Home Garden Design These are the Longest Blooming Perennials in my Backyard (I Tracked Them All 12 months)

These are the Longest Blooming Perennials in my Backyard (I Tracked Them All 12 months)

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These are the Longest Blooming Perennials in my Backyard (I Tracked Them All 12 months)


I tracked the bloom occasions of all the flowers in my backyard for the complete yr to create the final word checklist of the longest blooming perennials in my very own yard.

The outcomes have been fairly stunning!

Over half of the vegetation on this lengthy bloomer checklist are natives or native cultivars! That is nice information as a result of there are so many advantages to planting natives in your backyard.

I used to be additionally shocked that lots of the vegetation that I thought bloomed a really very long time, really weren’t on the prime of the checklist. I feel that whenever you love a specific plant, you possibly can actually skew the outcomes.

So, I tracked… and tracked… and tracked. All yr lengthy.

Listed here are the main points of my monitoring.

Widespread Title Botanical Title Zones Solar Bloom Time Weeks in Bloom
Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa 4-9 Full Solar – Half Solar Early-Late Summer time 11
Catmint ‘Walkers Low’ Nepeta faassenii 4-9 Full Solar – Half Solar Late Spring-Fall 8*
Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea 3-8 Full Solar – Half Solar Mid-Late Summer time 10
Coreopsis ‘Early Dawn’ Coreopsis grandiflora 3-9 Full Solar – Half Solar Early-Late Summer time 12+
Crape Myrtle ‘Black Diamond Pure White’ Lagerstroemia indica 5-9 Full Solar Summer time-Fall 11
Daylily ‘Aromatic Returns’ Hemerocallis 5-9 Full Solar – Half Solar Early-Late Summer time 12*
Pleasure Pye Weed ‘Child Joe’ Eutrochium purpureum 2-9 Full Solar – Half Solar Late Summer time-Fall 7.5
Rose of Sharon ‘Azurri Blue Satin’ Hibiscus syriacus 5-9 Full Solar Mid Summer time-Fall 11
Siberian Bugloss ‘Silver Coronary heart’ Brunnera macrophylla 3-8 Half Solar – Shade Spring 7
Spanish Bluebells Hyacinthoides hispanica 3-8 Half Solar – Shade Early-Late Spring 8
Spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana L. 4-9 Full Solar – Shade Spring 8*
Veronica ‘Pink Potion’ Magic Present® ‘Pink Potion’ Veronica hybrid 4-8 Full Solar – Half Solar Late Spring-Early Fall 12+
Yarrow ‘Apricot Delight’ Achillea millefolium 4-9 Full Solar Early-Late Summer time 8*
From 2021 gardening season in Pennsylvania, Zone 6B
*this plant reblooms

Please word that these vegetation might not bloom for a similar size of time the place you reside. They might not even carry out the identical means for ME subsequent yr. So much can rely upon the situations the place you reside together with the local weather in any given yr. No matter this disclaimer, I nonetheless consider these are all glorious, lengthy blooming vegetation that you must contemplate including to your backyard.

If you happen to’re brief on time, you possibly can try this fast 1 minute video with 7 of my favourite perennials with lengthy bloom occasions.

Or hold studying to get the complete lengthy blooming flowers checklist.

Butterfly Weed

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Orange butterfly weed with purple salvia. Photograph courtesy of Larry Hansford.

Asclepias tuberosa
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Zones 4-9 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms early-late summer season
24-36″H x 12-36″W
11 weeks of bloom time

Butterfly weed is a small native perennial that glows with orange blooms from June by August. Crown-shaped flowers type clusters as much as 2″ throughout. Within the fall, upright pods of butterfly weed crack open, releasing seeds glistening with silky hairs. It’s one of many few host vegetation for the monarch butterfly.

Native in US and Canada. Ontario to Newfoundland; New England south to Florida; west to Texas; north by Colorado to Minnesota.

