Summer blossoms provide essential nourishment to bees, butterflies, and other insects, ensuring the cycle of life continues in harmony. Let's uncover 5 hardy, easy-to-grow perennials that thrive in summer's embrace and create bustling havens for pollinators.
5 Hardy, Pollinator-Loving, Summer-Flowering Perennials to Include in Your Garden
As summer stretches across the landscape and gardens hum with life, summer-flowering perennials play a starring role in the garden, offering more than just beauty. Summer blossoms provide essential nourishment to bees, butterflies, and other insects, ensuring the cycle of life continues in harmony.
Let's uncover 5 hardy, easy-to-grow perennials that thrive in summer's embrace and create bustling havens for pollinators.
- Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
Daylilies are tough, hardy, adaptable, clumping, non-invasive flowering herbaceous perennials perfect for zone 3-4 gardens. Daylilies have numerous landscaping applications, including rock gardens, pollinator gardens, mass plantings, and focal points.
Proven Winners has an outstanding selection of Daylilies. My personal favourites are Rainbow Rhythm® 'Storm Shelter', 'Going Bananas', and 'Nosferatu'. Ones I'd love to add to my collection include Rainbow Rhythm® 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears,' 'Siloam Peony'... I lied - I just want them all!
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- Hardy Geranium (Cranesbill)
Hardy Geraniums are one of those garden standbys that are incredibly reliable for perennial gardens. Hardy geraniums grow best in full and part-sun locations with evenly moist soil and are drought-tolerant once well established. They will continue to flower through the growing season if they are deadheaded.
Proven Winners 'New Hampshire Purple' is hardy in zones 4-9 and grows electric magenta-pink five-petaled flowers atop well-behaved, 30-45 cm (12-18") tall mounds of deeply lobed green leaves.
Proven Winners 'Boom Chocolatta' is another zone 4-9 option. It grows 60-90 cm (24-36") tall and sports medium purple flowers above green-bronze leaves and stems.
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- Perennial Salvia (Sage)
Perennial Salvia is another heat-loving, hardy, zone 3-8 perennial that bears long-lasting flowers along strong spires. Deadhead Salvias to encourage more growth and flowering.
Proven Winners has a comprehensive collection of Perennial Salvia options for northern gardens. The Color Spires® series has 6 beautiful colour choices of varieties ranging in height from 40-60 cm (16-24").
Also, check out Living Large 'Big Sky' and the Salvia 'Profusion' series.
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- Hollyhocks (Alcea)
As a northern sunny garden staple, Hollyhocks lend a cottage vibe and add dramatic height to perennial gardens. Pollinators are fond of single-flowering Hollyhocks because the trumpet-shaped flowers are easily accessible and simple to land on.
Hollyhock flowers have a long show of colour as they bloom from the bottom upward on tall, 5-6' (1.5-2 m) strong stalks. Most Hollyhocks are hardy in zones 3-9.
Proven Selections 'Mars Magic' sports bright red flowers, Spotlight 'Radiant Rose' offers bright pink colour, and 'Black Knight' dons intruding
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- Eryngium (Sea Holly)
Eryngium is a literal bee magnet. Sea Holly thrives in toasty-hot locations and tolerates dry weather conditions once it is well established.
Proven Selections 'Blue Glitter' grows 60-66 cm (24-26") and sports powdery-blue stems and leaves with oval leaves that have extraordinary texture to a sunny landscape. These features also work well in fresh-cut flower arrangements and dry well for dried flower arrangements.
These exceptional perennial choices offer gardeners in northern climates an array of beauty, resilience, and biodiversity. Whether you’re drawn to the vibrant hues of Hollyhocks, the striking textures of Sea Holly, or the refined elegance of Salvia, these Proven Winners and Selections are bound to elevate your gardening experience.
Embrace the possibilities and watch your pollinator garden flourish into a thriving sanctuary of colour and life!
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