All Summer Flowering Shrubs

Caryopteris and Buddleia

• Bluebeard shrubs (Caryopteris x clandonensis) are long flowering summer plants. Also called blue spirea or blue mist, Caryopteris begins to bloom in mid-summer and continue until heavy, hard frosts of mid-autumn finally end the floral displays. A true shrub, it is an adult butterfly magnet that is fairly easy to care for with minimal gardening maintenance required. The cultivar "Longwood Blue" with its lance-like, silvery-gray leaves grows to about 4 feet in height.

  Another long-blooming butterfly-attracting summer shrub is the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). Also an easy-to-grow care-free garden plant, buddleias are sometimes considered invasive.

Hibiscus

• The king of all summer flowering shrubs is the brilliant red hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus Lord Baltimore). Along with its siblings, the blush pink '"Anne Arundel" and the pure pink "Lady Baltimore," as well as the all white "Albert Behnke," the wide range of hardy hibiscus of all types wins the award as the longest blooming shrubs in the summer garden. Perfectly perennial, growing faster than pests can keep up with, these are full sun no-care additions to any landscape. They bloom from early summer until the heavy frosts and killing hard freezes of mid to late fall.

Crepe Myrtle

• Crepe myrtles (Lagerstroemia spp.) are long-blooming, sun-loving garden shrubs that begin to flower in mid-summer and continue into the early fall. Even in autumn, as the flowering tapers off, the cool weather brings out the yellow-orange to red foliage that provides additional color interest for the garden lover. The wide range of colors from whites through pinks to reds and purples, as well the equally wide range of heights from dwarf cultivars of a few feet to small trees of 16 feet or more, the crepe myrtle belongs in the long blooming category of summer plants.

Roses

• The traditional hybrid tea rose will bloom from early spring to late fall if one can spend the time and energy to support its innumerable needs. Much easier are the new landscape or shrub rose hybrids that rise to the title of queen of the garden. Low maintenance and practically ever-blooming, they start in late spring and continue on through the summer well into fall. The new landscape roses are relatively disease resistant and tend to grow fast enough to minimize insect damage as well.