Catmint ‘Walkers Low’

Nepeta x faassenii
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Zones 4-9 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms late spring-fall
2-3’H x 2-3’W
8 weeks of bloom time, with a number of reblooms

Catmint is a long-lived, long-blooming border plant that places on a present from late spring by fall within the backyard. This mounding perennial has spicy aromatic leaves and options waves of cool, lavender-blue flowers that carry butterflies in droves. ‘Walkers Low’ bloomed for 8 weeks straight, then continued to rebloom all through the complete season. Catmint is one in all my absolute favourite vegetation within the backyard.

Native to Caucusus and northern Iran.

Japanese Purple Coneflower

Echinacea Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea (Japanese purple coneflower). Photograph by Fairly Purple Door.

Echinacea purpurea
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Zones 3-8 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms mid-late summer season
4’H x 3’W
10 weeks of bloom time

Purple coneflowers are one of the lovely US native vegetation and a should have for any straightforward care cottage backyard. The pinkish-purple petals encompass a big protruding darkish brown middle making a sleek presence in the midst of the border because it’s visited by birds, bees and butterflies. Coneflowers develop in 3′ vast clumps on actually tall stems (about 4′ excessive). The blooms final a very long time — from midsummer by most of fall. Coneflowers will be vulnerable to Japanese beetle, leaf spot and aster yellows illness. However, don’t let that deter you from making an attempt them. They’re very straightforward care and one of the rewarding flowers to develop!

You can even harvest the seeds from the coneflower within the fall. Within the video beneath I’ll present you ways to do that in below 1 minute! Then, you possibly can share the seeds with your pals or plant even MORE coneflowers in your backyard! The birds and bees will love you for it.

Gather coneflower seeds in lower than a minute – I like this trick!

Native to Japanese North America

Coreopsis ‘Early Dawn’

Lanceleaf Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Coreopsis grandiflora
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Zones 3-9 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms early-late summer season
18″H x 12″W
12+ weeks of bloom time

Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora) grows naturally in dry, rocky soils all through North America. Daring, upright leaves help the sunny faces of its flowers, which characteristic deeply textured yellow petals. The blooms are held on lengthy, skinny stems which dip and sway within the breeze. Like many different Prairie natives, tickseed is a superb “wind dancer” and can carry a singular kinetic vitality to your backyard border.

75-80 Coreopsis species are native to North, Central and South America.

Crape Myrtle ‘Black Diamond Pure White’

Crape Myrtle 'Black Diamond Pure White'
The darkish foliage of Crape Myrtle ‘Black Diamond Pure White’ units off the white blooms that lasted 11 weeks in my backyard. This crape myrtle will not be full grown. Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Lagerstroemia indica
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Zones 5-9 | Full Solar | Blooms summer-fall
10-12’H x 8’W
11 weeks of bloom time

Dishonest a bit of bit on this one, because the Black Diamond Pure White Crape Myrtle is technically a tree or a really massive shrub. It has darkish, nearly black foliage spring to summer season white ruffled flowers all season. It is a small, multi-stemmed tree that’s even drought-tolerant as soon as established. It’s contrasting deep maroon (nearly black) foliage and pure white flowers are certain to get a lot of consideration!

Crape Myrtles are native from the Himalayas by southern China, southeast Asia and Japan, however have naturalized within the US from Virginia to Arkansas south to Texas and Florida. I consider the ‘Black Diamond’ collection are hybrids.

Daylily ‘Aromatic Returns’

Daylily 'Fragrant Returns'
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Hemerocallis
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Zones 5-9 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms early-late summer season
12″H x 12-24″W
12 weeks of bloom time

‘Aromatic Returns’ daylily has sunny yellow flowers measuring 2.5″ throughout distinction in opposition to its forest-green, sword-like foliage. Daylilies are carefree and prolific bloomers all summer season lengthy. They like full solar and moist, well-drained soil. However should you stay in a sizzling local weather, give the darker coloured cultivars some afternoon shade. When planted within the appropriate location, they are going to flower all summer season lengthy for years with little or no care.

