Order Your Almanac Today!

Design a Garden for Flowers All Summer Long

Snapdragons showcase summer’s ebullience.

Photo Credit
Photo by Maryeoriginals via Wikimedia Commons

Planning a Long-lasting, Colorful Garden

Catherine Boeckmann
Print Friendly and PDF
Almanac Garden Planner

The Almanac Garden Planner - Use It Free for 7 Days!

Plan your 2025 garden with our award-winning Garden Planner.

Try Now

When planning on how to design a garden, think about how to keep the flowers blooming all summer long. Here’s a plant list and gardening advice from The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The ideal summer flower garden develops in waves, reaches crescendos of bloom, and depends on chronological succession.

What combinations of plants will keep your garden colorful all summer long? Here are some suggestions.

Read Next

Early Summer

Bleeding hearts
Delphinium
Early roses (Rosa hugonis; damask, eglantine, and gallica roses)
Iris magnifica
Oriental poppy
Peony

Midsummer

Astilbes
Bee balm
Daylilies (try ‘Stella de Oro’)
Early-blooming white phlox
Hollyhock
Hollyhock mallow
Regal lily and Asian hybrids such as ‘Enchantment’
Snakeroot

Late Summer

Asters
Fall-blooming anemones
Globe thistle
Harrington’s pink aster
Japanese iris
Late lilies and daylilies
Monkshood
Pink and white phlox
Tiger lily
White boltonia

  • Choose flowers for their color, beauty, and fragrance, of course—but also consider the season in which they bloom.
     
  • Avoid planting midsummer bloomers all in one spot; instead, distribute groups of them throughout the garden. This will draw the visitor’s eyes through the whole area, creating the effect of a greater expanse of color.
     
Garden Layouts and Plans
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

More Like This

Comments

Rita (not verified)

3 years 5 months ago

I live in Winnpeg,Manitoba, Canada....planted monkshood in 2017, grows vigorously, but have yet to bloom! They are protected against fence, some receive all day sun, others in light shade.......please help, I don't ant to discard any plant.....thx so much

Brendle (not verified)

10 years 11 months ago

i have a purple basil growing under my
papaya tree. will it suck out all the
water from the pot it is in? The weather
is very humid and wet weather is terrible
in spring. what other plants grow well
under wet humidity?

Brendle (not verified)

10 years 11 months ago

how big can purple basil get. Is it a good ornamental? should i treat it like
cactus? Where does it grow best? I put one under the papaya tree in a large deep pot.
It is now winter will it survive?

Aamir Bin Munir (not verified)

12 years 6 months ago

its my first time to enter this website. i am new one in gardening as i bought my own home last year and since then i am trying to learn it.
This is very useful and knowledgeful website. I really impressed with its founders.
Regards,
Aamir