Plant Your Garden for All Season Flowers

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Plant your garden for flowers all season long, a garden burgeoning with beautiful blooms from early Spring on through Fall. All it takes is some strategic plant choices!

Does your garden treat you to a glorious bounty of blooms early on in the season with many perennials and bulbs bounding into action then you are left struggling to get color in your garden for the rest of the Summer?

When you plant your garden for all-season flowers you will never be short of blooms.  Choosing plants with different bloom times is key.

Choices for All Season Flowers

There are numerous options of types of plants for all-season flowers in your garden. Annuals you can start from seed or buy small starts at a local garden center.

There are also many perennials that you can start from seed directly in your garden or by winter sowing ( I personally love this method).

Many flowering shrubs are wonderful additions to your garden and are a great way to build some structure into your design. Early blooming shrubs include azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs, and daphne.

Those are just a few of the options out there. You may find me repeating myself but tour some local gardens, neighbors, or friends’ homes and find what really thrives in your area.

The most beautiful plants are the ones that are hardy and robust in your environment.

pink poppies and larkspur with text overlay, plant for continuous blooms, easy flowers you can grow, Flower Patch Farmhouse

Early Season Flowers


Here in my garden, the color starts with my tulips and daffodils. I have a ton of these red perennial tulips that come back a few years in a row without replanting.

Other tulips I grow I dig up once their foliage fades and store the bulbs in my cool basement for replanting next Fall but I must admit that is not always that successful, the perennial tulips are my go-to choice.

Update: Since I have been struggling with gophers eating my tulip bulbs I have been planting them in containers.

In the garden beds, the planting of daffodils is a better choice. Gophers and other ground critters avoid the daffodils.

Another plus is the daffodils can naturalize which means more of them each year without replanting.

In my mountain garden the daffodils and tulips really get going in April, yet just half an hour down the road they get started in March, so when your Spring bulbs bloom will depend on your individual garden conditions.

Ordering your bulbs early is the key to getting some better choice options, for me that is in July.

Lavender tulips


Here the Lilacs are at their peak in late April to Mid May joining in on the fun.  Click here if you want to know how to grow Lilacs from cuttings.

Or better yet start Lilacs from Suckers (faster and easier for me)

Hyacinths, Hellebores and Windflowers are also going strong.

Plant your Cottage Garden for Continuous Color, Lilacs

Mid Season

Mid May to early June is when the Iris, Clematis, Forget Me Knots, Allium, Creeping Phlox, Foxgloves, Peonies, Icelandic and Oriental Poppies, and Violas begin their flowering. This is when my garden really starts to put on a flamboyant show.

Press here to see this video of the Iris in my garden blooming beautifully.

bearded iris, plant your garden for continuous blooms


I am sure there are many more that bloom alongside these in other gardens but this is what I have.

I watch British garden shows and the blooms seem to overlap more, but I am sure that is due to their milder climate in summer.

The roses begin about the same time as the Iris are in mid-bloom and they take over the show as the Iris fade away.  

The roses put on a grand show at the beginning then settle back into continuous if less generous blooming for the rest of the Summer.

I grow primarily heirloom and David Austin English roses for their toughness, disease resistance, and gorgeous scent.

Augusts Roses, FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com (8 of 41)

Later Season through to Frost

Late June, early July is when my Rudbeckias (aka: Black Eyed Susans), Daisies, Asiatic Lilies, Larkspur, Delphiniums, Hardy Geraniums, Echinaceas,  Cosmos and Shirley Poppies all begin to start to open up.

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Most will keep on blooming until frost as long as I keep them dead-headed.  I just chop and drop as I walk through my gardens most mornings, which means I use my favorite garden snips to cut off the fading bloom so the plant puts energy into producing more buds.

Let the clippings drop to the ground to compost in place, if you prefer you can carry along a bucket to put them in and haul them to your compost pile.  .  (for a list of my favorite garden tools click here)

Like the roses there is a first flush of blooms then they keep blooming but not quite as lush as at the beginning. The Oriental and Trumpet Lilies come on the scene in July.

Dahlias are a new favorite of mine, they bloom from early summer on through to the first frost, they are a fabulous cut flower too.  

The more you cut the more they bloom. Click Here to see how I get more by taking cuttings in Spring!