I’ve the variability ‘Aromatic Returns’ in my very own backyard, however I might think about a lot of the daylily varieties will carry out simply as properly in case you have the fitting situations for them. You can even simply divide daylilies to get increasingly more vegetation to refill your backyard.

Native to Asia.

If you happen to’re loving this checklist of lengthy blooming perennials, you must also try this submit: Unimaginable perennial vegetation to your backyard.

Pleasure Pye Weed ‘Child Joe’

Joy Pye Weed 'Baby Joe'
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Eutrochium purpureum
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Zones 2-9 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms late summer-fall
4’H x 3’W
7.5 weeks of bloom time

Nice for a late-season assertion within the backyard, Joe Pye Weed is a tall, late blooming perennial that’s native to a lot of the US that does finest partly shade with moist soil. Foliage is coarsely-serrated, lance-shaped with inexperienced leaves (to 12” lengthy) and stem, with purplish leaf nodes. Flowers are composed of 5-8 florets and bracts in dusty rose to mauve, giving the looks of enormous clusters. In some vegetation, the leaves and flowers can provide off a vanilla-like scent. Child Joe is a dwarf number of the native Joe Pye Weed, which may develop 7′ excessive and 4′ vast. Child Joe is extra “well-behaved” than the primary selection, which tends to seed a bit aggressively.

Native to Nova Scotia south to the mountains of North Carolina and from Nebraska to British Columbia.

Rose of Sharon ‘Azurri Blue Satin’

Rose of Sharon 'Azurri Blue Satin'
This Rose of Sharon ‘Azurri Blue Satin’ will not be full-grown but, however nonetheless will get loaded with lovely purple-blue blooms for about 11 weeks in my backyard. Pictures by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Hibiscus syriacus
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Zones 5-9 | Full Solar | Blooms mid summer-fall
8-12’H x 5-6’W
11 weeks of bloom time

‘Azurri Blue Satin’ Hibiscus is certain to offer some much-needed shade to your mid-summer and fall backyard. Flowers with lacy facilities of purple-blue petals are accented with wine-red hues that streak out from the veins of the petals. This shrub is loaded with very massive and distinctive flowers that bloomed for 11 weeks in my very own backyard. ‘Azurri Blue Satin’ is the primary ever seedless/sterile selection. It’s hardy, straightforward to develop and doesn’t develop into invasive. Rose of Sharon ‘Azurri Blue Satin’ is a bigger shrub, however in case you have the room for it, it is not going to disappoint.

A sterile number of Hibiscus syriacus, native south-central and southeast China.

Siberian Bugloss ‘Silver Coronary heart’

Silver Heart Siberian Bugloss Shade Plant in Garden
Silver Coronary heart Siberian Bugloss is a shade loving perennial that’s topped with delicate cobalt blue blooms for 7 weeks within the spring. It has unbelievable foliage that can brighten up any woodland backyard and makes an excellent various to hostas, that are so widespread.

Brunnera macrophylla
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Zones 3-8 | Half Solar-Shade | Blooms in spring
7 weeks of bloom time
18″H x 18-24″W

Siberian bugloss is an herbaceous perennial native to Turkey with lovely foliage all yr lengthy. Daring white and light-weight inexperienced bordered heart-shaped leaves of Siberian Bugloss ‘Silver Coronary heart’ present a dramatic background for the fragile, cobalt blue flowers that adorn this perennial for over 7 weeks within the springtime. Siberian bugless will brighten shady areas in your borders or woodland backyard. It additionally creates a beautiful groundcover.

Native to Turkey.

