Do you find that your garden peaks in mid-summer but lacks flower power after the last daylily bloom fades? If your perennial borders fade quietly into boredom as summer heats up, consider adding some of these colorful perennials, just reaching their peak when the thermometer hits 90.
Golden Marguerite
Ken Cochran, curator of Ohio State University’s Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, introduced me to this plant several years ago, and I couldn’t be more pleased with this garden addition.
Golden marguerite, Anthemis tinctoria, starts blooming in May, and keeps going and going all summer long. The yellow daisy flowers, about 1½ inch across, are held on stiff stems about 2½ feet high. With some dead heading, the plants continue blooming for weeks. If plants become straggly, they take well to being cut to the ground to promote new growth.
Blackberry lily
Blackberry lilies, Belamcanda chinensis, produce clusters of orange or yellow lily-like flowers in summer, held over iris-like foliage. Shiny seed clusters, resembling blackberries, follow the flowers, providing interest into autumn.
This perennial prefers full sun and rich, evenly moist soils, although it can tolerate sandy soils. In autumn, be sure to cut back and compost spent foliage to prevent problems with iris borers and bacterial crown rot.
Purple coneflower
This native perennial is found in nearly every perennial garden, for good reason. It’s a tough, consistent bloomer, offering weeks and weeks of bloom. It can tolerate drought and poor soil, and even will bloom in light shade.
Purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, is attractive to wildlife: butterflies are frequent visitors, as are other pollinators. If left to mature, the spent flowers turn into seed heads preferred by goldfinches and chickadees. Many of the new cultivars (red or orange, or with complicated flower heads) are shunned by butterflies and other pollinators.
Blazing star
Interestingly, these native prairie flowers are in the daisy family; the small clusters of flowers that make up each blazing star spike are grouped together in a similar fashion as the daisies, and so botanists group them in the same family.
The spikes themselves are anything but daisy-like. They add a wonderful vertical addition to the garden, and also make striking and lasting cut flowers.
Blazing star, Liatris spp., comes in light and dark shades of purple, as well as bright whites. Their attractiveness to butterflies is another reason to add these perennials to the garden.
Site these plants in full sun; if soils are moist, select dotted blazing star (Liatris punctata), which can tolerate moist soils. Other blazing stars will suffer from crown rot if soils are too moist.
Russian sage
Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, is perfect for hot, dry sites with poor soils.
This large perennial with aromatic, gray foliage blooms through much of the summer, and attracts many pollinators in the process. The airy, tall flower spikes can reach to 4 (or even 5) feet; the plants will be as wide as tall.
Russian sage is considered a sub-shrub, just like butterfly bush and caryopteris, and so cannot be divided because of the woody stems. The plants should be cut back in early spring to about 6 inches, before new growth has begun.
‘Fireworks’ Goldenrod
Many improved, garden-worthy goldenrods are available to liven up the autumn garden. They flower profusely, and as clump-formers, they stay put.
‘Fireworks’ shoots off slender sprays of clear yellow flowers on plants reaching to four feet. As with all goldenrods, the pollen is not wind-borne, thus goldenrods are not responsible whatsoever for hay fever. Blame the homely ragweed instead.
Denise Ellsworth directs the honeybee and native pollinator education program for the Ohio State University. If you have questions about caring for your garden, contact her at 330-263-3700 or click on the Ask Denise link on her blog at www.osugarden.com.