Summer perennials add wonderful colour and fragrance to the garden. When landscaping your garden summer perennials offer colourful blooms year upon year. They can make for simpler gardening as they are often easy to maintain and mean less work compared to the need to replace annual plants every year.
There is a rich abundance of choice when considering which perennials will fit your garden design. When landscaping your outdoor space think about the colour combinations you desire, the quantity of sunlight different areas are exposed to and the different heights the plants will reach.
A landscape designer can create a perennial garden to enjoy year — so you see colour whenever you’re outside.
Garden Favourites
Some summer perennials have long been garden favourites. One such plant is lavender which sits in well-drained soil and provides a lovely aroma as you pass. This is an ideal perennial for low maintenance gardening which requires little watering except if placed in a container. Displaying a striking purple bloom, lavender is also great for drying in order to make fragrant sachets or even for culinary use.
Geraniums are another garden favourite, easy to grow and with varieties which produce a range of attractively coloured flowers. Foxgloves and delphiniums offer a classic combination of summer blooms, strikingly tall and elegant in the garden. Although foxgloves are biennial, they self-seed to provide you a steady supply every year.
Wildlife Friendly
Part of the joy of a garden is seeing the visitors your plants attract to your garden. Planting the right summer perennials helps attract bees, birds and butterflies for you to watch and listen to. Sedums are rated as one of the best plants to attract bees and butterflies, being full of nectar when they first flower. The aromatic Monarda is another perennial which bees are particularly fond of and is also known as Bee Balm. The Coneflower is a further good option for attracting bees and butterflies, a tough perennial with large daisy-like flowers.
Summer-Long Colour
When planting you can look to incorporate different varieties of perennials to ensure you have colour throughout the summer, extending your pleasure of the garden and helping bees in the process. Peonies and Coreopsis are varieties which bloom late spring in to early summer, while the stunning violet flowers of the Iris Titan’s Glory begin to bloom in June.
The Black-eyed Susan is an increasingly popular choice for protected garden corners which flowers from June to September. The hardy Hibiscus will help extend the colour through the end of Summer with its large flowers of red, pink or white blooming late in the season.
Mix and Match
The abundance of spring and summer perennials available allows you to mix and match colours and plant heights to suit your gardening ideals. From the vibrant blue flowers of the Delphinium Fenella to the showy pink blooms of the Garden Phlox, perennials are like applying the paint of your choice to the overall design. The design itself can include short varieties of Shasta Daisies with the taller Crocosmia sat at the back of your borders, providing a balance to your landscaping.
Our landscape team at Glorious Gardens is happy to discuss these ideas in planning your garden. If you’re considering a “re-do” of your outdoor space, we invite you to call us. We will brainstorm to find the right blend of elements to suit your tastes, your budget and your space.
