The frenzy to plant whatever draws our eye at the garden centre can sometimes leave us short-sighted to what will last into the next season. It’s not uncommon for excited gardeners to fill their carts with annuals at their spring peak, only to find their garden has begun to fade just as summer sets in.
The smart strategy is to split your haul between the flowers that look great now and the ones that will dazzle later in the season. These late spring and early summer landscape plants are perfect for bridging the “colour gap” before all that late summer colour sets in!
Blooming in late spring to early summer, this dramatic perennial erupts with magnificent plumes of vibrant flowers in an impressive array of colours. Preferring part sun to shade, this is a must-have for shadier areas of the garden. The tall flowers make a fabulous backdrop for a shady border, and their neat clumping habit makes them easy to maintain. Not only will astilbes quench your thirst for colour after your early-spring annuals have faded, but their neon shades are also simply electrifying!
One of my favourite early-summer blooming perennials! Clematis is a climber and easily trained up a trellis, arbour, or pergola, covering it in showy flowers. They are also surprisingly diverse; with many varieties to choose from, they vary widely in colours and shapes of blooms and foliage. However, variety also dictates bloom time, so keep an eye on the nursery tags if you’re looking for one that blooms toward the end of spring.
Who doesn’t love a plant that keeps its colour until frost? Coral Bells bloom in late spring or early summer, producing flower stalks that sprout their namesake pink flowers. However, the bloom time of these beauties is not terribly important because their true appeal is in their foliage. Available in intriguing colours like peach, pink, silver, and several luscious shades of purple, this perennial ensures there’s never a dull moment in your beds, borders, or containers.
Did you know that blue is the rarest colour in the plant world? This fact makes the breathtaking flowers of this early summer-blooming perennial seem like even more of a treat. Delphiniums grow long stalks lined with oodles of brilliant blooms ranging from soft lilac to head-turning royal blue and even some double-flowering and bicoloured varieties. Plant them in rich, moist soil in full sun and they’ll soon become a jewel of your garden.
Few flowering shrubs are as beloved as hydrangeas! With most varieties blooming in late spring to early summer, the flowers last longer than lilacs and require less fuss than roses. Also appealing are the many fabulous specimens to choose from—some feature panicles of berry-coloured blooms while others flaunt flowerheads as big and round as basketballs. A location with morning sun and shade from the afternoon rays is ideal for many of the popular hydrangea varieties.
This sun-loving perennial, also known as Beardtongue, is a fun flower for your early summer garden thanks to its nodding, mouth-shaped flowers. The tricky part about keeping them happy is keeping them sufficiently moist given their preference for sunny spots; mulch is your penstemon’s best friend! Provided you don’t mind topping up that mulch from time to time; this lovely plant will reward you with delightful colours like sky blue, firetruck red, and luminous shades of lilac.
If you only plant one shrub this year, consider planting spirea! The blooms of late spring or early summer flowers add delicate beauty and texture to your garden, and many varieties also feature lovely fall foliage long after the flowers have faded. Spireas tend to stay quite compact, so they’re excellent for adding interest to smaller garden spaces. Plus, this sun-lover is beloved by butterflies and ignored by deer!
While some say roses are the most romantic flower, I’d say it’s hard to beat the old-fashioned beauty of the peony. There’s just something so swoon-worthy about these late spring flowers, which seem to be overflowing with layers of fragile petals. Peonies generally fall into three categories; herbaceous peonies, tree peonies, and Itoh peonies (a spectacular hybrid of the first two). While all of them are stunners that prefer full sun, the ideal variety for you will depend on the space you’re trying to fill—chat with one of our team members for help with this.
These landscape plants will ensure that your garden is never bereft of colour at the height of the season! You can find these, and more options than could ever fit on this list, at our garden centre in Guelph. Make sure to visit every season to discover more ways to keep your landscape bursting with colour all year round.
