Q:Most of my shrubs bloom early in the season. What would you recommend that blooms in the late summer?

A: Well of course in May everything seems to bloom, but by the time we get to late summer there are fewer shrubs blooming, but there are some really nice ones that are well worth including in your yard for late summer interest. What I am standing in front of right here is a type of Hydrangea, and there are several Hydrangeas that are excellent for late summer flower interest. This is Hydrangea arborescens, a cultivar called 'Annabelle', and 'Annabelle' was selected for having these really huge flower clusters, you can see how big they are. It flowers for quite a long time, these are flowering now and they will bloom through much of the summer, then the flower heads will fade to tan and they can actually be cut and used for dried arrangements at this point. Another good Hydrangea for late summer interest are the paniculata Hydrangeas. You might be familiar with 'Pee-gee' that has very large dense heads of double flowers . It can get a little bit droopy, but there are some nice ones that have single flowers or an interesting mix of the small and large florets. Some of those include 'Brussels Lace' and 'Tardiva', and there are several other interesting ones as well. A couple of other shrubs for late summer interest include the Potentillas. These are small shrubs, they can only grow a couple feet tall. Most of them have bright yellow flowers, and they will bloom all summer long. They are quite well known for that. It is a good idea to do a little pruning on those each year. Early in the spring, remove a few of the older stems and you'll have better blooms on them. Another group of plants to look for late summer color are the shrub roses. This is an increasing group of plants that are very popular. There are quite a few of them that are winter hardy in our areas, so do look for those. There are some out of Canada and some developed in this area. Those provide nice reds, pinks, and even some whites and peach colors. Some of them just rebloom, some of them will bloom throughout most of the season, and any of these will provide nice color for the late summer garden.


images: late blooming shrubs