Summer Color for Sunny Sites
Long-blooming flowers perfect for adding color and extending interest in sunny, summer landscapes.
Annuals (8)
Butterfly Attracting (81)
Creative Containers (52)
Drought-Defiant (87)
Midwest Native (84)
Salt-Tolerant Plants (26)
Shade-tolerant (54)
Trees & Shrubs (74)
Achillea 'Seduction Series'
Common Name: Seduction Yarrow
Seduction Yarrow offers generous production of long-lasting flowers in vivid hues, dense, sturdy, columnar habit, and stellar garden performance even in hot, humid conditions. 'Strawberry Seduction' offers true red florets; 'Saucy' is rosy-pink and '...
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Achillea filipendulina ''Gold Plate''
Common Name: Gold Plate Yarrow
Gold Plate Yarrow is a single clump-forming plant can produce a show all by itself. Fragrant, grayish green leaves on strong flower stems bear large golden, flat-topped flower clusters that attract butterflies. Excellent with dark ...
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Achillea millefolium ''Red Beauty''
Common Name: Red Beauty Yarrow
Red Beauty Yarrow is renowned for its large clusters of bright red flowers. Each individual flower in the cluster also has a distinctive yellow eye. As is the case with all Yarrows, the flowers fade as they age; Red Beauty Yarrow fades from red to so...
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Achillea millefolium ''Paprika''
Common Name: Paprika Yarrow
Paprika Yarrow is renowned for its large clusters of bright red flowers. Each individual flower in the cluster also has a distinctive yellow eye. As is the case with all Yarrows, the flowers fade as they age; Paprika Yarrow fades from red to pink. Pl...
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Agastache ''Blue Fortune''
Common Name: Blue Fortune Agastache
Creates mass of soft powder-blue flower spikes from July onwards, making it a magnet for butterflies and admiring visitors alike. Robust addition for sunny, dry borders....
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Agastache ''Purple Haze''
Common Name: Purple Haze Agastache
Purple Haze Agastache offers elegant, upright spikes over aromatic foliage and continue to look good until frost. The prolific lavender-blue flowers emerge from contrasting deep rose-pink calyces....
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Agastache aurantiaca 'Coronado Red'
Common Name: Coronado Hyssop
Bright yellow flowers tinted with orange mid-summer to frost. Silvery-leaved, southwestern perennial native is intensely aromatic. Needs well-drained site....
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Armeria splendens
Common Name: Sea Thrift
Low tufted foliage and globe-shaped flowers of Sea Thrift make it perfect for container plantings, the rock garden, border, or as a ground cover....
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Asclepias curassavica
Common Name: Blood Flower
Blood flower is a South American evergreen perennial in the milkweed family with a much longer flowering period than the Midwest native perennial milkweeds. Glossy, strap-like leaves are medium green, sometimes with white midribs. Showy flowers with ...
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Baptisia X bicolor ''Starlite Prairieblues''
Common Name: Starlite Prairieblues Wild Indigo
Starlite Prairieblues Wild Indigo has soft blue, pea-shaped flowers that glow white at the base for a sparkling overall appearance. A good strong grower with long spikes of flowers in early summer....
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Canna 'Orange Punch'
Common Name: Orange Punch Canna
'Orange Punch' Canna has large, open, rich orange flowers with bright yellow at the throat. Blooms almost continuously. Bright green foliage. Shorter medium height works well in borders or containers....
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Caryopteris incana ''Jason''
Common Name: Sunshine Blue Caryopteris
Sunshine Blue Caryopteris has rich golden foliage, amethyst-blue blooms in tall spikes, and bushy, well-branched habit make Sunshine Blue® the best way to brighten the sunny garden in late summer and fall.
This shrub leafs out bright gold in sprin...
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Coreopsis lanceolata ''Jethro Tull''
Common Name: Jethro Tull Coreopsis
Jethro Tull Coreopsis is an exceptional Coreopsis cultivar with that large, golden-orange flowers from early to mid-summer. The unique flowers have fluted petals that surround a darker button-like center. It has a wonderful compact habit and is extre...
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Coreopsis verticillata ''Moonbeam''
Common Name: Moonbeam Coreopsis
Sun-loving plant with fernlike foliage and loads of creamy yellow blooms....
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Dianthus gratianopolitanus ''Firewitch''
Common Name: Firewitch Dianthus
Maximum color impact from Firewitch Dianthus, a German cultivar. Firewitch Dianthus offers one of the bluest-foliaged, most heat-tolerant and most tolerant of varying soil conditions of the many types of Dianthus. Prolific blooms extend throughout th...
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Echinacea purpurea ''Double Delight''
Common Name: Double Delight Coneflower
Compact and free flowering defines Double Delight Coneflower. Flowers are consistently double upon blooming. The stems are sturdy and numerous for a full appearance in containers and in the landscape....
