Summer is a time for non-stop amazing daisy-like blooms. Three absolutely brilliant flowering perennials that add a long mid-summer bloom to a homeowner’s landscape include coneflower, shasta daisy, and coreopsis. Choose these blooming perennials for garden zones 4 through 8 or 9, planting and growing guide below.
- How to Grow a Coneflower (Echinacea)
Also known as: Echinacea purpurea, hedgehog coneflower, purple coneflower
Plant Description: Echinacea has seven species and comes in abundant colors such as red, yellow, orange, pink, and white, although they are known for their native color, which is a showy magenta-purple shade. Grows 2 to 3 feet high, although native prairie plants can grow up to 5 feet high. Foliage stays low to the ground, so the plant can look a bit stick-like unless landscapers surround the base of the plant with other groundcover or perennial foliage.
Plant Type: Herbaceous Perennial
Sun/Shade: Full sun to part shade
Cultivation: Echinacea tolerates deer, heat, and drought well. Performs in clay, dry, rocky, or generally poor soil. Deadheading encourages continual bloom. Divide the plant clumps about every four years.
Height: 2 to 5 feet (.60 to 1.5 meters)
Width: 2 to 5 feet (.60 to 1.5 meters)
Bloom: red, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and white
Bloom Time: Summer
Origin: Eastern North America Prairie
Zones: Zone 3, zone 4, zone 5, zone 6, zone 7, zone 8
Wildlife: Attracts birds (particularly goldfinches), bees, and butterflies. A great pollinator support plant.
Landscape Uses: This long-blooming flower is excellent for border massing, in a native garden, bird garden, cutting garden, middle to back of the perennial bed plant, meadow, pollinator garden, and wildflower garden.
Special Features: Excellent cut and dried flower. Will remain standing through winter, which can contribute seeded food to bird populations. Amazing plant partnered with black-eyed susans, sunflowers, bee balm, tall sedum, and fountain grasses.
- How to Grow a Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum × superbum)
Also known as: Shasta Daisy, Leucanthemum × superbum, Chrysanthemum x superbum, Shasta Daisy ‘Becky’, Shasta Daisy ‘T.E. Killin’, Shasta Daisy ‘Snowcap’, Shasta Daisy ‘Alaska’, Daisy,
Plant Description: Although a European native, Shasta Daisy is the original hybridized brainchild of Luther Burbank who combined three species back in the 1800s in order to provide a fantastic white daisy for the flower industry. Originally the plant was known as Chrysanthemum x superbum, but the Shasta Daisy was renamed as Leucanthemum x superbum. Deep green glossy foliage with snowy white florets surround a central yellow disk densely packed with small florets, Shasta Daisy is truly known as the “perfect daisy” and holds up well to both hot and cooler summers, heavy rains, and some drought.
Plant Type: herbaceous perennial
Sun/Shade: Full sun
Cultivation: Prefers average well-drained soils – too rich and there will be more foliage growth than flower. Does not tolerate soggy soils or wet ground conditions. Deadhead the blooms in order to keep continuous bloom and prevent excessive seed dropping. Can be aggressive growers but can be contained in garden beds away from wild areas since they are not natives. Add compost or mulch in the spring to control weeds. Once the first killing frost occurs, cut back the stems and remaining flower to a couple inches from the soil line. Divide every 2 to 3 years in early spring.
Height: 2 to 3 feet (.60 to .91 meters)
Width: 1 to 2 feet (.30 to .60 meters)
Bloom: White
Bloom Time: Summer
Origin: Europe
Zones: Zone 4, zone 5, zone 6, zone 7, zone 8, zone 9
Wildlife: Birds, parasitic wasps, minute pirate bugs, lacewings, soldier beetles, ladybugs, syrphid flies, butterflies, native bees, beetles, flies, and other pollinators
Landscape Uses: Cottage gardens, perennial borders, containers, cutting garden, patio garden, landscape accent, naturalized gardens
Special Features: Named after Mount Shasta, this flowering plant is a rabbit- and deer-resistant perennial. Long lived both in the garden and as a cut flower, the Shasta Daisy is easy to grow and there are many cultivars. Shasta Daisy ‘Becky’ won the 2003 Perennial Plant of the Year award. Shasta Daisy ‘T.E. Killin’ has achieved the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Known to symbolize innocence and hope.
- How to Grow a Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’)
Also known as: Threadleaf Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’, Whorled Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’, Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’, Tickseed, Tickseed ‘Moonbeam’, Thread-leaved tickseed, Pot-of-gold
Plant Description: Thready, fine green divided foliage forms airy clumps with delicate pale-yellow flowers floating above the clump. Blossoms are butter-yellow and approximately 1-inch wide.
Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
Sun/Shade: Full sun to part sun
Cultivation: Grows very well in dry to medium moisture well-drained soils. Will do very well in rocky or poor soils and is significantly drought tolerant. Can sprawl if grown in wet or too shady conditions. Spreads laterally via creeping rhizomes. Resistant to deer. Shear midsummer after the first round of flowering to tidy the plant up and promote rebloom.
Height: 1 to 2 feet (.30 to .60 meters)
Width: 1 to 2 feet (.30 to .60 meters)
Bloom: Pale yellow
Bloom Time: Summer
Origin: North America
Zones: zone 4, zone 5, zone 6, zone 7, zone 8, zone 9
Wildlife: Butterflies
Landscape Uses: Pollinator gardens, Cottage gardens, naturalized areas, containers, accent plants, plant en masse, coastal gardens, city and courtyard
Special Features: Recipient of the 1992 Perennial Plant of the Year Award.
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