10 best blooms for summer flower beds

Summer is certainly the season when we’re always in the garden! The outdoors of the home must then be at its finest and share with us its most astounding blooms. Here is our own selection of the 10 best summer flowers to grow in a flower bed.

The ten summer bloomers at a glance

Each of these ten plants fills a different layer of the bed, from shrubs at the back to ground-hugging annuals at the front. Compare flowering times and exposure to work out which ones suit your own bed.

Layering shrubs, perennials, climbers, bulbs and annuals together keeps the bed in flower from spring right through autumn.

Summer flower shrubs

At the back of a flower bed, shrubs will always help create volume and provide nice backdrops for smaller plants. These round shrubs dress the bed with large leafage. They also pitch in with a splash of color in summer.

Hydrangea

• Variety: Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Mousseline’
• Blooming period: Early summer to mid-autumn
• Flower color: round flower clusters that are blue in acidic soil, and pale pink when it’s alkaline
• Exposure: part shade
• Soil: rich, well-draining, acidic or neutral
• Cherry on the top? blooms abundantly

Rose tree

• Variety: Rosa Anatasia® ‘Adamariat’
• Blooming period: Early summer to mid-autumn
• Flower color: white urn-shaped roses with a yellow heart
• Exposure: sun
• Soil: light
• Cherry on the top? Abundant foliage and mesmerizing fragrance

 

Perennials that bloom in Summer

Perennials are the staple of most flower beds. Since they stay put, they bloom again and again every year in Summer.

Sage

• Variety: Salvia nemorosa ‘Mainacht’
• Blooming period: from late spring to early autumn
• Flower color: blue-violet flower panicles
• Exposure: sun, part sun
• Soil: well-draining, even dry
• Cherry on the top? One of the hardiest sage varieties ever, holds down to below 5°F (-15°C)

Phlox

• Variety: Phlox paniculata Amethyst
• Blooming period: from midsummer to early autumn
• Flower color: small pink flowers with a deep pink center
• Exposure: full sun
• Soil: rich and deep
• Cherry on the top? Fragrant blooming that is very rich in nectar for honeybees

Caring for honeybees and other pollinators is especially important in Summer: Early summer and midsummer are called the “pollen dip” because not many flowers open up in this time span. Pollinators are grateful to find lots of help from us gardeners!

• Read also: 11 shrubs that pollinators adore

 

Summer-blooming climbing vines

Is your flower bed set up against a wall or fence? Go ahead and cover it with climbing vines! Though they only take up very little ground space, they’ll completely cover the wall and hide it with flowers.

Clematis

• Variety: ‘Etoile Nacre’ Clematis (étoile nacrée, also goes by Sakurahime)
• Blooming period: Late spring to early summer and late summer to early autumn
• Flower color: larges star-shaped flowers that start out light lavender and then shift to white, adding luminosity to the garden
• Exposure: sun, part sun (but with the base in the shade)
• Soil: draining, cool, rich and light
• Cherry on the top? ideal against a wall at the back of a flower bed

Sweet pea

• Variety: Lathyrus odoratus spencer ‘Firebrand’
• Blooming period: Early summer to late summer
• Flower color: bright red bunches of butterfly-like flowers
• Exposure: full sun
• Soil: well-drained and rich
• Cherry on the top? releases an engaging and musky scent

 

Summer bulb flowers

These need planting in Spring for proper blooming in Summer. Some species can stay in the ground all year round, whereas others must be dug out and kept out of the cold during Winter. The advantage of having to dig them out is that you can create a completely different flower bed every year!

Lily

• Variety: Lilium leichtlinii
• Blooming period: Midsummer to late summer
• Flower color: flowers like an exploded trumpet, yellow with dots of magenta
• Exposure: sun, part sun (but with the base in the shade)
• Soil: well-drained and rich
• Cherry on the top? excellent for a flower bed atop a mound or ridge

Agapanthus

• Variety: Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’
• Blooming period: Early summer to late summer
• Flower color: blue umbels, wherein each petal has a darker blue streak down the middle
• Exposure: full sun
• Soil: rich and draining well
• Cherry on the top? elegant flower to form a bouquet

 

Summer annuals

These won’t survive Winter, but their blooming is as stunning as it is short. Annuals have that touch of the wild that only they can master!

Begonia maculata

• Variety: Begonia semperflorens ‘Super Olympia Rose’
• Blooming period: Late spring to late autumn
• Flower color: bowl-shaped flower with round petals, bright pink with a golden yellow heart (shown here with blooming fuchsia in the background)
• Exposure: sun, part sun, shade
• Soil: cool, well-draining, fertile, acidic to neutral
• Cherry on the top? great resistance to foul weather, loves shade

Erigeron, a tiny daisy

• Variety: Erigeron karvinskianus (fleabane)
• Blooming period: Late spring to mid-autumn
• Flower color: small flowers that look like daisies, white to dark pink
• Exposure: sun, part sun
• Soil: excellent drainage, neutral to chalky
• Cherry on the top? forms a soft mounding ground cover on dry substrates

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