More Plants

Perennials with a Long Flowering Season

GIVEN THAT MOST GARDEN PERENNIALS, especially during spring, flower for a relatively limited period, it is natural that those with a more extended flowering season should be eagerly sought after by gardeners. These perennials usually bloom throughout summer or from summer into autumn, and will bring an element of continuity to the garden.

MASTERWORT

Clusters of tiny flowers, surrounded by large, jagged, green-tipped white bracts, open on branching stems in summer. The deeply cut leaves form bold clumps.     

       

DICENTRA

A creeping perennial forming clumps of divided, fern-like, blue-grey leaves. Sprays of locket-shaped, pendent, deep pink flowers emerge from spring to summer.

MAIDEN PINK

This reliable pink bears dark-eyed, white, pink, or red flowers throughout summer, above mats of slender, narrow-leaved stems. Thrives on well-drained soil.  

     

EPILOBIUM

During summer, the clumps of arching stems, densely clothed in semi-evergreen leaves, bear creamy white or pink-tinted flowers. Prefers a site in cool, damp shade.

'Russell Prichard'

Ideal for ground cover, this low-grower has trailing stems clothed in neatly lobed, sharp-toothed, grey-green leaves. Deep magenta flowers appear in summer.          

GEUM

Flowering freely throughout summer, this perennial produces semi-double, brilliant scarlet flowers on branched stems, above clumps of softly-hairy, fresh green foliage.