10+ Plants for Mid-Summer Color

Stepping away from my garden for a few weeks of vacation gave me the opportunity for a renewed perspective. Seeing my garden with a fresh pair of eyes, I am finding that there are a few areas that could use an injection of some mid-summer color.

I am sure I am not alone in this, so I have visited a couple of nurseries and have come up with a list of ten perennials that will give that a bit of refresh to areas of your yard that are looking a bit tired.

The first item on my list is lilies.

In previous years, I let myself get discouraged by lily beetles and stopped planting any new bulbs. This is a bit of a shame because lilies really add color and drama to any mid-summer garden.

 Lily Beetle eggs on the left and larvae on the right.

A mature Lily Beetle.

So I've begun to watch the underside of the leaves for the bright orange eggs and the rather ugly larvae. As Jean Godawa wrote in her helpful article, "Understanding the lifecycle of a garden pest is the first line of defence." I find that wiping away the eggs and larvae keep the bright red insects in check quite nicely. Now I feel confident enough to plant more lilies.

I have a little inspiration to show you how you might use lilies. 

This is Duff and Donna Ever's garden in Nova Scotia. I particularly like the way Donna has tucked the pinky-orange lilies in behind the dark foliage of Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate'. Later in the summer, 'Chocolate' will be covered in a cloud of starry, white flowers.

Photo by Sandi Duclos

This is interior designer Sandi Duclos' garden in Kitchener, Ontario. The pink Oriental Lilies looking stunning set against a wall of purple clematis. (Sidenote: I will be showing you more of Sandi's garden in upcoming posts).

I already have a purple clematis. All I need to recreate this combination are some lilies and I know I can find some at our local Farmer's Market. 

If you would also like to add some lilies to your garden, you may be able to find some potted up at a local nursery. Alternatively, bulbs are usually sold in by mailorder in both spring and fall.

Lilium martagon 'Album' in Redford Garden, Quebec.

I haven't forgotten you shade gardeners. There is a type of lily that can handle part-shade. 

Martagon Lilies' downward-facing flowers are smaller than other types of lilies, but the quantity of blooms on a single stem makes up for the tiny size. There can be up to fifty of these delicate blooms on a single stem.  Martagon Lilies like part-shade and moist, well-drained soil. USDA zones 3-7.

Veronica 'Perfectly Picasso'

On its own, it can be a little understated, but as a companion plant, Veronica is hard to beat. It seems to compliment so many other perennials!

Veronica requires full sun and are quite happy in average garden soil. Depending on the cultivar, they're hardy USDA zones 3 or 4-9. If you deadhead them after they flower, Veronica may even produce a second flush of blooms.

An all-white mix of  Hydrangea paniculata 'Bobo', Sweet Alyssum and Veronica 

'White Wands' in my own garden. 

Last year I created a brand new flower border in full sun and was able to incorporate a big patch of Echinacea for the first time. As I result, I am noticing more butterflies in the garden this July. A big clump of Blue Star may now be sacrificed so I can plant yet more Echinacea!

Echinacea is easy to grow. Give them full sun. I have tried them in part shade and I find they don't do nearly as well. Like most perennials, they like well-drained soil. Too much moisture can cause root rot. Echinacea forms a slowly expanding clump that should be divided every few years to maintain its vigour. Depending on the cultivar, they're hardy USDA zones 3 or 4-9.

Pink Coneflowers (Echinacea) along with Shasta Daisies and Globe Thistle, Echinops ritro in 

Mira's garden in Guelph, ON.

Here's a pretty plant combination to inspire you to plant Echinacea. It also works really well with Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium), Agastache, Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), and Phlox Paniculata.

Helenium autumnale Mariachi 'Fuego'

Sneezeweed or Helenium autumnale is a North American native plant that can often be found growing in wild, damp meadows. The hybrids that you'll find at the nursery are tall, upright perennials with daisy-like flowers in an array of hot colors. They like full sun and average to moist garden soil. Hardy USDA zones 3 or 4-9.

Plant Helenium along with Phlox, Russian Sage, Rudbeckia and Ornamental Grasses.

While the best time to plant Helenium is in the spring, they are showy now, so nurseries usually have displays of them at this time of year. If you do purchase a plant, make sure to keep it well watered until it is established.

Have you ever planted something and then promptly forgotten what it is you planted (learning once again that it pays to add plant markers)? 

For the last couple of months, I have been completely puzzled by something I added to my old nursery bed. I knew it wasn't a weed. Finally, it's blooming last week and I know what I planted. It's a Liatris ligulistylis! 

