9 Multiseason Plants for Your Garden

Perennial Plants for Your Garden

Keep your garden beds and borders beautiful year-round with our top 9 plant picks for multiseason interest.

Create a garden with year-round beauty

It's easy to create a beautiful garden in May, June and July, when many perennials are at their peak. But the rest of the year can be challenging. Should you give up and move in for the other nine months? Absolutely not! You should pick some multiseason plants!

Many seasonal plants have interesting flowers, foliage and more

Of course, the first thing most people notice about a plant are the flowers. This is a great starting point, but don't stop there. Many plants offer other great displays: colorful bark, excellent fall foliage, a bold overall shape, attractive structure, beautiful seed pods. Choose a variety of plants that interest you in multiple seasons, and you can easily have an impressive year-round garden even in a small space. Let's take a look at 9 plants that will add pop to your garden no matter what the calendar says! Click the slideshow below.

Usfull Link - Repel Insects

1. Bloodtwig dogwood (Cornus sanguinea Arctic Sun™ (‘Cato’)

This shrub starts slowly in spring, with yellow-green leaves and white flowers and white berries in summer. In autumn, the yellow leaves last for several weeks. Then it finally falls off to reveal yellow stalks. The best color is on new stems, so prune back a quarter to a third of the oldest, largest stems in early spring each year to keep winter color at its peak.

In late spring, the shrub flowers white, in full sun to part shade, soil moist, well-drained 3 to 4 feet deep.

2. Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)

The most common color for balloon flower is blue, like 'Marysee' in the photo, but you can also find white varieties like 'Fuji White' and pink varieties like low-growing 'Astra'. Balloon flowers bloom throughout most of summer. But did you know that leaves turn yellow in autumn?

Type Perennial Flowers blue, white or pink Early to late summer Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained, slightly acidic Size 6 to 48 inches. Height, 12 to 18 inches.

3. Smokebush (Cotinus coccaria)

The fluffy fibers that cover this shrub in mid-summer actually look like smoke. Foliage alone is reason enough to plant smokebush. 'Royal Purple' in the photos has rich burgundy leaves, but Golden Spirit™ is a chartreuse color. In fall, the leaves turn red and orange, with chartreuse cultivars turning a lighter orange. Smokebush gets its best color in full sun.

Type Shrub Flowers inconspicuous yellow flowers and clusters of purple filaments Cover plant in mid-summer Light Full sun Soil Well-drained Height 6 to 15 feet.

4. Rockspray cotoneaster (Cotoneaster horizontalis)

Arching stems with a distinctive "fishbone" branching pattern form a dense mound. Small pink flowers in late spring are followed by masses of red fruit held over winter. Leaves are semi-evergreen - in warm climates or sheltered areas, the leaves remain all winter. In exposed or cooler locations, you'll find some winter frosts that require pruning.

Type Shrub Flowers pale pink in late spring Light full sun Soil well drained Size 2 to 3 feet tall, 5 to 8 feet.

5. Siberian Iris (Iris sibirica)

Whether you prefer soft pastels or the rich purple of 'Caesar's Brother' in the photo, there is a Siberian iris for you. But it gets better: The green seed pods turn brown and last all winter. The grass-like foliage turns the warm orange-yellow you see above as the garden winds through the year. You know it's time to divide when you see a green ring around a dead center every few years.

Type Perennial Flowers purple, blue, white, pink or yellow Late spring Light Full sun Part shade Soil rich, moist 24 to 48 inches. Height, 24 to 30 inches.

6. Meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense)

Meadow cranesbill has deeply cut leaves, and some, like the Victor Reiter Jr. strain pictured, have purple foliage, especially in spring. In autumn, the foliage changes, and each leaf is a slightly different color. If you grow this perennial in very dry conditions, it may appear brown in late summer, but it will bounce back when temperatures cool.

Type Perennial Flowers purple, blue, or white late spring to early summer; 6 to 36 inches tall, 12 to 30 inches wide, 6 to 36 inches wet, can rebloom in light full sun to part shade.

7. Bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia)

Spikes of pink flowers on dark stems grow in spring, and large glossy leaves remain beautiful for months. They turn that gorgeous deep red (right) in fall, and are evergreens in southern gardens. Cut off rat-like leaves in early spring. Bergenia makes a good ground cover, spreading slowly by rhizomes and forming large clumps.

8 to 24 inches tall, 12 to 24 inches, perennial flowers pink, full shade to full shade Tolerates rich, moist, but most soil conditions.

8. Sedum (Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’)

New growth on 'Angelina' is bright yellow-green as you see at left. The yellow flowers appear at the tips of the stems in mid-summer and then start to turn orange in the fall! In warmer climates, this sedum is evergreen, but if you live where it dies back in winter, cut back the dead stems in early spring and wait for it to reappear.

Perennial flowers are yellow in mid-summer.

9. Highbush Blueberry (Vaccine corymbosum)

Clusters of white flowers hang from the stems of highbush blueberry on the left in spring. By mid-summer, the blue fruits ripen. (If you plant two different varieties, you'll get more berries.) The bright orange-red foliage you see here lasts for weeks into fall.

Type Shrub Small white spring flowers and blue edible fruit Light full sun Soil acid, moist, well-drained Grow 5 to 12 feet.