Many perennials, like Geranium ‘Rozanne’ will continue to produce flowers all season, but in a lesser quantity. Pruning Tip – Don’t be afraid to grab those pruning shears once that initial bloom of spring flowers starts to wind down. Clipping out faded flowers will ensure months of bloom. Plant this shade-tolerant perennial in a woodland garden, shady border, or along a tree-lined pathway. The ferny foliage is also attractive, and makes a nice foil for the old-fashioned flowers. However, if you shear the plants back by one-third after the first blossoms fade, you’ll encourage another heavy show of flowers.īleeding Heart ‘Luxuriant’ ( Dicentra formosa ‘Luxuriant’, zones 2 to 9). Long-blooming perennials for shady spaces are hard to come by, but this is where ‘Luxuriant’ shines! Growing just knee-high, this hardy selection produces clusters of reddish-pink, heart-shaped blooms throughout late spring and summer. After its initial bloom, the plants will continue to pump out a moderate amount of fresh flowers for months. This hardy plant forms 12 to 18 inch tall mounds of spreading foliage, which is topped from early summer until frost with two-inch wide, violet-blue flowers. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ ( Geranium x ‘Rozanne’, zones 4 to 9). I don’t like to throw the term ‘low-maintenance’ around irresponsibility, but with ‘Rozanne’, it’s the perfect description.

Shear it back after the initial bloom to encourage fresh flowers. Catmint Walker’s Low is a very long-blooming perennial that is popular with the bees and butterflies. Without a trim, the plant will continue to flower moderately, but a good shearing encourages tidy foliage and plenty of blooms that will persist until frost. Once the initial flush of flowers begins to fade, give the plant a haircut, shearing it back by about one-half. It’s no wonder this drought-tolerant, hardy plant was chosen as the 2007 Perennial Plant of the Year. Plus, the plants bloom their heads off from late spring until mid-autumn with a heavy show of purple-blue flower spikes that are extremely attractive to pollinators and beneficial insects. The Early Bloomers:Ĭatmint ‘Walker’s Low’ ( Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, zones 3 to 9). With its relaxed, trouble-free growth habit, ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint is a perfect fit for a cottage garden or rock garden, or the front edge of a perennial border or rose garden.

Read on to discover how to encourage months of blooms by combining clever pruning with the longest flowering perennials. Of course, you can also affect both the bloom time and length of the flowering period with pruning practices pinching, deadheading, and shearing. When planning a garden with long-blooming perennials, the same basic rules of design apply choose a mixture of early, mid-season, and late-flowering plants. Gardeners who want a lower maintenance landscape would be wise to look for perennial plants that are both easy-to-grow and offer a long blooming period. Most perennial plants flower for two to four weeks, but the longest flowering perennials, like coneflowers and catmint, measure their flowering period in months, not weeks. But, for the main growing season, much of that interest comes from flowering and foliage plants. A well-designed garden provides interest from early spring through late autumn, and beyond if you also select plants for winter structure.

Long stem flowers