Art in the garden: The right perennial can perk up late-summer gardens

Is the color in your landscape waning as the end of summer draws near? You are not alone. Most of us focus on spring and early summer blooms and then, when we turn our calendars to the months of August and September, our gardens show the signs of planning neglect.

One way to beat the September doldrums is to add some fantastic late-summer blooming perennials to your garden. While fall mums and ornamental cabbages are pretty, there are some perennial choices that will breathe new life into your landscape. Here are some suggestions of plants that begin blooming in August and continue well into fall.

To add some late-summer color to those challenging shady borders, choose Astilbe chinensis Pumila. It offers dense clusters of lavender flower spikes atop compact, finely divided foliage. Useful as a ground cover because of its small stature and crisp-looking foliage, this Astilbe tolerates drier conditions than its cousins once it’s established.

Astilbes do best in dappled or filtered shade. They are a lovely companion to beds of hostas adding colorful blooms and textural contrast.

Pink turtlehead, botanically known as Chelone, is another choice for partially shaded sites, though it will tolerate full sun if given additional moisture. A member of the snapdragon family, turtlehead boasts clusters of pink-hooded flowers in late summer into fall. It forms colonies of shiny, dark green foliage on stems reaching 2 to 3 feet tall.

This perennial can tolerate wet soil making it the perfect choice for planting along streams or other water features. Mulching around turtlehead will help retain moisture and keep it well watered if it is planted in full sun. Hot Lips is my favorite cultivar with bright rose-purple flowers.

One of the earliest fall-blooming Anemones is Anemone tomentosa Robustissima. Even if you can’t pronounce it, you must have it in your garden. Commonly known as grape leaf anemone due to the shape of its foliage, this late summer beauty features mauve-pink flowers on tall wiry stems that reach 2 feet above the dark green foliage. Robustissima forms a mound 3 feet tall that spreads rather quickly into delightful colonies.

Anemones do best in partial shade where they are protected from the hot afternoon sun and prefer moist, well-drained soil. White woolly seed heads remain after the flowers adding a nice feature for winter interest.

A real attention-getter in the late summer garden is leadwort. Botanically labeled Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, its cobalt blue flowers borne in tight clusters cover bright green leaves. The foliage turns a coppery orange-red in late fall. Its low-growing habit — 6 to 12 inches tall — suggests a front of the border location or ground cover under shrubs such as hydrangea.

Leadwort is a stunning companion to plants with silver foliage like any of the Artemesias or those with golden yellow flowers like Rudbeckia Viette’s Little Suzy. Be sure they are planted in well-drained soil rich with organic matter — they will not tolerate soggy soil.

Leadwort is late to break dormancy in the spring. Don’t worry if you don’t see it until later in spring — it takes its time making its first appearance.

For a tall perennial that struts its stuff in late summer, try Helenium. Blooming in warm tones of yellow, mahogany, and coppery orange, Helenium is a stunning companion to other perennials like asters, goldenrods, and ornamental grasses.

Its daisylike flowers bloom in August and September in varieties growing from 2 to 4 feet tall. And, the flowers are equally as beautiful in a vase on your table as they are in the garden.

The golden yellow blooms of Solidago, commonly called goldenrod, add brightness to the late summer border. The vase-shaped form of Fireworks tops out at 3 to 4 feet; Golden Baby barely reaches 2 feet. The diversity of heights allows gardeners to add more than one variety of goldenrod to their borders to give splashes of color among purple asters, pink coneflowers and russet-toned sedum.

Fall-colored shrubs, like burning bush, Fothergilla, and Clethra can also benefit from the colorful plumes of goldenrod blooming nearby.

An easy-to-grow perennial for late summer color, Physostegia, or obedient plant, is named for its tendency to remain in the position where the flower clusters are shifted.

Gardeners are more likely to consider it disobedient plant for its propensity to spread aggressively. Choose Miss Manners. She has white flowers, shiny green foliage, and a clumping habit that does not spread as freely.

Adding some of these late-season bloomers will keep your garden blooming from late summer into fall. Plant a few in your garden today and enjoy the continual show of color.

ŸDiana Stoll is a horticulturist and the retail manager at The Planter’s Palette, 28W571 Roosevelt Road, Winfield. Call (630) 293-1040 or visit planterspalette.com.