Islander Dahlia planted in a container

There are tons of annuals you can plant from seed or buy small six packs of at the garden center that will also continue to bloom through the hot part of Summer to add even more color.  Petunias, Zinnia’s, Alyssums….the list goes on.

Late Season

Later the Asters begin alongside the Autumn Sedums and Tall Phlox continues the show.

blue asters, FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com

Of course, as I always say, what grows well in your region may well be something quite different than in mine.  

Find neighbors that garden, visit local greenhouse and garden centers to pick the brain of a trained expert.  

And don’t forget about bright colored foliage plants, they are as pretty as flowers!
I wish you gardening success and a bloomed-filled Summer!

Happy Gardening.

Lazy Gals Garden Guide, how to have a gorgeous garden with little effort, FlowerPatchFarmhouse.com-3
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15 Comments

  1. Yes, that is perfectly acceptable. In fact I have two raised beds filled with tulips that I over planted with Dahlias this year. I makes for beautiful succession planting.

  2. hi, so inspired looking at your gardem. may I know as i have small size garden for my flower bed, is it possible to put dahlia tubers and tulips bulps in the same flower bed? i might separate them in different row but the idea is trying to naturalizing them into the ground without the need for me to take it out . or is it possible to put tulips on the ground and leave it there. and put dahlia in the container but i put it on top of the ground where i planted the tulips, after the tulips has go back to sleep around June? thank you

  3. I really love growing flowers on my lawn! thanks to this very helpful article

  4. Lovely flowers!. I appreciate your key point of choosing plants with different bloom times. That is the main reason why my garden is without blooms. I only choose the spring variety. After spring it looks like debris. Will you guide me on what types of flowering plants grow well in summer. After this, I will grow a few spring blooms and a few summer blooms as well.

    Hopefully, you will provide me with comprehensive tips for growing flowers in frosty weather. I wish to see flowers in cold winters also. I love to read more from you on other topics.

  5. Beautiful flowers! I am sorry to hear about your peony only having one bloom. I know the feeling. I have 6 bushes planted and only 2 bloomed this year. The other 4 were transplanted and I am fearing they may be throwing a pissy fit. Hopefully next year I will see more blooms from them!

  6. I am not so sure about water burning your plants, more than likely it is the hot sun. Most hydrangeas do better with afternoon shade in hotter areas and even where I live where it does not get that hot the one I have in afternoon sun the blooms wither up and dryout when hit with the afternoon sun. I need to move it to a spot that only gets morning sun but afternoon shade or dappled shade. I have another not 3 feet away from the first and it does fine but gets dappled shade all afternoon. Go ahead and dead head. You may well get more blooms, it depends on what type of hydrangea it is. Provide it some shade some how. I am trying different things like moving a potted plant near mine that will shade it when it is hot. I have yet to find the right one that does the job and looks good in that spot. I have a friend who uses a frilly white parasol to provide shade for hers. It works great and looks cute too. 🙂

  7. Hello I love your garden, I was wondering if you know about the hydrangea’s can I live in the south, and I finally got them to bloom but I did a no no and watered them to close to the noon sun, and some have burned. Is it ok to deadhead those?

  8. I sometimes overwhelm myself with the creative endeavors I long to do. I also sew and used to make clothes when my kids were young. Thank you for joining me on the blog, I do love to share. 🙂

  9. Debbie Jones says:

    I will have to try Larkspur! I know they are beautiful! You are lucky you are so creative in many ways! Gardening, painting etc.. Love your blog and look forward to it!

  10. We live in Arnold, CA on Hwy 4. One thing about it, you can grow many things I cannot. 🙂 I did not do well with Delphiniums in Stockton, CA when I lived there but the larkspur did okay and it is a great spark of blue and purple in the garden in place of the Delphiniums. It is about finding what will thrive in your area and loving it. Thriving plants are always much prettier than ones struggling to survive.

  11. Debbie Jones says:

    Beautiful gardens! So nice that so many flowers and plants come up every year without replanting. I wish I could grow peonies here in Southern Ca. Delphiniums are supposed to come back here too but mine never do. What city are you in up North? Looks like you can grow a variety with your weather.Would love to visit your town!

  12. Just beautiful throughout the year!

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