Liatris in a prairie style planting at Edward Garden in Toronto.

White Liatris spicata in my own garden.

You may be more familiar with Dense Blazing Star, Liatris spicata. It's a native plant that has vertical flower spikes and thin, strappy foliage. The lavender or white flowers open from top to bottom over a period of several weeks. This plant grows two to four feet tall, likes full sun and moist to average, well-drained soil. USDA zones 2-9.

Meadow Blazing Star, Liatris ligulistylis is less commonly seen in gardens and is a perennial native to the Canadian Prairies. The flowers are more tufted and the plant stems are eggplant in color. Liatris ligulistylis is taller than Liatris spicata and can reach a height of 5 feet when planted in rich garden soil. Liatris ligulistylis likes full sun and average to moist soil. It's hardy USDA Zones: 3-7.

The reason to track down Liatris ligulistylis are the butterflies. They seem to love this plant! When the flowers are finished, the seeds are popular with goldfinches.

You should be able to find potted Liatris spicata in creamy-white and purple at your local nursery. Liatris ligulistylis can be tracked down at speciality nurseries and online.

With climate change, many gardeners are looking for plants that can handle heat and drought conditions. Yarrow is a tough, drought-tolerant perennial that likes a hot, dry, sunny location. 

While the species plant Achillea millefolium spreads by underground rhizomes, many of the modern cultivars and hybrids have improved features like stronger stems, larger flowers and clump-forming habits.  They like full sun, good drainage and average to poor soil. Depending on the cultivar, hardy USDA zones 2-9. I have written about Yarrow in the past, so I am going to refer you back to that blog post for more information on Yarrow.

Daylilies have to make my list. They put on such a nice display of flowers mid-summer and are such easy-to-grow perennials. Full sun and average garden soil are all you need to be successful with these plants. Soil moisture is key to having spectacular blooms and will even encourage re-blooming.

Daylilies in a private front garden.

Two different colors of daylilies along with orange Butterfly Weed and purple Liatris in Mira's garden in Guelph, ON.

Ideally, daylilies should be planted in the spring or the fall. One advantage to shopping for daylilies now is the opportunity to hand-select the perfect combination of flower form and color from a local grower. Many daylily farms have open houses at this time of year. Alternatively, you should be able to find a limited selection of daylilies at most nurseries. In the spring, you can order them from many online sources.

There was a time you rarely saw this plant, but Betony, Stachys monieri has become more popular of late. I like this perennial's versatility. I have it planted in full sun in rather dry conditions and also in part-shade. It does have one minor drawback – the soft, slightly furry leaves are prone to insect damage.

If you are a plant collector like me, you may want to watch out for this plant. I rarely see it in gardens, which is a shame. 

It is Big Betony, Stachys macrantha 'Rosea' and is sometimes listed as Stachys Grandiflora (I hope I have the I.D. right-please correct me if I am mistaken). The notes I found suggests moist, rich soil and full sun, but I have my plant in dry, part-shade. USDA zones 2-9. Again, a great option for mid-summer.

Butterfly weed 

Asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet'

Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata is a clump-forming perennial that is an important food source for Monarch butterflies. I have the pink form as well as the white variety called 'Ice Ballet'. Both are growing in light shade, but they would be just as happy in full sun. Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa is newer to my garden. I just love that bright orange color mixed with the soft blue flowers of Calamintha.

Again I have written rather extensively about these plants, so I will refer you back to an earlier blog post for more information.

You can just make out the legs of the spider under the bee.

Why is this honey bee upsidedown?

It's because he has been captured by a white spider who has been lying patiently in wait on the blue spike of this Agastache flower. Insects flock to this mid-summer bloomer, so it is a good place for a spider to hide.

 I love the frosty blue flowers of Agastache and the pinkish cast the leaves take on as the temperatures drop. 'Blue Fortune' blooms from mid-July well into October. Full sun to light shade and average soil and moisture conditions. USDA zones 2-9.

A couple of bonus plants for shade. While hosta are primarily a foliage plant, they can be quite pretty when in flower. 'Blue Mouse Ears' is a mini-hosta that has sweet little flowers mid-summer.

Please forgive my soft focus here. I really wanted to show you the Corydalis elata that I admired in Donna Ever's garden during my recent visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I saw it a second time at Redford Garden in Quebec where it was planted in among ferns and other shade-loving plants.

Corydalis elata hails from Southwest China. It has elegant green foliage and tubular blue flowers that are fragrant. Donna tells me, "It blooms forever." It likes dappled sunlight and rich, woodland soil that remains evenly moist. USDA zones 5-9.

