If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the plants that you grow, what would that be? Predictably, my answer to this question varies with the flow of the season. But the one magic change that I come back to most often is turning tulips into multi-season plants.
Impossible, I know. But a girl can dream.
Luckily for me, there are perennials that not only come back year after year but also shift and transform to add multiple seasons of interest to our gardens.
What do I mean by seasons of interest in the garden?
Simply put, the garden becomes a lovely place to look at – and enjoy being in – for most of the year.
I think it’s relatively easy to plant a garden that looks stunning in June, July and August, when perennials and annuals are bursting at the seams with flowers. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle.
If you want to level up – and most gardeners do, unless they inhabit that home only in the summer – designing an outdoor space that looks good in all seasons is the way to go. We can usually do this with a succession of plants, but we can also rely on the same plant to do the heavy lifting for months at a time.
It requires a change in mindset.
Before I tell you which plants can do that, let me clarify something. When we’re talking about seasons of interest, we’re not only referring to when a plant is in bloom. (You need long-blooming perennials for that.)
We need to expand our horizon and our definition of interest to include foliage (in terms of color, texture and shape), dry seed heads, and even the color of the stems. Basically, anything that could catch the eye and titillate the senses will add interest to a garden.
1. Fall stonecrop
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall, winter.
This perennial has so many things going for it. First of all, it’s hardy, so it will survive even the toughest of winters by retreating underground.
Secondly, like all succulents, it’s extremely resistant to drought – it may not flower very abundantly if it’s too thirsty, but it won’t wither and die.
And thirdly, it is absolutely gorgeous from spring all the way through fall. If you don’t prune it in the fall, you might even get a fourth season out of it.
The muted green foliage of the tall stonecrop looks great as a filler for most of spring and early summer.
Then large neon-colored flowerheads start developing all through the summer, only to open up in a dazzling display of pink and fuchsia in the fall. The shades of these flower clusters only get richer and warmer as the temperatures dip, creating a harmonizing effect with the autumnal foliage of trees in the garden.
2. Coral bells (Heuchera)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall, mild winters.
I can’t seem to write a plant list without mentioning Heuchera. I’ve “discovered” this perennial years into my gardening practice; so as a recent convert, I’m trying my best to get others on board this colorful train. Is it working?
Heuchera ticks two important boxes for me: it’s hardy, and it does really well in the shade. But it’s also one of those plants that looks absolutely stunning in all seasons. Save perhaps the depths of winter. Though in my mild winter climate, my heucheras behave as evergreens. More accurately, ever-purples.
The color of its foliage is usually more intense in cool spring weather. It washes out a bit if it gets too much sun at the height of summer. But it goes back to intense as the cool fall days set in.
Heuchera also flowers in late spring and early summer, producing delicate pink, vanilla or white flowers that give it its coral bells moniker.
This perennial comes in a wide range of colors and shades, from silver to burgundy, yellow, copper and chartreuse.
3. Spirea (Spirea japonica)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall.
I keep describing Spirea as one of those perennials that messes with your sense of seasons.
It’s just a bunch of sticks throughout the winter months, sure. But as soon as spring rolls around, it starts sprouting leaves in shades of amber, ruby and sunshine-yellow. It’s very much a sight for sore eyes when everything is still relatively gray.
As spring turns into summer, Spirea counterintuitively turns from autumnal colors to more vibrant shades of green.
In the summer, the pink clusters of flowers take over the show. And it’s a long show – my Spirea stays in bloom for up to six weeks at a time. If I give it a light prune in early summer, it sprouts even more flowers (though the second set is smaller). And as the days get shorter and cooler in the fall, its leaves go back to rusty reds. It comes full circle in three seasons.
4. White stonecrop (Sedum album)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall, winter.
I planted a few strands of white stonecrop in my shallow garden in the fall without expecting too much. I got them as cuttings from a friend’s garden, and after killing so many indoor succulents, I decided not to get overly attached to them.
Oh, how wrong I was! This is what they look like this summer. A floating froth of white flowers over a carpet of juicy leaves. The bees love them; the butterflies love them; I love them. And all from no more than ten inches of cuttings. I’m not kidding!
In the fall, the sedum turns a pretty shade of orange and red. And unless you’re gardening in a climate with really harsh winters, white stonecrop will stay evergreen in the winter as well.
