My daughter is getting married in August of 09 and I want my gardens to look nice for pictures then, any ideas on perennials that will be blooming around then. I live in Massachusetts and my gardens are all pink, purple, yellow, white, blue's, I don't do orange or red. The color in my gardens seem to fizzle come august. Thanks for any ideas.
mums and sedums. mums you can kind of manipulate when they'll bloom - early in the season, pinch back the growth to keep them from budding out...stop pinching around the beginning of july and they should be in flower at the mid-end of august. sedums bloom anywhere from end of july through to the beginning of october here.
Second'd! You can also try blue lobelias; these started to rebloom in late-july early-august for me when I lived in your hemisphere.
Also think about African Daisies, which bloom fairly constantly throughout the season, and which come in a very attractive range of colours. I have purple ones and they are a source of joy to me all year round. Oh, I should clarify because ADs are actually two different species of plants. Dimorphotheca aurantiaca is usually called Cape Marigolds or Cape Daisies; this is in the yellow to white spectrum, as well as the orange/red you are trying to avoid. And yesterday I saw some that were shaded pink and purple, which makes me determined to find a source for my garden. The only drawback is that they will be annuals for you that far North. Osteospermum are the other ones, with colours more shifted to the blue tones.