If you’re looking for blooms that come back each Spring with a burst of colour, here are ten of our favourite flowering perennials and ground covers.
Plant These for a Spring Show!
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra)
Height: 30-120 cm, Spread: 45-90 cm
Flower Colour: white, pink, red, purple
Blooms: spring, summer
Growing: While Bleeding Hearts will tolerate full sun or full shade, they prefer the protection of light shade. This perennial is fairly drought tolerant, but it will thrive in evenly moist soil, and blooms will last much longer if the soil is moist.
Hellebore Christmas Rose (Helleborus)
Height: 30-45 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm
Flower Colour: white, green, pink, purple, yellow
Blooms: late winter to mid-spring
Growing: Moist, humus-rich, well-drained soil in lightly dappled shade is where hellebores do best.
Primrose (Primula)
Height: 15-60 cm, Spread: 15-45 cm
Flower Colour: blue, red, orange, white, pink, purple, yellow
Blooms: spring, early summer
Growing: Full sun or partial shade and moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil.
Anemone Windflower (Anemone)
Height: 8-150 cm, Spread: 15-60 cm
Flower Colour: white, yellow, pink, blue
Blooms: spring, summer or fall
Growing: Anemone does best in moist soil and partial or light shade, but they will tolerate full sun. While Anemone can take a while to become established, they’re worth the wait!
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Height: 45-90 cm, Spread: 30-60 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, yellow, pink, blue, purple (The colour of the spurs is often different than the petals)
Blooms: spring, summer
Growing: Columbines love full sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil. This plant will self-seed and seedlings can be transplanted.
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
Height: 30-60 cm, Spread: forms groupings
Flower Colour: blue, pink, purple
Blooms: spring
Growing: Plant in partial to full shade with humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil. This woodland plant has blooms that are attractive to Hummingbirds and pollinators. Foliage dies back right after it blooms.
Moss Phlox or Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata)
Height: 10-15 cm, Spread: 60 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, lavender, pink, bluish purple
Blooms: early spring
Growing: Plant in sun to partial shade with humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil. Spreads horizontally as it grows and creates new roots where the stems touch the ground. Do not prune in the fall as Spring’s flowers will already be forming on these plants.
Lungwort (Pulmonaria)
Height: 20-60 cm, Spread: 20-90 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, pink, blue
Blooms: spring
Growing: To avoid root rot, grow Lungwort in moist, humus-rich soil that’s well drained. They prefer partial shade to full shade.
Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla)
Height: 10-30 cm, Spread: 20-30 cm
Flower Colour: white, red, purple, blue
Blooms: early to mid-spring
Growing: Very well drained soil is important for Pasque Flower, which does not like to sit in wet soil. It will grow well in full sun or partial shade.
Peony (Paeonia)
Height: 60-80 cm, Spread: 60-80 cm
Flower Colour: yellow, pink, red, purple, and shades of white
Blooms: spring, early summer
Growing: Humus-rich, moist and well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade is where peonies do best. Adding lots of compost and planting at the proper depth is very important for peonies to bloom. Be sure to plant potted peonies at the same level as the soil around them, not higher.
During the dog days of summer, having a resilient, dependable, and beautiful perennial flower in your garden is terrific. Meet the Black-Eyed Susan. They are quick to establish and mature, and perfect for a perennial border, cutting garden, or naturalized garden. Depending on the variety, they will grow 1-3 feet tall and spread about 2 feet wide, making them a show-stopping spectacle!
If that and the cheerful, dark-centred, golden-yellow, daisy-shaped flowers aren’t enough to draw you in, here are more reasons we love these plants!
Long Blooming
Black-Eyed Susan (Latin name: Rudbeckia) is a prolific bloomer whose flowers can last from July to October. At a time in the season when many other flowers can look weary, Rudbeckia is a shining star. Its flowers grow on sturdy stems, which adds to their resilience.
Easy to Grow
Rudbeckia are robust! They are drought—and heat-tolerant and generally do well in hard-to-grow locations. Once established, they do not require frequent watering. Rudbeckia hirta is an Ontario native plant, and exceptionally hardy.
Plant Black-Eyed Susan in full sun to partial shade and almost any type of soil. They are adaptable, generally trouble-free and do not require any extra care.
Pollinator-friendly
We aren’t the only ones who love Rudbeckia; butterflies, birds and bees do, too. This makes Black-Eyed Susan a perfect partner for other pollinator-friendly plants like Monarda (aka Wild Bergamot and Bee Balm), Gaillardia (Blanket flower), Yarrow and Echinacea (aka Coneflower).
Who doesn’t love Black-Eyed Susans? Because of the course hairs on the stems, this is a plant that rabbits and deer don’t care for.
Black-Eyed Susan is perfect to grow in a border, bed, planter, or in a field as a mass planting. It’s resilient, attractive, low maintenance and a beneficial addition to any garden!