5. Cotton lavender (Santolina)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall.
I went back and forth on whether I wanted to add English lavender to the list of multi-season interest perennials. But after writing about it so much (everything from spring and fall lavender pruning to mistakes that could kill it), I’ve decided to replace it with another Mediterranean plant.
Enter santolina! It has a lot of things in common with lavender. Silvery foliage, drought resistance, gentle soothing fragrance.
And, of course, they both have multiple seasons of interest in the garden.
Santolina (re)starts its growth in spring by putting out green-gray wispy foliage. As summer rolls around, the pearl-like flower buds start to emerge and float above the leaves.
Then in the fall, the leaves turn even more silvery at the same time as the mature flowers open up into drops of sunshine. It’s a really lovely color combination. Dare I say, even prettier than that of lavender.
6. Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall.
I recently wrote an article on what to do with hydrangeas after they’re done blooming. And I was mentioning how I believe that hydrangeas belong on the list of plants with multiple seasons of interest, especially when you let the dry flowers decorate the shrubs until spring.
I want to showcase a type of hydrangea that is a true seasonal chameleon. Have a look at the oakleaf hydrangea.
In the spring, it’s like a mini oak tree. Come summer, it transforms into a magical cotton candy tree, chock full of clusters of white or pink flowers.
But the real show-stopping transformation happens in the fall. The foliage of the oakleaf hydrangea is decked in hues of deep crimson, red and caramel. Couple that with the sheer size of each leaf, and you’ve got yourself a new garden sweetheart.
7. Silver-dollar plant (Lunaria annua)
Seasons of interest: summer, fall, winter.
Now that we got the gist of what a plant with multiple seasons of interest is, let’s level up one more time. Is there an ornamental that looks beautiful in summer and fall, as well as in winter?
Meet the silver dollar plant (Lunaria annua), a member of the brassica family. Also known as honesty, or simply money plant, lunaria starts out low to the ground in spring, acting as a flower bed filler just about when the tulips are in full bloom.
By May, when the spring bulbs are gone, but not much else is around, honesty turns into a sea of blues, purples or pinks that lasts for weeks. In mid-summer, the flowers make way for large flat pods that continue to add a decorative touch to the garden.
The seed pods turn burgundy in the fall, but only reach peak wow! factor in the winter. Over the cold months, the pods get papery and translucent, like little drops of silver.
I pick them at this point to use in indoor decor, safe in the knowledge that the cycle will start again in about a month.
8. Mounding sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten’)
Seasons of interest: summer, fall, winter.
It’s not just dry seed heads and seed pods that can add a dash of interest to the winter garden. Look at how the foliage of this mounding sage glistens in the low winter light.
Not all sage varieties have multiple seasons of interest. My purple sage, for example, loses most of its leaves and looks a bit disheveled during the cold months.
But the mounding sage overwinters like a snow queen. Yes, even when it snows.
In spring, the leaves turn back to green, followed by a flush of indigo-blue flowers in the summer. By the time I’m ready to use it in Thanksgiving stuffing, the leaves are back to a deep shade of green.
9. Common dogwood or bloody dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)
Seasons of interest: spring, summer, fall, winter.
If there’s an ornamental that looks more beautiful in the depths of winter than it does in the summer, it has to be the common dogwood.
Don’t get me wrong, spring and summer are still good seasons of interest for this shrub. Tight clusters of small creamy flowers adorn it in spring – as early as February, way ahead of the leaves – sometimes coinciding with the blooming of forsythia.
Then the flowers turn into clusters of glossy black berries in the summer. In the fall, the foliage turns a deep warm shade of orange, making the shrub look like it’s on fire. And once the leaves drop, that’s when the vibrant colored stems come into focus.
Depending on what cultivar you’ve planted, the stems can be fiery red, deep amber, cold burgundy or pitch black. This ‘winter fire’ display lasts for months and makes a dramatic contrast against the whiteness of snow or the gray of the winter in the garden.
I hope I’ve convinced you that it’s not just evergreens that make for a beautiful multi-season attraction in the garden. If we look a little bit past the flowers and consider perennials (and some biennials) holistically, we’re bound to discover how much texture and color we can get from garden regulars.
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