For a hardy low maintenance garden select sturdy perennials that bloom for months

If you already have way too much garden to maintain, or maybe you just have very limited time, design your garden bed with the longest blooming perennials. Carefully sequencing several short blooming perennials is not only difficult but may also take several attempts before getting constant blooming. By selecting long blooming perennials that are easy to grow and care for your garden can look great all season with just a few long blooming plants.

Start by focusing on the longest blooming perennials that begin their bloom in each season, early , mid and late season. If each of these selections blooms for many weeks if not months at a time, planning for non stop blooming is easy. Take care to select plants appropriate for your sun, soil and moisture conditions of course, as well as basic design principles to plan color and texture combinations. Try to select five or six in varying bloom seasons and use groupings of each. Perhaps repeat scattered groups throughout your property or within a large bed to create repetition and unify the garden spaces.

Although these perennials do a lovely job of producing blooms over a long period, most are encouraged to produce even more if you can find the time to shear off spent blooms. The mid season bloomers tend to be very showy stars of the garden but may have slightly shorter bloom periods. But six weeks of star performance in the height of summer is plenty. Occasional division of the plants will also generally extend the life by propagating vigorous new plants.

EARLY BLOOMERS

Bleeding Heart ‘Luxuriant’ Hardy in zones 2 to 9 this early bloomer is perfect in your shady garden. Delicate pink hearts are suspended above ferny foliage from late spring through much of summer.

Catmint ‘Walker’s Low’ Hardy in zones 3 to 9, this low spreading Nepata rises early and blooms like crazy nearly all season. You can shear it back mid season to encourage heavier blooming. It starts to diminish by middle autumn but has put on a great show at the front of your garden long enough by then. This is arguably the best long bloomer you can add to your gardens.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ Hardy in zones 4 to 9, this low mounded perennial starts producing blooms in early summer and will continue blooming moderately until frost, more reliably if spent blooms are sheared off.

MID SEASON BLOOMERS

Agastache Although most are only hardy to zones 5 or 6, Agastache offers beautiful tall spires of blooms from July to September or October. A much easier alternative to Delphinium. They do need division when the blooming diminishes every few years.

Astilbe Hardy in zones 4 to 9 Astilbe is one of the longest blooming perennials that you can use in both shady and sunny gardens. Graceful feathery spires of bloom appear in mid summer and last up to winter. Even in winter the dried plumes are quite lovely. Do make sure Astilbe receives adequate water, especially in dry periods of summer.

Coneflower ‘White Swan’ and ‘Magnus’ Hardy in zones 3 to 9, these are just two shining stars in the coneflower family. They can bloom for months even in hot and dry periods. Beginning in early summer the blooms continue well into autumn. Deadheading will encourage even more blooms.

Coreopsis ‘Full Moon’ is hardy in zones 5 to 9, but several varieties are even hardier, ‘Moonbeam’ is a favorite. The drought tolerant perennial blooms from early summer to early autumn, deadhead spent blooms to encourage continuous blooming.

Phlox Tall garden Phlox are hardy to zone 4, and some to zone 3. A staple of the garden, they generally begin their bloom in July and continue through September. Deadheading will encourage repeat blooming.

Yarrow Hardy in zones 3 to 9, tall flat stalks produces colorful flat bloom clusters beginning in early summer. In full sun with poor to average soil Yarrow will bloom six to eight weeks.

LATE SEASON BLOOMERS

Aster several varieties of Aster are available with hardiness to zones 3, 4 or 5. Each also has varying bloom times but generally in the North and Midwest blooming begins in August and continues through October.

Black Eyed Susan ‘Goldsturm’ Hardy in zones 3 to 9, this Rudbeckia is an all time favorite. Coming into bloom in late summer, the bold golden blooms last for several weeks, into autumn. Deadheading the spent blooms will allow the bloom to persist well into October.

This is a great list for getting started, but there are surely others that do exceptionally well in your specific region, soil conditions and even microclimate.