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Echinacea purpurea ''Fragrant Angel''
Common Name: Fragrant Angel Coneflower
Fragrant Angel Coneflower has large, fragrant, white flowers. The double rows of petals are held horizontally, making the show even better. Tall, vigorous plants have strong branches and flower profusely all summer long. 'Fragrant Angel' makes a grea...
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Echinacea purpurea ''After Midnight''
Common Name: After Midnight Coneflower
Echinacea 'After Midnight' is short, upright, and bushy--ideal for containers or the front of a border, where its coloring will create impact. Dramatic, almost black stems hold flower heads of rich fuschia-purple petals surrounding a dark red cone....
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Echinacea purpurea
Common Name: Purple Coneflower
Purple Coneflower is a perennial favorite with robust, drought tolerant perennial, native to the midwestern and southeastern United States. Prefers full sun to partial shade in fertile, well-drained soils. Easy to naturalize....
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Echinacea purpurea ''Summer Sky''
Common Name: Summer Sky Coneflower
Summer Sky Coneflower is a pastel two-tone coneflower--the first of its kind! Pale coral-orange petal tips fade to reddish pink at their bases, and are centered around an orange cone. Large flowered, prolific and very fragrant from late June until fr...
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Echinacea purpurea ''Green Envy''
Common Name: Green Envy Coneflower
This robust variety has petals of a cooling light green surrounding dark green cones -- the ideal complement to hotter colors of high summer. Flowering begins in July and continues into autumn. Plants thrive in average soils or hot, dry conditions an...
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Echinacea purpurea ''Kim's Knee High''
Common Name: Kim's Knee High Purple Coneflower
Kim's Knee High Coneflower has big, bright flowers that first appear in late June and keep coming into September. Plants thrive in average soils or hot, dry conditions; shrug off cold; and are equally at home in full sun or partial shade....
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Echinacea purpurea ''Coconut Lime''
Common Name: Coconut Lime Coneflower
Coconut Lime Coneflower is a white double selection with pale green at the center of the cone. Tolerates moist sites equally well....
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Echinacea purpurea ''Razzmatazz''
Common Name: Razzmatazz Coneflower
Tough plant with big flowers, crammed with bright pink petals and set atop sturdy stems! Like all Echinacea, Razzmatazz is durable, disease-resistant, drought-tolerant, heat- and humidity-loving, and untroubled by pests and diseases. A cultivar of ou...
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Eragrostis spectabilis
Common Name: Purple Love Grass
Purple Love Grass has mounds of fine-textured, green foliage with clouds of finely-branched, reddish-purple panicles in late summer. Short lived but self-sows freely to maintain stands. Plant in full sun with average, well-drained soil....
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Euphorbia polychroma ''Bonfire''
Common Name: Bonfire Euphorbia
'Bonfire' Euphorbia is a great spurge cultivar with striking mahogany red foliage. Unlike other Euphorbias that may turn red in the fall, 'Bonfire' displays its smoldering red foliage all summer. Bright yellow flower bracts contrast well with the dee...
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Gaillardia ''Oranges and Lemons''
Common Name: Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia
Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia offers a new color form of tough Gaillardia that is spectacularly prolific. Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia is ideal for poor soil in plenty of sun. It can also take summer humidity and winter cold....
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Gaillardia pulchella ''Fanfare''
Common Name: Fanfare Gaillardia
Gaillardia is a North American genus of showy native annuals and perennials grown for their profuse and long-running bloom and their utter indifference to heat and drought. One of many new cultivar varieties especially suited to native beds is 'Fanfa...
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Helenium X Helbro ''Mardi Gras''
Common Name: Mardi Gras Sneezeweed
Mardi Gras Sneezeweed provides numerous multicolored blooms for six to eight weeks in summer, from late June to early August. Yellow petals, lavishly splashed with orange red, form wildly patterned stiff skirts around deep brown, mounded center cones...
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Helianthus salicifolius ''Table Mountain''
Common Name: Table Mountain Sunflower
Table Mountain Sunflower is a remarkable short form of our native Willow-Leaved Sunflower. The plants are self supporting and feature a plateau of brilliant, dark-eyed yellow daisies from summer right through fall....
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Hemerocallis ''Rosy Returns''
Common Name: Rosy Returns Daylily
Rosy Returns Daylily is a hybrid of Stella de Oro, so you expect bloom strength, but it's got something more -- the ability to rebloom from early June right up to frost! Large, 4" flowers bloom from early summer until hard frost. Excellent in massed ...
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Hemerocallis ''Double Orange''
Common Name: Double Orange Daylily
Double Orange Daylily offers brilliant orange, double flowers! Large, 4" flowers bloom from early summer until hard frost. Excellent in massed plantings or naturalized....
