6 Ideas for Continuous Bloom

​There are many ways to plan a perennial garden that delights from early spring to the last hurrah of the season. It’s mid-summer and my garden is at its peak.  There are day lilies in colors of the sunsets ranging from pale yellow to the deepest purple and burgundy.  The pale lavender spikes of Hosta flowers pair well with the day lilies.  Black-eyed Susans are starting as the daisies are fading with Blazing Star as their foil.
 
I like the orderly progression through the seasons.  I anticipate each new bloom as I would friends coming for a visit.  Perennials don’t overstay their welcome and become tired as some annuals do before the seasons’ end.  Reflecting on the progress of the garden I have come to appreciate my investment in perennials.  Every few weeks something new captures my attention and makes its way into the flower bouquet gracing the kitchen island.  

Here are six ideas to inspire your garden.
 
1. SEE WHAT IS GROWING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD  My preferred method of planning for continuous bloom, if you can call it that, is to watch my garden and when there’s a lull I hop in my car and make a beeline to the local garden center.  I’m fortunate to live only 10 miles from the Winter Greenhouse.  Not only do they have a superb offering of perennials, more important, they have a demonstration garden.  I can wander about, find what is blooming, buy that, go home and install in the garden.  Not everyone lives next to a greenhouse garden, but you can walk around your neighborhood and see what is blooming.  Local public and private gardens can steer us toward plant combinations that might give a pop the garden needs.   
 
2. TAKE PICTURES  I take my camera with me on my garden walk-arounds whether in my own, in the neighborhood or at a demonstration garden.  A digital camera is a very handy tool for a gardener.  I take pictures almost every week during the growing season.  Not only do the photos provide the place in the perennial beds, they show nearby plants and the date.  This is all useful information when the catalogs arrive in January or a built-in shopping list when there is a sale.  Photos provide information on what you might be missing, where there are gaps, what needs dividing and what needs some fixing.
 
3. GARDEN BOOKS  One of the best books on this subject is clearly named:  Continuous Bloom, A Month-By-Month Guide to Nonstop Color in the Perennial Garden by Pam Durthie.  This book’s 328 pages are organized by month starting with Winter Aconite in March-April and ending with Toad Lily in October-November.  It also includes tips and appendices on colored foliage to bridge the seasons; hostas by color of foliage; a guide to color, height and bloom time for Astilbes; and perennials least affected by deer and rabbit browse.  The book is readily available from mail-order retailers as well as the local library.  Many garden books list bloom times and may even include appendices that offer additional information to consider. 

4.  CATALOGS   Catalogs tend to offer general information on bloom times, but I need to remind myself they are sent all over the country. If I am in search of a plant for a particular time period the general early spring, mid-summer, or late fall categories are not useful.  I compensate by noticing the relationship between the plants and compare to those blooming in my garden to help me pick the right one for the right time frame.  Here again the dates on the photos come in handy. 

5.  WEB   I googled “continuous bloom in the perennial garden” and received 302,000 results. When I narrow the search to: “continuous bloom perennial garden in zone 3 site:uwex.edu” I get 35 high quality results that are research-based from the University of Wisconsin.  See my tips for searching the web (click here) with better and fewer results. 

6.  USE ANNUALS   When all else fails – use annuals.  I plant several containers with a single flower type for the purpose of filling the gaps. They stay in the vegetable garden for easy watering until needed in the perennial beds.  My favorites are bright-colored Wave® Petunias for sun and New Guinea Impatiens for part shade.  Those containers came in extra handy this year when we had several large trees removed.  The Impatiens are a temporary fill-in until the trampled hostas recover. 
 
If you are in need of filling seasonal gaps, try one or more of these ideas for inspiration.  In August perennials can be found at deep discounts at the local garden center.  With regular watering, they will be well-established before the first frost.