Best plants with spectacular blooms for hotter summers

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The reality of our changing climate and extreme weather should motivate us be strategic in planning and planting our gardens. We need to choose plants that tick off more boxes. From hardiness and heat tolerance, to being pollinator and wildlife friendly, the team of plants in today’s gardens must provide a higher level of performance.

Our plants should be self-cleaning, play nicely with their companions and bloom longer into our seasons. Many perennials, in particular, are now being bred for longer garden performances with less maintenance and better weather tolerance.

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I admire many of our city parks departments for their choices in street and median plantings. We all get to enjoy their year-round plantings as we drive through communities and at the same time, we should also take note of their plant choices. With only minimal care, exposure to car exhaust, little growing space, extra heat exposure from the surrounding pavement and no cold protection, it’s truly amazing how well these plants survive. The list of these resilient perennials has expanded year after year, so that now, there are some truly great standouts.

A few years ago, rumours originating in Europe suggested that nepeta was overtaking lavender in terms of popularity. Well, that trend did not play out over here as both nepeta and lavender are top selling perennials.

Proven Winners’ Lavandula angustifolia Sweet Romance is exceptional because of its compact nature, long blooming habit and good size flowers. Dummen Orange in Holland has also introduced some very long flowering lavenders, such as the La Diva series, of which Eternal Fragrance is the longest flowering, often extending its bloom period into late summer. Many other varieties, such as L. Essence Purple not only have extra-long flowering times, but they also produce beautiful perfumes, are easy care and offer zone 5 hardiness. All these qualities have kept lavenders on top of the best garden perennials list.

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Often hardy to zone 3, nepetas, with their long-blooming, pollinator-friendly blue flowers, have jumped the plant queue and are now at the front of the line. Proven Winners N. Cat’s Pyjamas and N. Cat’s Meow are both relatively short and have extended blooming periods. Darwin Plants from Holland, along with Walters Gardens in the U.S., have also introduced N. Kitten Around, a low-growing beauty that blooms from June through August. Nepeta Little Trudy is another low, blue wonder with a May to October flowering period. To be fair, most nepetas, like Junior Walker, are long flowering and play nicely with anything pink or silver for months of summer beauty. I’ll always remember a long water planting at Wisely Gardens in England with banks of roses accompanied by nepeta.  Wow!

Pure white candytuft (Iberis) has become a garden must-have because it is such a great accent for all our spring plantings and bulbs. It’s an early pollinator plant that requires little care once established, and its low, green foliage is attractive when the plant is not in flower. Most varieties, like I. Snowflake and I. Alexander’s White, are hardy to zone 3. Less hardy zone 4 and zone 6 varieties are also noteworthy. Darwin’s I. Snowsation is rated as zone 4A, and it has the largest flowers of any candytuft. I. Summer Snowdrift is, perhaps, the most tender at zone 6B, but it flowers from May to October — longer than any other variety.

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There’s been an achillea revival as well. They have a wonderful native heritage, look like wildflowers, attract pollinators and can be used as cuts. Dummen Orange has bred some new prairie hardy varieties with larger flower umbels and bold colours. The A. Skysail Series comes in three bold colours and is quite spectacular. Darwin has developed a zone 4 hardy variety called the New Vintage Series, which blooms amazingly well from April to September. They have a good white, red rose and violet that deserve a spot in your environmentally friendly garden.

Perovskia or Russian sage has taken on a life of its own over the past few years. It is valued for its midsummer, silvery-blue foliage and flowers. It’s very heat, drought and cold tolerant. Pollinators love it, and it makes such a great statement in a summer garden. Darwin’s Little Lace, Blue Jean Baby and Crazy Blue are all more compact varieties with long flowering periods between July and September, and they look attractive planted with grasses. Proven Winners has introduced P. Denim’n’ Lace a more compact variety with strong stems. It creates a nice full look over a long blooming period.

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The many species of sedums are really beginning to have an impact in the perennial world. Perhaps the most colourful are the flat, spreading S. Sunsparkler Series’ These ground covers are zone 4 hardy and come in seven or eight varieties with a wide range of outstanding foliage. They all flower in August and September, but it’s their leaves that really demand your attention.

The stonecrop Sedum Spectaculars have really made a difference in our gardens for many reasons. Proven Winners have introduced new varieties with unique foliage and flowers. S. Rock ‘n’ Grow Lemonjade has attractive grey-green foliage with yellow flowers and rosy peach seed heads. Sedum Rock ‘n’ Grow Back in Black has bronze-black foliage with garnet red flowers. I love S. Rock ‘n’ Grow Tiramisu with its bronze foliage and contrasting pink to cream flowers in fall. Sedums are the new cut flowers for late fall, and they look nice combined with dahlias and any other fall blooms. They are all zone 3 hardy, and pollinators love them.

As we look forward to summer and fall garden colour, these are some of the best varieties that tick a lot of boxes. I didn’t mention leucanthemums, heliopsis, veronicas, scabiosa, day lilies, coreopsis or armesia, but they are all part of our new environmental garden team.

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You might not be able to find all of these varieties just yet but keep checking your garden stores for these summer jewels.

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