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Hemerocallis ''Happy Returns''
Common Name: Happy Returns Daylily
Happy Returns Daylily is a hybrid of Stella de Oro, so you expect bloom strength, but it's got something more -- the ability to rebloom from early June right up to frost! Large, 4" flowers bloom from early summer until hard frost. Excellent in massed...
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Hemerocallis ''Chicago Apache''
Common Name: Chicago Apache Daylily
Chicago Apache Daylily is a perennial award winner, and for good reason. Plants offer abundance of large, five-inch diameter blossoms, vibrant deep red color and hardiness in a variety of climates and soils. Low-maintenance and easy-to-grow, pest res...
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Hemerocallis ''Stella d'Oro''
Common Name: Stella d'Oro Daylily
Stella d'Oro Daylily is a great choice for a variety of well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Dwarf, everblooming variety with multitudes of dainty, canary-yellow flowers. By far one of the best daylilies available. The Stella D'Oro daylily h...
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Impatiens hybrida ''SunPatiens''
Common Name: Busy Lizzie Impatiens
Sun-loving Busy Lizzie SunPatiens has exceptional vigour and ability to withstand rain, wind, humidity, scorching heat and cool shade. Busy Lizzie Impatiens is one of the SunPatiens cultivars, all plants of superior qualities: quicker to establish, s...
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Imperata cylindrica var. koenigii ''Red Baron''
Common Name: Japanese Blood Grass
Japanese Blood Grass is a slow-spreading clump grass. Tall upright leaves emerge green with red tips in spring, turn completely red by late summer and fall, then copper in winter. Plant in full sun for best color with evenly moist, well-drained soil....
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Knautia macedonia
Common Name: Knautia
Knautia is one of the finest perennials for the border. It has a very long season of flowering lasting well into the autumn and early winter. The dense, double, pincushion scabiosa-like flowers are a brilliantly strong cherry red, a rare color in bor...
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Leucanthemum X maximum ''Broadway Lights''
Common Name: Broadway Lights Shasta Daisy
Broadway Lights Shasta Daisy is a profuse bloomer. Luscious blossoms open canary yellow and turn white before your eyes. Expect flowers until frost. Sturdy, reliable, and easy, this cultivar prefers direct sunlight and evenly moist soil....
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Leucanthemum X superbum ''Becky''
Common Name: Becky Shasta Daisy
Becky Shasta Daisy blooms later and larger than all the other Shasta Daisies. From July to September, it becomes a living bouquet of huge daisies that stand up without staking....
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Liatris spicata ''Kobold''
Common Name: Kobold Blazing Star
Kobold Blazing Star is a compact selection of the prairie native is a welcome addition to the mid-summer landscape. 'Kobold' almost qualifies as a dwarf, and definitely belongs near the front of the border....
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Monarda didyma ''Grand Parade''
Common Name: Grand Parade Bee Balm
Grand Parade Bee Balm is easily the most mildew-resistant Bee Balm of all, Grand Parade is also among the best for garden beauty, flowering over a longer season and more abundantly than other varieties. Quite compact and handsome even out of bloom wi...
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Nepeta ''Walker's Low''
Common Name: Walker's Low Catmint
Walker's Low Catmint has finely-cut gray-green aromatic foliage with large lavender-blue heavy blossoms from late spring through midsummer. Prune back for a second heavy bloom in fall and cut it back several times during its first bloom season for a ...
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Nepeta subsessilis ''Candy Cat''
Common Name: Candy Cat Catmint
Candy Cat Catmint offers sizeable, dense clusters of large, fragrant, pale lavender pink flowers. Unlike other Nepetas, Candy Cat Catmint prefers moist soil....
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Oenothera macrocarpa
Common Name: Missouri Primrose
Missouri Primrose is a showy, trailing plant with large, yellow, fragrant flowers up to 4" across. Plants bloom for a long period from spring through summer and make an excellent front of border or rock garden plant. Foliage stays green much of the y...
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Patrinia scabiosifolia 'Nagoya'
Common Name: Patrinia
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun. Prefers rich, humusy soils. Tolerant of hot and humid summers. This Patrinia cultivar is clump-forming and almost identical to the species, except it is lower growing. ...
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Pennisetum 'Prince'
Common Name:
'Prince' is a breakthrough in ornamental grasses. The purple foliage becomes even more purple as the summer gets hotter, quite a change to most plants that fade in summer heat. The habit is much fuller than other purple grasses and the growth is far...
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Pennisetum ''Princess''
Common Name: Princess Napiergrass
Pennisetum 'Princess' is an exotic grass from South America. It is hardy to zone 8 but looks spectacular when planted as an accent or container plant in Northern gardens. The saber-shaped leaves emerge narrow, dappled green and purple and become prog...
