11 Blossoming Species to Sow in Spring for Continuous Growth During Summer
Spring's here, and it's time to get your garden blooming from spring till the frost hits! We've handpicked a bunch of top-notch annuals, perennials, and woody shrubs to ensure your garden keeps singing with color all summer long. Let's check it out!
Light up the scene with FirestormTM Lantana
- Botanical Name:Lantana camara 'CCCF1'
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Type: Medium to moist, well-draining
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 10
This badass lantana thrives in hot and dry locations, unleashing a fiery combat of red and yellow blooms that attracts fluttering butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden from spring to fall. Perfect for containers or spilling over garden walls, make it a fabulous addition to borders and mass plantings. Evergreen in warmer climates, consider this as an annual in colder areas.
Sizzle with Summer Snapdragon
- Botanical Name:Angelonia angustifolia
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Type: Medium to moist, well-draining, rich
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 9 to 11
Summer snapdragons are known to resemble their fiery namesake, sporting long spikes of two-lipped blooms throughout the summer in rich pink, blue, lavender, and bi-color hues. This drought-tolerant beauty stands its ground under heat and humidity.
Fragrance your garden with Diamond Spire® Gardenia
- Botanical Name:Gardenia hybrid 'Leefive'
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Well-draining, rich
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 10
Pluck the heavenly fragrance of Diamond Spire® Gardenia by the handful, cutting star-shaped, single white blooms. Perfect for tight spaces and containers, it grows between 3 to 4 feet tall and only 2 feet wide. Though it grows in clusters, its slender form is sized just right for any corner of your garden.
Keep the kitty cats happy with Catmint
- Botanical Name:Nepeta spp.
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Type: Dry to medium, well-draining, average
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 4 to 9
This plant is catnip for pollinators, though pest insects tend to steer clear. Blooms abound till fall, and it stands up to heat and drought. Look for sterile varieties like 'Select Blue,' 'Walker's Low,' and 'Cat's Meow,' as seed-grown varieties can get a bit too crazy in your garden.
Bloom where it's not too breezy with It's a Breeze® Red Rose
- Botanical Name:Rosa hybrid 'Meigremlis'
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Type: Medium, well-draining, average
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 4 to 11
Perfect for massing in borders or spilling from containers, It's a Breeze® Red Rose produces 20 to 30 dark red double blooms per stem, accompanied by a fragrant aroma. Blooms appear in spring with repeat blooms through fall, and it's known for being disease resistant and heat tolerant.
Go wild with Blanket Flower
- Botanical Name: Gaillardia spp. and hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
- Soil Type: Dry to medium, well-draining, average
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 3 to 10
Sun-loving blanket flowers will treat your garden to a carpet of brilliant red and yellow blooms from spring through the rest of the year. Not only are they precisely heat and drought tolerance, but they also support a variety of wildlife, including bees, butterflies, goldfinches, and songbirds.
Calling all hummingbirds and butterflies: Pentas!
- Botanical Name:Pentas lanceolata
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil Type: Medium, well-draining, average
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 10 to 11
Grown as an annual through much of the South, these eye-catching flowers will draw hummingbirds to red cultivars, while butterflies enjoy all the colorful varieties. This plant adapted to both full sun and some shade, but it blooms best with full sunlight.
Succulent Salvia, SaucyTM Salvia
- Botanical Name:Salvia splendens
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Well-draining, rich
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 9 to 10
Come in red or purple varieties, SaucyTM Salvia bears showy, long-tubed blooms for all the pollinators. Plus, the lush green foliage grows in a tidy, compact clump. This sterile and self-cleaning series blooms from April to November with no deadheading needed.
Spread the color with Million Bells
- Botanical Name:Calibrachoa hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Moist, well-draining, rich
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 9 to 11
Known as trailing petunia, this low-growing rambler covers clean green foliage with vibrant and often bi-color blooms from spring till the frost. Hummingbirds adore this heat and drought-tolerant beauty. You don't have to deadhead these plants as they're self-cleaning.
A colorful, durable plant: EnduraScapeTM Verbena
- Botanical Name:Verbena peruviana
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Type: Well-draining, rich
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 10
Longer than other varieties, EnduraScapeTM Verbenas offer displays of rich purple, vivid red, and blushing pink and white hues. Known for excellent branching, these plants produce a dense, gently spreading mound of foliage covered in blooms, perfect for trailing over retaining walls or adding life to containers.
Go batty with Bat-faced Cuphea
- Botanical Name:Cupheallavea
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil Type: Moist, well-draining, fertile
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 10 to 12
With its unique and playful flowers, this cuphea series is a must-have in your garden. Each one-inch bloom has a hairy purple calyx with two red petals, resembling the face and ears of a bat. Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies love its unusual blooms! Make sure to grow this annual in a spot where you can get close and enjoy its unique charm.
- For a seasonal gardening idea, consider FirestormTM Lantana (Lantana camara 'CCCF1') that thrives in hot and dry locations, offering fiery red and yellow blooms attracting butterflies and hummingbirds from spring to fall.
- Southernliving gardening enthusiasts might enjoy Summer Snapdragons (Angelonia angustifolia), known for their resemblance to their fiery namesake, featuring long spikes of blooms throughout summer in various colors like pink, blue, lavender, and bi-color.
- Fragrance your garden this season with Diamond Spire® Gardenia (Gardenia hybrid 'Leefive'), boasting star-shaped, single white blooms and a heavenly scent, fitting nicely in tight spaces or containers.
- In your garden, keep the kitty cats happy with Catmint (Nepeta spp.), a catnip favorite for pollinators, with blooms lasting till fall and being heat and drought-tolerant.
- As gardening ideas for hummingbirds and butterflies, consider Pentas (Pentas lanceolata) — grown as an annual in much of the South — offering bright red cultivars attractive to hummingbirds, while all colorful varieties appeal to butterflies.
