Stephen Albert
Summer is the time when the greatest number of blooms appear in the garden. Summer temperatures are warm enough to sow or transplant out all warm-season annuals, tender bulbs, and perennials. The summer garden will include some spring-planted flowers.
Flowers planted in summer are likely to give a second and even third bloom if the faded blossoms are removed promptly. Many will continue to grow into autumn if temperatures stay warm.
This list of summer-blooming flowers is aimed at gardens near 40 degrees North latitude (this latitude runs from Toms River, New Jersey, through Philadelphia, through Columbus Ohio, through Boulder, Colorado to Humboldt County in far northern California).
You may find that the plants on this list bloom a bit earlier or later than the time designated. Gardeners further north will find that their flowers will bloom later, and gardeners to the south will have earlier blooms.
Annuals and perennials assigned to early summer may bloom through the summer, especially if blooms are deadhead. Deadhead means to remove spent blossoms so that a plant can produce more.
If you find a plant named in an early list repeated in a later list that simply means the plant can be set in the garden if it was not introduced earlier. It can also mean if the plant was listed earlier, it is long blooming.
Here are separate lists for early summer, mid-summer, and late summer. These lists include annuals, bulbs, perennials, and roses.
Early summer blooming flowers
- Achillea, yarrow (some bloom all summer)
- Ageratum, flossflower (all summer)
- Allium, giant garlic
- Amorpha, false indigo
- Anthemis, golden marguerite
- Anthericum, St. Bernard’s lily
- Antirrhinum, snapdragon
- Armeria, sea pink
- Aruncus, goatsbeard
- Astilbe
- Baptisia, blue false indigo
- Calendula, pot marigold
- Campanula clustered bellflower, peach-leaved bellflower
- Centaurea, globe centaurea, mountain bluet
- Cleome, spider flower
- Consolida, rocket larkspur
- Coreopsis, dwarf-eared coreopsis, lance-leaved coreopsis
- Dictamnus, gas plant
- Digitalis foxglove (reblooms in late summer if cut back)
- Eremurus, foxtail lily
- Erigeron, fleabane
- Filipendula, queen-of-the prairie
- Gaillardia, blanketflower (all summer)
- Galega, goat’s rue (all summer)
- Geranium, Armenia cranesbill, Iberian cranesbill
- Gypsophila, creeping baby’s breath
- Hemerocallis, daylilies (early to late summer depending on variety)
- Hesperis, dame’s rocket
- Iberis, globe candytuff
- Inula, swordleaf inula
- Iris, Japanese iris, Siberian iris
- Kniphofia, red-hot poker
- Lanvandula, lavender
- Leucanthemum, shasta daisy
- Lilium, coral lily, meadow lily, regal lily
- Linum, blue flax (all summer), golden flax
- Lobelia, edging lobelia (early summer to fall, slows in hot weather)
- Lupinus, lupine
- Lychnis, Maltese cross, rose campion
- Lysimachia, gooseneck loosestrife
- Malva, hollyhock mallow
- Oenothera, evening primrose, sundrops
- Optunia, prickly pear
- Petunia (early summer to fall)
- Potentilla, shrubby cinquefoil (early to late summer)
- Rosa, floribunda roses (all summer), grandiflora roses (all summer), hybrid tea roses (early to midsummer, some repeat bloom), miniature roses (all summer), climbing roses (off and on all summer), rambler roses (may bloom again in early fall), shrub roses (some bloom once in early summer, others bloom all summer)
- Scabisoa, pincushion flower (early summer to early fall)
- Sidalcea, prairie mallow
- Tagetes, marigold (early summer into fall)
- Tanacetum, pyrethrum
- Tropaeolum, nasturtium (all summer)
- Verbascum, mullein
- Verbena, garden verbena (early to late summer)
- Veronica, germander speedwell, spike speedwell wooly speedwell
- Zinnia (all summer)
Mid-summer blooming flowers
- Acanthus, bear’s breeches
- Achillea, wooly yarrow
- Adenophora, lady bells
- Agapanthus, lily-of-the-Nile
- Alcea, hollyhock
- Allium, various flowering onions
- Anaphalis, pearly everlasting
- Asclepias, butterfly weed
- Belamcanda, blackberry lily
- Callistephus, China aster
- Campanula, Canterbury bells
- Celosia, woolflower
- Centaurea, basket flower
- Chelone, turtlehead
- Cimicifuga, black snakeroot
- Coreopsis, threadleaf coreopsis
- Dahlia (midsummer to early fall, depending on variety)
- Delphinium, hybrid delphinium
- Dianthus, carnation
- Echinacea, purple coneflower
- Echinops, globe thistle
- Erigeron, fleabane (much of the year in warm climates)
- Erynigium, sea holly
- Euphorbia, flowering spurge
- Fuchsia, hybrid fuchsia
- Gentiana, willow gentian
- Gladiolus (midsummer to frost)
- Gypsophila, annual and perennial baby’s breath
- Helianthus, sunflower
- Heliopsis, false sunflower
- Hemerocallis, tawny daylily, hybrid daylilies
- Hosta, plantain lily (mid to late summer, depending on species or variety)
- Hypericum, St.-John’s-wort
- Lamium, spotted dead nettle
- Liatris, gayfeather
- Lilium, many hybrid lilies
- Limonium, sea lavender, statice
- Lobelia, cardinal flower
- Lythrum, purple loosestrife
- Macleaya, plume poppy
- Malva, musk mallow
- Monarda, bee balm
- Penstemon
- Phlox, annual phlox, garden or summer phlox
- Physostegia, false dragonhead
- Platycodon, balloon flower
- Rudbeckia, black-eyed Susan
- Salvia, mealy-cup sage, scarlet sage, violet sage
- Saponaria, bouncing bet
- Sedum, stonecrop
- Stachys, big betony
- Stokesia, Stokes’ aster
- Tanacetm, feverfew
- Veronica
- Yucca
Late summer blooming flowers
- Acontium, monkshood
- Anemone, Japanese anemone
- Aster, A. x frikartii
Chelone, pink turtlehead - Coreopsis, pink tickseed
- Dendrathema, garden chrysanthemum
- Eryngium, Mediterranean sea holly
- Gentiana
- Helenium, sneezeweed
- Hosta, plantain lily
- Hyssopus, hyssop
- Ligularia
- Lilium, various hybrid lilies, tiger lily, late blooming forms of L. formosanum
- Lobelia, great blue lobelia
- Salvia, blue sage, azure sage
- Sanguisorba, great burnet
- Sedum, ‘Autumn joy’
- Thalictrum, lavender
- Zauschneria, California fuchsia
