Trees and Shrubs for Late Summer Flowers

 

 

 

 

Rose Purple Sepals of the Seven-Son Flower

It seems that most of the flowering trees and shrubs like Crabapples, Lilacs, Viburnums and Magnolias bloom in spring. They last for a couple of weeks, and then all those beautiful flowers are gone. The key objective is to also have some trees and shrubs that flower later in the season. Add some perennials to some of the following plants, and you will ensure to have color in your landscape all summer long!

Butterfly Bush has pink, white or purple flowers from June to September. It is usually treated as a perennial in northern climates.

Bottlebrush Buckeye has 8-12 inch bottle-brush white flowers in mid summer. The flowers turn into chestnut-like seeds eaten by wildlife.

Bush-Honeysuckle (Diervilla) is a low growing shrub with small yellow flowers blooming in mid-summer. It is a good plant for dry sites and has red-bronze fall color.

Hydrangeas come in multiple varieties with large blooms with colors ranging from white to pink to blue from mid summer to fall. A good plant for shadier spots.

Peking or Japanese Tree Lilac has creamy white fragrant flowers from mid to late June.

Seven-Son Flower is a larger shrub with white, fragrant, jasmine-like flowers in late summer. The rose purple sepals are very showy in fall.

Shrub roses come in many different colors from reds and pinks to yellows and white. Some are fragrant and bloom all summer with orange-red rose-hips in fall.

Smoke Tree (Cotinus) is a larger shrub that has wine colored feathery plumes in mid-summer that resemble clouds of smoke.

St. John’s Wort is a small, round shrub with bright yellow flowers from July to September. A Wisconsin native.

Lindens (Tilia) are large trees with an abundance of small sweet smelling, pale-yellow flowers in late June to early July.

Buttonbush has long-lasting white globular flowers in mid-summer that resemble pincushions. They require acid soils.

Summersweet (Clethra) has white or light pink fragrant flowers from July to early September. The bottlebrush -shaped blooms attract butterflies. It likes shady sites with acidic soils.