12 Perennial Flowers that Bloom a Long Time

   The tradeoff of perennial flowers is that they generally only bloom for four to six weeks each season in exchange for coming back year and after year.

   However, some perennials bloom significantly longer than others – sometimes for months instead of weeks.

   If you’re looking to maximize perennial bloom time, here are 12 of my Pennsylvania favorites for long bloom:

   * Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). Pollinators love this spiky bloomer with the licorice-scented, June-to-September, blue-lavender flowers. Grows 2 to 3 feet tall, best in full sun. Good varieties are ‘Blue Fortune,’ the apricot-blooming ‘Peachie Keen’ and the pink-blooming ‘Tutti Fruitti.’

   * Anemone Wild Swan and Dreaming Swan. These two new hybrid variations of Japanese anemone grow to a compact 18 inches and bloom white with yellow centers all summer. The petal backsides are violet. Best in part shade.

   * Betony ‘Hummelo’ (Stachys officinalis). It’s unfortunately hard to find at garden centers, but if you get your hands on this lamb’s ear cousin, you’ll be rewarded with pink-lavender flower spikes all summer. Leaves are green, not fuzzy gray. Grows 18 inches tall in sun or part shade and slowly colonizes.

   * Catmint (Nepeta). As durable as it is long-blooming, catmint grows in a mound of gray-green foliage and produces true-blue flowers most of the summer into early fall. Cut it back midway in summer to encourage fresh foliage, a more compact habit and a stronger late bloom. Try dwarf varieties such as ‘Kit Cat,’ ‘Blue Ice,’ ‘Little Titch’ and Junior Walker for 15- to 18-inch heights. Best in full sun.

   * Threadleaf tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata). Short mounds of lacy leaves produce dainty blooms of golden yellow most of the summer. ‘Zagreb’ and ‘Golden Gain’ are two particularly good performers. 18 to 20 inches tall, best in full sun.

   * Gaura. This U.S. native sends up wiry stems of pink or white flowers that look like little butterflies flitting in the wind. Try pink bloomers such as ‘Crimson Butterflies’ (18 inches tall) or ‘Siskiyou Pink’ or ‘Whirling Butterflies’ (28 inches) or the white-blooming ‘Sparkle White’ (24 inches). Full sun to light shade.

   * Hardy geranium. These are spreading, low-growing, blue-, pink- or purple-blooming perennials, not the bushier red flowers that most people think of as geraniums (those are technically pelargoniums). Most hardy or “cranesbill” geraniums bloom for two to three months in sun or part shade. Try purple Rozanne or bluish-lavender ‘Johnson’s Blue’ or ‘Brookside.’

   * Liriope Purple Explosion. This particular variety of liriope (sometimes nicknamed lilyturf) stands out both for its unusually long bloom (June to August) but also for the bigger flowers that bloom prominently on spikes above the foot-tall grass-like foliage. Full sun to part shade.

   * Garden phlox (Phlox paniculata). These Pennsylvania natives grow about 3 feet tall with clusters of pink, white or lavender flowers covering the top third of the plants for most of summer. Butterflies and pollinators like them, too. The main drawback is powdery mildew on the leaves, so look for disease-resistant types such as ‘David’ (white), ‘Shortwood’ (pink), ‘Robert Poore’ (magenta) and ‘Katherine,’ or ‘Jeana’ (lavender). Full sun to light shade.

   * Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea). Newer varieties of this long-time favorite U.S. prairie native bloom for eight or more weeks, especially if you deadhead the spent blooms. Dropping or horizontal petals of white, lavender, pink, magenta, red or orange protrude out from around a central brown cone. Especially nice are ‘PowWow Wild Berry,’ ‘Pica Bella,’ ‘Magnus’ and the dwarf Pixie Meadowbrite (pink to magenta) and the white-blooming ‘PowWow White.’ Full sun to light shade.

   * Russian sage (Salvia yangii). Flower spikes of pollinator-attracting lavender to purple flowers pop up from the lacy silvery-gray foliage mounds. Older varieties hit 4 feet and flop, so lean toward the newer compact varieties, such as Peek-a-Blue and Lacey Blue (under 2 feet) and Little Lace (15 inches). Best in full sun.

   * Salvia. Most of our winter-hardy types bloom with purple flower spikes that poke up from the corrugated green leaves. Rather than bloom continuously, these bloom for four to six weeks in mid-spring, then rebloom in late summer to early fall if you cut back the plants to a few inches after the first bloom. ‘May Night’ and ‘Caradonna’ are two of the best 2-footers, while ‘Marcus’ and Sallyrosa April Night grow only about 12 to 15 inches tall. Full sun to light shade.