If you are purchasing any of the perennials off this list, please keep in mind the days in early August are hot and dry. This isn't an ideal time to plant anything. I don't think you'll have a problem however if you make sure any new plant is watered routinely.

Do you have a favourite mid-summer perennial that I should have included in this list? Please share!

Making a Circular Thyme Courtyard

Spring is so busy and summer is too hot, so it seems that fall is the time I tend to tackle big garden projects. 

The work on this newest project actually began over a year ago. A temporary shed had finally been removed leaving behind a scruffy area of lawn and a row of rather bedraggled looking cedars. After the ugly cedars were cut down, I was left with a fairly blank slate. I could do just about anything I wanted to do. 

The area in question was not without its challenges. For starters, the soil ranged from poor to heavy clay. Light levels were a diverse mix of conditions. Within a matter of a few feet, the amount of sunlight could shift from full sun to full shade. Most of our backyard is flat and even, but this one section of the yard slopes down as much as a foot.

I started with the soil, which is where all garden planning must really begin. The horrible clay soil was amended to allow better drainage. Rich black topsoil was added to improve the quality of the poor soil and raise the grade up to be level the rest of the yard. While I can describe this work in two quick sentences, the task took all of my spare time last fall.

The area I am describing is a large space that includes what will eventually be a stream with a wooden bridge, a small pond, a generous flowerbed and a small courtyard with a wooden bench. To keep this post a manageable length, I am going to focus in on one small part of the larger project– the circular courtyard of thyme with the wooden bench.

The starting point for this courtyard was a concrete column with Celtic-inspired ornamentation.  I bought the column on clearance a few years back with no particular use in mind, but confident that I would eventually find a place for it in the garden. When I came across the sundial at a home goods store, I knew it was the perfect topper for the Celtic column.

A sundial is basically a primitive clock that tells the time of day based on the position of the sun. An armillary sundial, like the one I have, has a fixed rod or gnomon (in this case an arrow) that represents the polar axis of the sky as seen from Earth. 

My inexpensive sundial is more decorative than anything else, and one of the round sphere's is broken, so I am putting a proper replacement high on my wishlist for Christmas.

 Geranium 'Rozanne' is one of the many hardy geraniums that I added to this part of the garden.

 Most hardy geraniums bloom in June, but Geranium 'Rozanne' blooms much later. Come late summer and fall, you'll be so glad you planted it!

Creeping Thyme

Plants inspired me as well. On the part-shade/shade fringes of my courtyard, I decided to feature hardy geraniums as an alternative to commonly used shade plants like hosta (more on the hardy geraniums another time). 

For the courtyard itself, I wanted to lay down a ground covering of thyme. Thyme is one of those plants that can take a fair amount of foot traffic. Creating a steppable lawn of thyme is something I have dreamed about making for years. Until now I didn't have a sunny spot available. 

Thyme is a Mediterranean herb that likes full sun and hot, dry conditions. It can be a bit of a challenge to get it to overwinter here in Southern Ontario. The last thing thyme likes are freezing temperatures and soggy clay soil! 

To improve its odds for survival you need to provide thyme with really sharp drainage. The soil in my little courtyard was horrible grey clay. To improve the drainage, I dug out the top 6-8 inches of clay. Then I mixed into the remaining soil bags of fine gravel and sand. Hopefully, that will do the trick of improving the drainage! 

The garden at sunset in September 2018.

A circular courtyard with a sundial at its centre fits in perfectly with the rest of the garden's design. 

Circles a recurring element. There is a round seating area in the middle of the garden. When you walk further down the central path and pass through the wooden arbour, there is a large circular garden with an urn at its centre. 

How to Make a Garden that's a Perfect Circle

The first step in making a circular garden is deciding where you want the centre of your circle. The centre can be quite arbitrary based on whatever is pleasing or it could be based on preexisting elements in the garden's design.  

I already had flowerbeds, a bench and a central pathway in place. We used a tape measure to determine the midway point between the bench on one side and the flowerbed on the other. Then we found the centre point between the outside edge of the pathway (seen on the righthand side of the photo) and a flowerbed on the opposite side. The intersection of those two measurements gave us the centre of what would be my circle.

Once you find the centre, you can start to map out the outline of your circle. A simple measuring device makes the job easy. 

Using a rubber mallet place a rounded, verticle pole at the centre point of your circle. The pole could be anything handy; a wooden dowel or even a broomstick handle. Attach a length of rope to your pole (Note: choose a rope that will not easily stretch). Pull the rope out until it reaches the outside edge of your circle. Tie a 6-inch galvanized spike to end of the rope. 

