Welcome to the half time show! It would be outright wrong to suggest that the best part of the gardening season is behind us. While I love the planting season and turning the soil after a long Canadian winter, I also love the harvest of vegetable, fruits and flowers that the second half of the season brings.
If you are looking for the best performing perennials (plants that come back year after year) for your garden I can recommend a few.
- Butterfly bush (Buddlea). This is the best butterfly magnet on the market. It is classified as a hardy shrub but only to zone 6 (Toronto). I lose mine most winters and replant each year. If you treat them as an annual you will be delighted if they come back next spring. Look for the classic blue butterfly bush plus more recent additions that include white, fuchsia, purple and blue.
- Roseanne geranium. Not the annual flowering plant that you have in a window box or hanging basket (which is really a pelargonium) but the true perennial geranium. I like Roseanne as it blooms longer than any other, which is pretty much all summer long. It is a great ground cover, growing to about 15 cm. or so in sun or part shade. Hardy to zone 4 (Ottawa/Montreal). A repeat performing winner!
- Woody Perennial Hibiscus Rose of Sharon. There are woody shrubs that are in the hibiscus family, which are called Rose of Sharon and they will be in bloom in a week or so. They are great additions to any sunny garden with room to accommodate their 2 metre wide and 2 metre high growth habit. Look for many of the newer bi-colours that feature two colours on each flower. Hardy to zone 5.
- Perennial hibiscus. More accurately, the perennial hibiscus that grows from its own root and reaches up to 2.5 metres in a single season. It's worth a try if you like drama in your garden. It has monstrously huge pie-plate sized flowers that impress everyone.
Other late season perennials include Echinacea, rudbeckia, sedum spectabulis and of course hydrangeas.
You can plant all summer long so, if you are inclined, go for it!
Marck Cullen