Spanish Bluebells

Spanish Bluebells (Wood Hyacinth)
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Hyacinthoides hispanica
Zones 3-8 | Half Solar-Shade | Blooms early-late spring
12-16″H x 12″W
8 weeks of bloom time

Spanish Bluebells, also referred to as Wooden Hyacinth, are aromatic, shade-loving bulbs with arching strappy inexperienced grass-like foliage adorned with lovely purplish blue bell-shaped blooms. Spanish bluebells are very hardy and deer resistant. If given sufficient room they are going to naturalize fantastically. Additionally they work properly in containers, rock gardens, small areas and woodland gardens.

Native to Southwestern Europe.

Spiderwort

Spiderwort, Virginia (Spider Lily)
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Tradescantia virginiana L.
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Zones 4-9 | Full Solar-Shade | Blooms spring-fall
18-24″H x 24-36″W
8 weeks of bloom time

Virginia spiderwort is a big mounding however dainty perennial to three′ with lengthy, shiny inexperienced, slim lance-like leaves. The thick clump of slender, branched stalks are topped by teams of two″ blue or purplish (typically white), 3-petaled flowers.

Spiderwort flowers shut by mid-day and final solely someday. The flowers open solely within the morning; the petals then wilt and switch to a jelly-like fluid. Spiderworts are so named as a result of the angular leaf association suggests a squatting spider. It is a very adaptable plant that prefers humus-rich soil however can develop in a variety of soils and solar ranges.

This bloomed for about 8 weeks in my spring backyard. It additionally reblooms all through the summer season and fall after I’m not anticipating it to. It does unfold by rhizomes and desires the area to do this. Some contemplate it a weed however I discover it fairly charming within the shade.

Native from Virginia south to Florida and west to Missouri and Illinois.

If you happen to love purple and blue flowers like this, try this submit, too: What to plant with purple flowers

Veronica Magic Present® ‘Pink Potion’

Veronica 'Pink Potion'
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Magic Present® ‘Pink Potion’ is a Veronica hybrid
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Zones 4-8 | Full Solar-Half Solar | Blooms late spring-early fall
12-18″H x 18-24″W
12+ weeks of bloom time

Child pink flower wands are borne prolifically atop a rounded, low clump of deep inexperienced foliage of Veronica ‘Pink Potion’. Veronica is typically additionally known as Spike Speedwell. ‘Pink Potion’ has bloomed in my backyard for over 12 weeks straight. It grows finest in common, humus enriched, well-drained soil and full solar. It’s additionally salt tolerant, deer & rabbit resistant and attracts bees and butterflies! Although it is going to survive in partial shade, Veronica flowers finest in solar. Shear again after blooming to encourage reblooms.

I’m very impressed by this plant and would positively advocate it. It’s October as I write this and it’s nonetheless blooming… over 12 weeks now. Seems very related in behavior to salvia.

Veronica spicata is native to Northern Europe and Asia. ‘Pink Potion’ is a hybrid.

Yarrow ‘Apricot Delight’

Yarrow Tutti Frutti 'Apricot Delight' (Sneezewort)
Photograph by PrettyPurpleDoor.

Achillea millefolium
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Zones 4-9 | Full Solar | Blooms early-late summer season
18-24″H x 18-24″W
8 weeks of bloom time

Apricot Delight yarrow produces an abundance of apricot to dusty rose coloured blooms all summer season lengthy on silvery inexperienced fern-like foliage. An ideal cut-flower perennial plant that’s carefree and exquisite. Apricot Delight bloomed for 8 weeks straight in my backyard and in addition rewarded me with a number of reblooms. As soon as the flowers pale, the seedheads have been additionally very enticing within the backyard.

Widespread yarrow is native to temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia and Europe and North America.

Wrapping Up

Whereas yearly is totally different within the backyard, I used to be extremely impressed by all of those lengthy blooming perennials in my 2021 backyard. My favourite varieties of vegetation are ones that work arduous and look nice with not quite a lot of upkeep. And, I consider that each plant on this checklist matches the invoice.

If you happen to favored this submit, you’ll want to try my free plant pairing information. You’ll get a photograph checklist of beautiful plant mixtures that you could attempt in your personal backyard.


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