Plants Picked for Their Blooms

Daisy-Like Flowers

• Daisy-like flowers are made up of ray petals surrounding a center that often is a contrasting color. This flower type lures butterflies to the garden to feed on the plant’s nectar. One family of daisy-like flowers is the aster, including 'Moench' Frikartii aster (Aster x frikartii 'Moench'), which blooms from summer through fall. This perennial grows best in USDA zones 5 through 8 in full-sun locations, where it can reach 3 feet tall. The blossom is composed of purple daisy-like petals surrounding a yellow eye.

  Sweet coneflower (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) grows as a perennial in USDA zones 4 through 8. Blooms of yellow ray petals around a brown center appear during the summer, and continue until the end of autumn. This heat-tolerant plant reaches 3 to 5 feet tall, spreading 1 to 2 feet wide.

Mass Blooms

• Some types of plants produce blooms in such massive quantities that they nearly cover the plant. For example, the 'Early Sunrise' large-flowered tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora 'Early Sunrise') reaches 24 inches tall and wide in USDA zones 4 through 9. This perennial blooms from spring through summer, producing yellow, ruffled blossoms that are commonly used as cut flowers.

  'Victoria Blue' forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica 'Victoria Blue') stays small at 6 to 8 inches in USDA zones 3 through 8. This plant grows in full to partial sun, and produces a mass of small, blue flowers with white eyes during the spring. In favorable growing conditions, this plant can be aggressive.

Trumpet-Shaped Blossoms

• Trumpet-shaped blossoms are large, showy flowers. They tend to attract pollinators with long mouth parts, such as hummingbirds. One showy trumpet-shaped flower is the 'Casablanca' Peruvian lily (Alstroemeria 'Casablanca'). This showy amaryllis-like white flower with red, yellow and pink markings grows best in USDA zones 8 through 11. In full to part-sun exposure, this summer-blooming perennial reaches up to 36 inches tall and wide.

  Stella de Oro dwarf day lily (Hemerocallis x 'Stella de Oro') produces large clusters of yellow trumpets on top of 2 1/2-foot stems. These summer and fall flowers grow above the 1-foot-tall sword-shaped green leaves. In full to partial sun locations in USDA zones 4 through 11, this day lily tolerates seacoast and wet growing conditions.

Unusual Blossoms

• Some plants produce flowers that attract the attention of the garden visitor with their unusual shapes. Color, combined with blossom shape, make for an uncommon plant.

  'Passionate Rainbow' gaura (Gaura lindheimeri 'Passionate Rainbow') blooms from spring through fall, producing rose-pink flowers that resemble butterflies. Favoring full-sun locations in USDA zones 6 through 9, this North American native perennial forms a mat 30 inches tall and 15 inches wide, made up of green leaves edged with white.

  Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) grows as a perennial in USDA zones 8 through 10, reaching 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, with pineapple-scented leaves. The clusters of inch-long, red tubular flowers bloom from summer through fall at the tops of the stems. The blossoms attract hummingbirds and butterflies to the garden.