When you invest in a new flowering plant for your garden, you hope to receive a return on your investment: a healthy plant that puts on a beautiful peak-season performance for as many years as possible. However, with seemingly ever-increasing options available at your local garden centers and nurseries, as well as weather conditions that trend toward the volatile and unpredictable, it is becoming more difficult to make smart plant selections. Well-loved varieties are no longer performing as expected and some new additions are not worth the hype they receive, so how do you ensure your garden investment isn’t a complete gamble? If you’re looking to add some more vibrant blooms to your garden this growing season, consider one of the four selections below. These plants will provide a long season of abundant blooms, and will do so without needing a lot of fussing, prodding, or endless watering on your part.
1. Hummingbird Plant
Name: Dicliptera suberecta
Zones: 7–10
Size: 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained soil
Plants that do it all are in vogue, and hummingbird plant certainly fits the bill. The silvery, elliptical leaves cannot be missed. Caressing them is reminiscent of suede, and I like to mingle this Uruguayan species with short, darker green ornamental grasses. It also attracts pollinators. In early summer the plant erupts into hundreds of tubular vermilion flowers that are the perfect shape and color to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds. It is tolerant of our Southern heat, and once established, it needs little if any irrigation.
2. ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ Coneflower
Name: Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’
Zones: 4–9
Size: 2 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to dry, well-drained soil
If my students can grow this native coneflower, then so can you! Its stellar growth and flowering earned it an All-America Selections award and Europe’s FleuroSelect Gold Medal. Unlike most coneflowers grown from seed, ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ can bloom in its first year. When it does, it electrifies the landscape with a warm-colored rainbow of colors that includes hues like berry pink, tomato red, watermelon coral, papaya orange, lemon yellow, and sweet cream. As is typical of coneflowers, the inflorescence is the perfect perch for passing pollinators.
3. Bidwill’s Coral Bean
Name: Erythrina × bidwillii
Zones: 7–10
Size: 8 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained soil
While most plants that breeders cross come and go, Bidwill’s coral bean has stood the test of time for more than 150 years. This mammoth shrub blooms throughout the summer, with numerous long racemes that remind me of ristras of peppers, as the flowers resemble carmine chilis. And an individual inflorescence takes several weeks to fully elongate, which extends the floral spectacle. The medium-sized, trifoliate leaves provide coarse texture in the landscape. I like to cut mine back in late winter, as this species will die to the ground in northern zones but emerges from the base each spring.
4. ‘Grape Sensation’ Texas Firewheel
Name: Gaillardia aestivalis var. winkleri ‘Grape Sensation’
Zones: 7–9
Size: 15 to 24 inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; lean, well-drained soil
This flowering powerhouse is tough enough for parking lot beds. It blooms for most of the summer, and once finished, the individual blossoms morph into a geodesic orb of seeds that will scatter and produce more of this incredible plant. This species is fun to show kids because it has flame-resistant leaves. Hold a leaf up to a flame, and it won’t catch fire. Because it’s endangered and restricted to only a few counties in Texas, search out the purple-flowered form called ‘Grape Sensation’. This cultivar sports purple ray florets instead of the typical white.
Find more fantastic summer flowers:
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Jared Barnes, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Photo: Bill Johnson
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