Long-blooming perennials promise lots of joy with minimal maintenance. Here are some of the most persistent flowering perennials for your garden.
Who doesn’t dream of a flower bed full of perennials that delight us with their blooms all summer long? In addition to annual summer flowers like petunias, geraniums, or begonias—which bloom for months in balcony boxes and pots—there are also hardy perennials for your garden that produce new flowers continuously over weeks.
These long-bloomers are especially popular with hobby gardeners because they provide a season-long explosion of flowers and attract butterflies, bees, and bumblebees with their reliable nectar.
The range of long-blooming perennials is greater than you might think. Spring is the perfect time to plant and a great opportunity to create new beds or enhance existing borders. Here are our top five long-blooming perennials.
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Top Long-Blooming Perennials at a Glance
- Large-Flowered Tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora)
- Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri)
- Anise Hyssop (Agastache hybrid)
- Double Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica ‘Schneeball’)
- Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber var. coccineus)
Large-Flowered Tickseed
The large-flowered tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora) is a popular long-blooming perennial. We especially love the semi-double variety ‘Early Sunrise,’ which flowers from June to November with cheerful yellow blooms that brighten up any garden.
It’s ideal for perennial beds and grows to about 45 cm (18 inches) tall. Tickseed needs a sunny location and a moist, humus- and nutrient-rich soil. In summer, it also works well as a cut flower in bouquets.
Gaura (Bee Blossom)
A graceful and enduring plant, Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri), also known as bee blossom or wand flower, blooms from July to October with delicate white flower spikes that gently arch outward.
Growing between 60 and 100 cm (24–39 inches) tall, Gaura thrives in warm, sunny spots with well-drained, sandy, and low-nutrient soils. Its bushy, upright growth habit adds an elegant touch to the garden. Spring is the best time to plant it.
Anise Hyssop (‘Linda’)
The anise hyssop ‘Linda’ (Agastache hybrid) enchants with its delicate appearance and violet blooms on deep red calyxes from July to October.
Also known as mountain mint, this member of the mint family is wonderfully aromatic. It is undemanding, thriving in dry, sandy soil under full sun. As a bonus, it attracts butterflies and other pollinators to your garden.
Double Sneezewort
From June to September, the Double Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica ‘Schneeball’) offers bright white highlights in the garden. It prefers slightly moist, nutrient-rich soils and a sunny to semi-shady location.
With a height of 70 cm (27 inches), it’s great for planting in front of shrubs or using as a transition plant in layered flower beds.
Red Valerian
A classic among long-blooming perennials, Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber var. coccineus) is a staple in many gardens—and for good reason. This tireless member of the honeysuckle family blooms from June to September in shades of soft red to pink.
It is very low-maintenance and grows in dry, rocky soils as well as regular garden soil. It needs a sunny to lightly shaded spot. Red Valerian also thrives in wall crevices and paving joints, not just flower beds.
Pro Tip: Since this short-lived perennial self-seeds heavily, cutting it back partially after flowering prevents excessive spreading and often leads to a second flush of blooms after September.
How to Extend the Blooming Period of Long-Flowering Perennials
- Cut back spent flower stems close to the ground, fertilize, and water regularly—this often encourages new growth and a second flowering phase after several weeks.
This method works well for delphiniums, yarrow, globe thistle, salvia, and masterwort. - For phlox, pinching off some shoots before blooming can stagger flowering, as the trimmed stems bloom later than uncut ones.
- Regular deadheading (removing faded blooms) encourages new bud formation in plants like coreopsis, asters, dahlias, and many annuals.
- Cutting back sprawling perennials like catmint before blooming helps extend the overall flowering time by encouraging a later second flush.
- For naturally sequential bloomers like scabious, heliopsis, sneezeweed, coneflower, and beardtongue, removing individual wilted stems prevents seed formation and promotes new flower shoots.
Design Ideas with Long-Blooming Perennials
The creative possibilities for using long-bloomers in the garden are endless. These perennials are ideal for front yards, borders, terraces, or island beds in the lawn, where they provide color and interest for weeks or even months.
Here’s an easy-to-replicate idea for a sunny round bed full of long-flowering perennials:
- Avens ‘Prinses Juliana’ (Geum, orange blooms, May–Aug) on the left
- Anise hyssop ‘Blue Fortune’ (July–Sep) behind
- White bleeding heart ‘Alba’ (May–June) in the back
- Purple coneflower ‘Hot Papaya’ (July–Sep) as a focal point
- Daylily ‘Kwanso’ (July–Aug, orange blooms) on the right
- Himalayan Cranesbill ‘Derrick Cook’ (June–July) and
- Sedge ‘Gold Fountains’ in the front complete the look
At the center stands a fountain, adding structure and elegance to the scene.