Swivel your rope around the pole marking the stops around the circumference of the circle with galvanized spikes. As a demonstration, I have marked out part of a circle (seen above).

Once the galvanized spikes are placed around the circumference of the circle, you will have a pretty clear guide, but tieing and then wrapping some twine around each of the spikes will make the outline even more distinct.

I knew I would be working on this project over a couple of weeks, so I decided to use an old rubber hose to mark the perimeter of my circle.

I am by no means an expert at laying brick. There is probably a hardscaping professional out there that will cringe upon seeing my DIY methods. I'll tell you what I did to lay down my circle of bricks, but this is in no way a tutorial! 

With an edger, I dug in to mark the outer edge of my circle. Then I widened it into a trench that was big enough to accommodate my bricks. When the trench was finished, I levelled and compacted the soil. Then I added sand, compacted and levelled it. When I was happy with my work, I laid the brick and firmed it down with a rubber mallet. The final step was to fill the cracks between the bricks with sand.

Getting the sand flat and even took the vast majority of my time. That being said, things progressed fairly quickly. 

To compliment sundial and play up the celestial theme even further, I decided to create a stylized sun with a circle of precast edging and radiating lines of bricks (you can easily find this scalloped edging at Rona, Lowes or Home Depot).

The bricks mimicking the rays of the sun were by far the fiddliest part of this job. With my husband's help, I laid out my pattern of bricks (we eye-balled the placement of the bricks rather than doing any measurements).  

Once the bricks were laid out, I used one of the galvanized spikes to trace the brick's outline in the dirt. Using that outline as my guide, I dug a trench. The rocky ground was levelled and compacted. Sand was added, levelled and compacted as well. Finally, the bricks went in and the gaps were filled with sand.

So far there is just a smattering of Creeping Thyme planted in the gravelly soil. I will add lots more thyme next spring. Hopefully, all the hard work I did to improve the soil's drainage will pay off and it will spread quickly to create a dense lawn-like groundcover. 

I should also make mention the plantings at the base of the sundial. Presently I have a mix of Calamintha and Russian Sage. The sage was a dwarf variety, but it's quickly proven to be too big for such a small area. In the spring, I will move the sage to a new spot in the garden and replace it with one of two varieties of blue Catmint.

Dwarf Calamint, Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepta: has arching sprays of pale mauve-blue flowers. The foliage of this plant has a minty fragrance. Full sun or light shade. It tolerates average, dry and moist growing conditions and is suitable for normal, sandy or clay soils. Bees love it! Height: 20-30 cm, Spread 30-45 cm Hardy USDA Zones 4-9.

I will probably go with one of these two:

Blue Catmint, Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low' is a long blooming perennial that has a mounded, bushy habit. It has grey-green foliage and blue flowers. Full sun. Height: 60-90 cm (23-35 inches), Spread: 75-90 cm ( 29-35 inches). USDA Zones: 3-9.

Nepeta x faassenii 'Blue Wonder' is a bit more compact. Height: 30-45 cm (12-18 inches), Spread: 38-45 cm (15-18 inches). USDA Zones 3-9.

Despite the fact that the thyme is really patchy, but I am rather pleased with the way the whole thing came together.

When you walk over the bridge and into my garden, it surrounds and envelopes you and I love that!

You may be wondering about the very pretty plant on the righthand side of my picture (above). It is Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate'. 

Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' has really attractive maroon-brown foliage in the spring. The tops of the leaves turn olive-green as the summer progresses, but the undersides of the leaves the plant's stems remain a nice contrasting shade of chocolate throughout the gardening season. In full sun, 'Chocolate' needs moist soil. In part-shade, it will tolerate somewhat drier conditions but it still prefers regular water. 'Chocolate' has flat clusters of starry white flowers in late summer/fall. It is important to deadhead the flowers to avoid self-seeding. 'Chocolate' will not come true from seed. Deer resistant. Height: 90-120 cm (35-47 inches), Spread: 75-90 cm (29-35 inches). USDA zones: 5-9.

A new grey bench replaces an old white one that you may remember seeing in previous pictures (We found it on clearance at Lowes).  

My husband made the tall wooden obelisk beside the bench. Eventually, I hope it will be smothered in the blooms of a Clematis viticella that has blue bell-shaped flowers.

Containers dressed for fall.

Piper's favourite lookout spot is the little bridge.

My final project for the year is to lay a brick path between the bridge and the arbour you see in the distance.

Here's hoping the temperatures remain warm enough for me to get the pathway completed!

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