10 of the Best Long Flowering Plants

One of the first long flowering plants which comes to mind is lavender. There are many varieties to choose from and all stay in flower with graceful fading blooms for a good period. Lavandula angustifolia is one of the best, illustrated is 'Hidcote'. Also worth bearing in mind that the French Lavenders, Stoechas, although not as hardy, will continue to flower if regularly dead headed. Advice about Lavender's specific growing conditions.

Sedums look great from mid summer when they form buds as shown above, until late November when the frost settles on the faded flower heads. They are easy to grow, drought resistant and a magnet for butterflies. Fully hardy and blooming in many shades of red, there are also some white varieties, ( short video showing pollinators and sedums) which the butterflies love, and low growing yellow varieties much visited by the bees.

All about Sedums.

Hydrangea have two flowering advantages. Firstly, they are long flowering and secondly they age gracefully with resplendent flower heads right up to the first frosts. The colours fade gracefully and still make great cut flowers right up to the end of the season. Hydrangea can get large so it's important to pick one suited to your garden. That said, Hydrangeas will grow in partial shade and tolerate many conditions-check out growing tips.

Dahlia will flower from midsummer until the first frosts. Dahlia produces a continuous supply of new flowers all summer long and as long as they are dead headed regularly, the flowers will keep on coming. 

The price for all that colour in the border is Dahlia does need some attention- tips about growing Dahlias.

Achillea is another long flowering plant whose blooms look good as they fade. Illustrated is Achillea cerise and the flowers fade to pale pink over time. Achillea is easy to grow, fully hardy although a relatively short lived perennial combines well with many other popular perennials such as Echinacea (Coneflower,) and grasses.

Images and growing tips.

Erigeron, is a summer flowering herbaceous perennial often overlooked. It has small flowers and its common name is fleabane, but it flowers for a long time and looks fabulous in containers, self seeding over steps and patios and just keeps ongoing.

It's a tough, easy to grow demanding only a decent amount of sun. It's very unfussy about soil conditions. Planted in the right place, it looks very effective.

Whilst not a flower, grasses provide colour and interest in borders for months. I've put together a slide show because there are just so many to choose from I could not pick a single variety. Simmering in the summer, bronze autumn tints and even looking good in the snow. There are lots of images and planting ideas here.  

Hellebores are a group of winter flowering perennials which remain in flower from December to late March, depending on the variety. They are easy to grow, tolerant of most conditions and self seed to form large clumps of colour in the winter months. There is a wide range of colours to choose from.

A long flowering perennial, Agapanthus is for me just irresistible. Stylish, suitable for borders or containers, they flower for a long time and the seed heads look good after flowering is over. Agapanthus can be both deciduous and evergreen depending on the variety, and some are hardier than others. Contrary to popular garden beliefs, Agapanthus will tolerate light shade even though they are sun loving.

Probably one of the longest flowering garden plants, hardy geraniums start flowering around May, and continue to October, depending on the variety. One of the longest flowering varieties is Geranium 'Johnson's blue' (illustrated) which is also attractive to bees. Walking around my area in late October, there were several gardens with this hardy geraniums still flowering.

There are several varieties of hardy fuchsia, this is F. 'Genii' which I particularly like. It has larger flowers than some varieties, strong colour in fuchsia and purple. Hardy fuchsia flower for a long time. I took this image in my garden on 22.10 and the shrub, which had been in flower all summer, was still going strong.

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