7 Late Summer Stunners for Your Garden

Beautiful Late Summer, Early Fall Blooms for Your Garden

Ask any gardening professional to narrow down their favorite late summer blooms and you’d better be ready to sit back and spend a few hours…probably best to have a cold beverage in hand too. There are so many beautiful plants that will keep blooming strong right up to winter. While we would love to list every single one of them here, it would be faster to read the entire Game of Thrones book series.

So, we shall give you a short, but very sweet, list of late summer blooms that you can plant now, enjoy now, enjoy in the fall, and (since they are all perennials) enjoy again next year.  Yes, they are all that good.

1 – Asters

European Michaelmas-daisyAsters have daisy-like flowers which bloom in late-summer through fall. They come in a wide variety of colors and sizes, pollinators with their bright colors and are disease and deer resistant. There are a wide variety of asters with colors that range from white and pastels of blues and pinks, to hybrids of deep scarlet and purple.

Ceratostigma willmottianum2 – Plumbago

An incredibly versatile groundcover for cold climates, Plumbago does well in both sun and shade and can handle most soil types very well.  The blooms start in late summer with numerous, long-lasting, deep blue flowers. As the flowering finishes, the leaves change to a vivid mahogany red color, continuing their colorful display until winter.

3 – Centranthus

Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, at Monrovia Nursery Co.
Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, at Monrovia Nursery Co.

Also known as Jupiter’s Beard or Valerian, Centranthus is an everblooming Old World wildflower.  It has clusters of tiny dark red flowers with deep green foliage. This butterfly attracting plant is a great addition to any water-wise landscape as, once it is established, it does well with minimal water.  It is an extremely versatile plant that can be used in a wide variety of landscapes, and the beautiful blooms make great a great addition to bouquets due to its long vase life.

4 – Echinacea

Well known for its healing properties, Echinacea is also Echinacea Tiki Torchcommonly known as Coneflower. This powerhouse perennial has flowers that attract birds, butterflies, and bees.  It is extremely easy to grow and makes excellent cut flowers. Echinacea has been popular in landscapes for decades, both for it’s ease of care and for it’s beautiful and versatile blooms.  They come in a variety of colors: white, red, orange, yellow, pink and the most popular Purple Coneflower that you have likely seen when traveling through any prairie land.  It is a great native plant.

5 – Ornamental Oregano

Trailing down in the front of these window boxes.
Trailing down in the front of these window boxes.

Though it is most commonly known for its culinary use, Oregano has some ornamental varieties that are absolutely beautiful.   These perennial herbs do well in rock gardens as well as areas with well-drained soil.  Ornamental oregano is an attractive flowering perennial that’s easy to grow. The flavor isn’t as strong as the culinary variety but it has an unmatched appearance in its colorful bracts that develop in a host of pastel hues. We have seen Ornamental Oregano referred to as “a peacock of the herb family”.

Anemone 'Serenade'
Anemone ‘Serenade’

6 – Fall Anemone

Fall-blooming anemones bring an elegant touch of ethereal beauty to an autumn landscape with their delicate looking flowers topping off the willowy stems. As the petals drop off the blossom they leave behind a globe-shaped seed head, the combination of which provides a delightful showing for several weeks between late July and October, depending on the cultivar.

7 – Gaillardia

Gaillardia aristata

Also known as Blanket Flower, this powerhouse of a plant blooms from early summer right through the entire season.  The flower is daisy-like, but the petal ends have a slightly ruffled appearance.  These easy-to-grow perennials come in many colors from yellow to deep red and are most known for their showy, banded flowers. Gaillardia do well in hot, sunny gardens.  Oh, and they happen to be a butterfly favorite.

There are more, so many more, but this is a great list if you are looking for that power flower to add some pop to your garden now.

If these 7 late-summer through fall stunners aren’t enough to satisfy your thirst for color, check out this blog post from last year https://glovernursery.com/top_10_end_of_summer_blooms/

Now, if neither of these lists are enough to get the garden color you are seeking, come on down and we’ll show you the many more options available – after all, we are here to help and we have hundreds of beautiful plants in stock with more arriving every week.  It’s a good time to be at Glover Nursery.

9275 South 1300 West

See you soon!

 

Other useful links and resources:

5 Things To Do In Your Summer Garden

Top 7 Waterwise Perennials for Summer

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