My daughter is having a wedding reception in her garden in Victoria early August of next year. She is wanting to add more perennials to her beds to make it really special (e.g. crocosmia, monarda, foxglove, verbascum, hollyhock). She was looking around at a nursery this week and a salesperson at the nursery suggested she plant them now. Is this the best time for optimal size next year? Thank you for any advice.
Nurseries stock flowering plants, including perennials when these are in bloom. If you are trying to plan for August, then you would shop and plant in August - except where you were already familiar enough with the different kinds to buy and plant smaller specimens in spring or fall (in the latter case probably through mail order or internet sales). You might want to make choices like Frikart aster, Rozanne = 'Gerwat' geranium, Potentilla and others that bloom (July)August through October to be sure of hitting the wedding date with a good display underway.
Digitalis and Verbascum won't be naturally flowering this time next year, so consider other options for August colour. Echinacea? Delphinium? Aconitum (some varieties)? keke
Thank you both. I guess if planting now, she'll really need to stay on top of the watering till they get settled in. You're right about digitalis! My verbascum carry on into August but Victoria is a little earlier and they would indeed be past there prime. Echinacea would be good and I hadn't thought of delphiniums. Thanks again. A.
Delphiniums bloom in flushes, the ones I mentioned are constant. There are others also. One of the more or less consistent identifiers of perennials that bloom continuously is that they don't start until July or later, continue until fall. Note also that in order to have a balanced planting you will want about half spike-shaped flowers and half rounded flowers. The ones I mentioned are rounded, nearly all the others brought up are spike-shaped. If you plant nothing but verbascums, delphiniums etc. the planting will be all one type.
Anemone hupehensis blooms in August, is a vigorous bloomer and has lovely white or pink flowers. Phlox davidii also starts blooming for me in August in Sechelt. Fuchsia magellanica blooms all summer. It's a shrub, but can form nice thick displays. You would have to put in good sized plants to get a big show in one year. I have planted Acidanthera murielae as a summer bulb plant the past few year and have been very impressed with its flowers and fragrance--plant corms in the spring. It is blooming now. Several nice kinds of Hydrangea bloom in August, but I would be careful look for one with a long season. Also a shrub, so you would need to get decent sized plants.
Thank you for the suggestions, Eric! I had forgotten about the lovely anemone, and did not know Acidanthera by name. Very elegant. I'll pass this on. A.
Japanese anemone spreads underground, does not play well with other plants in conventional borders. Gladiolus callianthus is frost tender and, in my experience apt to come up blind (flowerless), with only a small percentage of corms planted producing flower spikes.
