Looking for plants that will keep on flowering

[minipie]

Hi everyone

I’m after a few plants that I can put in our beds (sunny, decent watering/drainage) and will just keep producing flowers for months without me having to do anything. Preferably perennials and with a bit of height, so not ground cover.

Some I already have which fit the bill:

convulvulus cneorum
creeping phlox (this is a bit short)
erigeron
salvia Amistad
geranium Rozanne
rock rose (a bit bigger than I’m after)

Any more along these lines?

Lavender should work in theory but always seems to just go leggy and woody, maybe I’m not pruning it enough

Thank you!

Thank you!

Nepeta, isn’t that catnip? Will it attract all the local felines…? It’s pretty though!

Salvia hot lips and marigolds are not ideal because I’m trying to stick to pinks purples blues and whites… sorry to be annoying 😆 it’s a pretty small garden so needs to look reasonably cohesive…

Hebes I have, mine doesn’t seem to flower for long though, maybe it’s the variety

Anemones! Lovely. Are they high maintenance? Do they come back every year or would I need to lift and replant (not going to happen!)

Didn’t realise nasturtiums come in other colours! Will investigate

osteospermum and marguerites - Yes I should look at these. They never really seem “special” but tbh if they will flower profusely and reliably that’s more important !

@minipie My anemones come back every year. I don’t lift them or do anything to them.
I have both the pink and white.

Watching with interest.

Fab thank you. I love anemones but for some reason thought they were lots of work.

I’ve just googled. I think what I’m describing are Japanese Anemones

Salvias, wall flowers, geraniums, Penstemons

Salvias and perennial wallflowers are long flowering.

Roses are good as well.

Wallflowers seem fairly indestructible and flower all summer long and into the autumn, comes in loads of different colours

There's a version of hot lips as amethyst lips which I imagine would be just as robust. I have spied it once or twice in a couple of garden centres but never when I have had a space in the garden or been close to home to get it back without it potentially dying.

We had a single morning glory that climbed up and over our bean teepee last summer. Purple and flowered all summer. An annual but easily grown from harvested seeds and the single plant has self seeded more plants than we know what to do with…so we’re going to be overrun this year.

Gaura has height with white flowers with a slight bit of pink, and low foliage. If you snip off stems with spent blooms you get even more flowers. I've seen a garden which has them planted in a drift, so they almost look like a lavender hedge. I grew them last year for the first time, and sowed them from seed, and they seem to have made it through winter and are starting up again. I have already moved some small clumps to other places so I hope to have it all over my garden.

Ah ok! I have those! I like them but they don’t flower for that long… but they do flower late which is useful

Morning glory, isn’t that basically bindweed 😮 I may be wrong!

Good to know about the purple hot lips and I love gaura!!

I put pink scabious in pots last year and they continued to flower right into december so going to plant more of those.

Morning glory is a convolvulus too, but doesn't behave like bindweed beyond being a climber. It will die in the winter. It could self seed, but the roots are not at all pervasive, and easy to pull out.

Get Heavenly Blue for blue flowers, though I found out last year that if you forget a packet of seeds for 5+ years, the flowers turn pink instead.

Osteospermum! Flower from May till October.

Mine died in my London garden over winter (one specific night when it hit -5C), but you can take cuttings, and also mine seem to have self-seeded before they died and I have a million little plantlets coming up now.

Oh ok! morning glory is beautiful so will stop being scared of it taking over 😃

Off to garden centre this weekend I think!

Worth considering herbs you can often get variegated varieties and they generally survive the winter.
Thyme is lovely and has a pretty pink lilac flower.
Cut the flower stems after the flowers die back and cut fairly well back each year for new growth to prevent it getting woody.
I usually freeze those stems in a zip
lock bag as the little leaves fall off into the freezer bag and you can scoop out and use in casseroles, dumplings, pastry etc.
Great inside a roast chicken for flavour too.
Second osteospermums, lovely flowers and long lasting wide range of colours.

oh I keep trying thyme and it keeps dying 😭 any particular ones to recommend?

I had to pull out the sage as it got huge but was so attacked by snails it was ragged.

and I seem to be the only person who can’t get mint to grow!!

Achillea (Yarrow) grows v easily from seed, lovely colours available. Also Linaria (Toadflax) - I've got 'Canon Went', a polite self-seeder. Alchemilla Mollis (Lady's Mantle) is also great, and don't forget Rudbeckia, some are perennial. Sedums are good too, and this year I grew Silene thinking it was an annual, but lo, a v attractive perennial.

I love scabious! Annual and perennial types both easy to grow from seed. Yes, they flower on and on, esp if you dead head.

Surfinia Blue Vein - phenomenal clouds of sweet smoky scent and a glorious purple blue. Bullet proof, fast growing, like being watered.

Kew Gardens seeds do a blue and white stripy morning glory.

Lots already mentioned, so I'll add cerinthe - it's an annual but it gently self seeds, flowers for an incredibly long period and the bees go nuts for it.

This is such a great thread and I’m shamelessly stealing all the ideas!
I’m a very very amateur gardener but I thought I would contribute my minimal knowledge. You mentioned lavender going twiggy, I’ve had this issue as well and got some advice from a gardener friend. You need to prune I. September but only the top parts of the stems, ie the purple flowers and some of the green stem.
Then it grows back really bushy the next year.
I actually pruned mine twice last year and got two lots of flowering which was fab.
maybe you could post some pictures? I love a bit of garden porn 😁

@TonysGotANewMotorI agree - been saying nemesia smells like play-doh for years!