Top 10 Late Summer Flowering Shrubs

I have to confess that for me spring is the season when I am most enthusiastic in the garden. The thrill of watching the first bulbs emerge and then the perennial flowers that follow. As the year rolls on the initial rush to make sure everything is planted? gives way to the more mundane tasks of general maintenance. In the same way the early fresh colors in the border begin to fade and by August often things are looking a little tired. If this is your experience then you may want to consider growing one or more of these late summer flowering shrubs which are described in an article by David Beaulieu which I found on The Spruce website.

If your landscaping tends to look tired when August and September roll around, it’s time to look into growing some late summer flowering shrubs. Some of these bushes begin blooming earlier in the year but have good staying power, continuing to blossom into September (or even beyond). Others are simply late bloomers. Either way, they’re critical allies to have at your disposal if you value continuous sequence of bloom.

1.Candy Oh! Rose

The flower towards the bottom left-hand corner is older than the rest on this Candy Oh! Vivid red rose plant; you can see that it has lost the pretty yellow center that the newer blooms around it have. David Beaulieu

This rose bush begins blooming in my zone-5 landscape in late May. So why do I list it as one of my late summer flowering shrubs? Well, it does double-duty, qualifying not only for the present list, but also as a bush that blooms in early summer. Candy Oh! blooms pretty much non-stop throughout the summer. It is one shrub that you can count on to inject color into your landscaping during June, July, August, September, and?assuming you avoid a frost?even into October.

2.Miss Ruby Butterfly Bush

?The Greenery Nursery / Flickr/ CC BY 2.0

You probably know that butterfly bush is in an elite class when it comes to drawing butterflies (heck, with a name like that, how could it not?), along with butterfly weed and common milkweed. You probably also know that it’s an invasive plant in some regions. So what you need to find out now is whether it’s considered invasive in your own particular area.

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3.Sugar Tip Rose of Sharon

Sugar Tip rose of Sharon not only has bicolored flowers, but also variegated foliage. David Beaulieu

Rose of Sharon is a classic contributor to the late summer landscape. ‘Sugar Tip’ is one of the more interesting cultivars. Not only are the double flowers two-toned, but the leaves are also variegated.