We like our gardens to be in full swing in the summer, full of colour and scent. One way to introduce colour is by adding bedding plants, sold every year by the garden centres, as annual plants and thrown away at the end of the season. Bedding plants are very showy but to create colour year after year, without the time and expense of annual plants, perennial plants provide a more permanent solution and a great display of summer flowering plants.
Perennial plants flower every year and are among our most showy of the summer flowering plants, many are easy to grow and maintain. Listed on this pages are a range of summer flowering plants, with links to the individual pages where you will find growing tips and each plant is colour coded to help you select the most easy to grow and suitable plants for your garden.
On each page with the growing information and tips there is also colour coding represented by wheelbarrows: green wheelbarrow means easy to grow , amber wheelbarrow means medium difficult with some maintenance required ,and red wheelbarrow represents more of a gardening challenge
Choosing plants is totally individual, what I love, you may hate. One of the pleasures of gardening is to create a garden to your liking, just like decorating your house. This page illustrates different types of summer flowering plants, so you can pick and mix what you like. Herbaceous and Perennial plants are rewarding, showy, often scented, the fireworks in the border. Plants listed as "Herbaceous" plants die right back in winter to nothing at all, bare earth, which may not suit all gardeners and gardens. Some plants are very high maintenance, such as Delphinium, greedy feeders, and slug magnets which need staking, but the rewards are magnificent tall spires of purples, blues, pinks a garden favourite plant and very easily raised from seed.
For detailed advice on planting and growing summer flowering plants follow the links.
Summer planting combinations, plants for shade, scented plants and plants for bees and butterflies all have ideas for summer plants.
Best Summer Flowering plants
Delphiniumand Digitalis, foxglove, a lovely summer combination. Delphiniums are perennials and easy to grow from seed, Foxgloves are biennial which means it seeds grows and flowers in a two year cycle; a good self seeder around the garden.
Lilium, illustrated is L. regale and many lilies are showy and scented. Lily are a bulb which come back each year if the growing conditions suit and they are also ideal for container growing, lovely scent for a patio area.
Crocosmia are a late summer flowering plant usually bright red, orange and yellow, most varieties are hardy and all are easy to grow. If you are looking for a tall back of the border plant C. Lucifer, illustrated, is ideal.
Thalictrum produces clouds of fluffy flowers which float on the breeze. Thalictrum combines well with Delphiniums and will tolerate some shade and damp. A tall easy to grow herbaceous perennial.
No border is complete without some Sedums loved by bees and butterflies. Sedum provide late summer colour to the border and are often covered in pollinators.
Although they do flower in the summer, Hosta are not grown for their flowers but their lovely foliage in so many shades of green, grey blue and variegated leaves. A Herbaceous perennial comes good every year but also slug and snail magnet.
Monarda is also known as Bee Balm and Bergamot; a lovely aromatic plant which is a herbaceous perennial. This means in winter it dies back to nothing and regrows fresh each spring to come back each year. A medium sized plant, it is easy to grow and the bees just love it.
Agapanthus is a great example of "right plant in the right place." Agapanthus can be very tricky to grow in exposed colder gardens, and will need some protection however it grows everywhere in Cornwall and Scilly isle where conditions are more suitable. It will flower further north in a sheltered spot.
Hemerocallis is known as the Day lily and it is a flowering bulb which has beautiful flowers often with striped and intricate patterns on the flowers and glossy leaves. It will return each year and is easy to grow.
Illustrated is a lovely combination Geranium the garden stalwart, and the bright lime green of Alchemilla mollis. Geraniums are great garden plants, easy to grow they flower reliably and for a long period of time. They are also loved by bees.
Lavender is a popular garden plant and rightly so. It grows easily in dry, well drained conditions with sun and is ideal alongside a path to release the fragrance walking buy. There are a good number of Lavender varieties to choose from.
Dahlia are very showy with lovely large attractive flowers. Dahlia are easy to grow in more sheltered parts of the country. Dahlia are a bulb in in less sheltered areas they they need to be lifted and stored over winter.
Hydrangea is one of our lovely summer flowering shrubs, easy to grow and coming in many colours. There are lots of Hydrangeas to choose from and also many summer flowering shrubs.
Achillea has feathery grey green foliage and large flat flower heads attractive to pollinators. It is easy to grow in conditions on the dry side. Achillea mix well with grasses and late flowering Alliums.
Peony are lovely summer herbaceous perennial which although a short flowering season is just spectacular in flower and easy to grow. Peonies need little attention apart from staking in the spring.