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Pennisetum setaceum ''Rubrum''
Common Name: Purple Fountain Grass
Rough stems with long, narrow, bronze leaf blades. From mid-summer to early autumn this Pennisetum bears pink to purplish pink spikelets that are plumed and bristled seed heads that nod. Purple Fountain Grass is great for use in mixed perennial beds,...
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Perovskia atriplicifolia ''Filigran''
Common Name: Filigran Russian Sage
Filigran Russian Sage is the sturdiest and most upright of the Perovskia cultivars. Feathery, finely-cut foliage glistens a rich silvery-green in the landscape. Filigran Russian Sage blooms are airy and steel-blue, surrounding thin stems. Habit is ro...
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Phlox paniculata ''David''
Common Name: David Garden Phlox
David Garden Phlox is the most mildew-resistant phlox to date. The wonderfully fragrant giant flower heads adorn the top of the plant during the late spring and summer....
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Rhus typhina ''Bailtiger''
Common Name: Tiger Eyes Sumac
Tiger Eyes Sumac is a golden-leaved, dwarf, slow-spreading selection that is a valuable addition to the landscape. Tiger Eyes Sumac's striking foliage gives this plant a long season of interest with deeply-cut, almost lacy leaves. The new growth star...
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Rosa rugosa 'Hansa'
Common Name: Hansa's Rugosa Rose
Hansa's Rugosa Rose has a bushy habit with dark green compound foliage along densely spiny stems. Suckering habit allows plants to colonize. Rose to pink flowers have a spicy fragrance and followed by hips. Double, dark pink flowers offer a spicy fra...
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Rosa X ''Rainbow Knockout''
Common Name: Rainbow Knockout Rose
Rainbow Knockout Rose is one of the latest in the popular 'Knock Out' series. Coral buds open into single orange and pink blooms, fading into a blend of pink, salmon and yellow hues. The bright orange hips of Rainbow Knockout Rose persist well into f...
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Rudbeckia fulgida ''Goldsturm''
Common Name: Goldsturm Black-eyed Susan
Goldsturm Black-eyed Susan is among the best border perennials available. Goldsturm Black-eyed Susan is a selection of one of our native North American wildflowers. Plants make a bushy, upright clump with a profuse display of brown-eyed, yellow-orang...
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Rudbeckia maxima
Common Name: Giant Coneflower
Giant Coneflower makes a strong vertical statement with its large, smooth leaves and towering stems. It bears short, yellow ray flowers with giant, upright cones at the center. It prefers average soil with good drainage, and is excellent in native or...
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Salvia X sylvestris ''Mainacht''
Common Name: Mainacht Blue Salvia
Rigid spikes of Mainacht Blue Salvia's dark blue flowers appear over aromatic blue-gray leaves in May and June. Superb color accent for any border....
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Sedum kamtschaticum ''Rosy Glow''
Common Name: Rosy Glow Sedum
Rosy Glow Sedum is a perfect choice for the front of a sunny border or for edging pathways. It forms a low mound of fleshy blue-grey rounded leaves, and bears clusters of deep pink to reddish flowers from late summer into autumn....
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Sedum spectabile ''Black Jack''
Common Name: Black Jack Sedum
Black Jack Sedum is another sturdy sedum for the late summer and early fall border. Black Jack Sedum has robust clumps of deep purple stems with black-purple foliage contrast well with large pink flower heads....
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Sedum spectabile ''Autumn Joy''
Common Name: Autumn Joy Sedum
Autumn Joy Sedum is one of the best-known and well-used sedums. Super tough for borders of late summer. Flower clusters begin a soft rose and mature to a deep brick red. Autumn Joy Sedum harmonizes well with the late summer colors of ornamental grass...
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Thalictrum 'Elin'
Common Name: Elin Meadow Rue
Loosely garbed in striking steely blue foliage, 'Elin's Meadow Rue features tall, purple-tinged stems and maintains a stately carriage. An impressive hybrid between Thalictrum flavum var. glaucum and Thalictrum rochebrunianum, its sturdy upright stal...
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Zinnia ''Zahara''
Common Name: Zahara Zinnia
'Zahara' Zinnia produces big flowers in a bright, bold color on a disease-resistant, heat-loving plant....
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Zinnia angustifolia X elegans ''Profusion White''
Common Name: Profusion White Zinnia
The "Profusion Series" comes in a variety of colors. All have vigorous habit and strong basal branching making them an excellent landscape choice. Blooms from early spring to fall and requires no deadheading to maintain blooming. Resists powdery mild...
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Zinnia elegans ''Zowie Yellow Flame''
Common Name: Zowie Zinnia
Nothing ignites a bed or mixed border like a mass planting of Zowie! Zowie Zinnia has brilliant, yellow-tipped petals that start off magenta-pink then turn to scarlet-rose around a dramatic red-and-yellow cone. The three-inch blooms continue from Jun...
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