Nick Hamilton chooses his favourite plants for spring-to-summer blooms
As with most things in life, to achieve the best results we have to put in the effort first and that is no different when encouraging long flowering periods for perennials.
A key requirement is regular headheading, which prompts the plant to produce more flowers in the battle to create seeds.
Long-flowering perennials are a bonus to any garden and penstemons are some of my favourites.
Upright varieties are hardy and will flower from June until the frosts, with varieties such as ‘Firebird’, ‘Charles Rudd’, ‘Raven’, ‘Pensham Czar’, ‘Snowstorm’ and, of course, ‘Geoff Hamilton’ really standing out.
Deadhead them after flowering, don’t let them get too wet in winter and then in April cut them back hard to where the new growth is shooting.
Going well with penstemon are nepeta and perennial potentilla. Nepeta are superb for pollinators and popular varieties such as ‘Walker’s Low’ and ‘Six Hills Giant’ have lavender-blue flowers, while ‘Snowflake’ has pure white flowers.
My favourite potentilla is called ‘Flamenco’. It produces rich, velvet-red flowers throughout summer. Another long-flowering variety to consider is Potentilla atrosanguinea var. argyrophylla ‘Scarlet Starlit’, which has slightly smaller red flowers into autumn.
Dahlias are also excellent long-flowering plants. There are now many varieties of dark, mahogany-leaved dahlia and in my opinion, you would go a long way to beat ‘Dreamy Nights’.
Its sumptuous purple flowers have stunning neon-magenta edges and bright yellow stamens. Just spectacular!
Save a spot for salvias
We have definitely moved towards Mediterranean-like plants over the past 30 years and the salvias, if dead-headed, will flower from June to September.
S. nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ is an absolute must for any sunny, well-drained spot. It reaches around 60cm (2ft) tall but is very upright in its habit, so it can be squeezed in anywhere!
The ‘Lips’ varieties, such as ‘Hot Lips’, ‘Cherry Lips’ and ‘Amethyst Lips’, are more bushy but also bloom into autumn.
Hardy osteospermums, such as ‘Lady Leitrim’, are also interesting as the large white flowers have irregular pink-purple shades and will keep going from late spring through to autumn.
Perennials for shade
The plants mentioned so far are suited to a sunny spot, so if you need something to grow boldly in the shade, try Alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle). As an added bonus it also makes an excellent cut flower.
Astrantia major (masterwort) is another shady winner. Usually white and green, the flowers really show up in the gloom, with the larger flowers of A major subsp involucrata ‘Shaggy’ having a real impact.
Some varieties such as the Gill Richardson Group have deep maroon flowers and these are best grown in semi-shade or sun where the flowers show up more.
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