Garden Tips Newsletter
Flowering
Trees and Shrubs for Summer and Fall
August 10, 2009
Spring is a glorious season for blooming azaleas, rhododendrons, spireas, forsythia and a host of other flowering trees and shrubs. By late summer some gardens tend to be rather bare when it comes to the blooming woody plants. That doesn’t have to be the case. Make a note now to select some of the following plants to help continue that flowering display into the late summer and fall.
Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii)
This plant comes in flower colors
ranging from deep purple to pink, yellow to white. It starts blooming
in early summer and continues right up to frost, if you do a little snipping
of old flower stalks to encourage new blooms. The blooms are long, cylindrical
clusters 2 inches in diameter and 6 to 12 inches long and are a butterfly
magnet. Plant in well-drained soil in full sun.
Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria)
This coarsely branched shrub blooms in
June. The showy pink to gray fruiting panicles are attractive from mid-July
to August. It grows 15 feet tall and nearly as wide. Some forms have
red-purple leaves and inflorescences. And now there is a yellow-foliaged
selection as well. New plants must be kept moist and weeded. Established
plants tolerate a range of soil conditions.
Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum)
This beautiful native tree blooms in
late July to August. Small white flower borne in panicles are up to 10
inches long. A slow-growing tree usually 15 to 20 feet tall in cultivation.
Needs moist, well-drained soil and should be heavily mulched. Will tolerate
light shade, but blooms best in full sun. It has outstanding red foliage
in the fall.
French Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)
Everyone knows these big-flowering
shrubs that have sky blue to pink huge inflorescences. Flower color is
dependent on the pH of the soil with the more acidic soil resulting in
blue and alkaline soils producing pink flowers. These can grow up to
eight feet tall and require rich, moist, well-drained soil in partial
shade.
Lilac Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus)
Beautiful gray-green foliage
and lavender five to seven inch spikes of flowers appear in late July
and August. This plant grows into a small tree in our climate and can
be pruned up nicely to make a nice specimen plant. Plant in a well-drained
soil in full sun.
Bluebeard ( Caroypteris x clandonensis)
This small (three to five feet) shrub
blooms late summer to fall with clusters of one inch long blue blowers
in the leaf axils. It has glabrous foliage and flowers on current year’s
growth. Tolerates dry soil once established.
Goldenrain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata)
This tree blooms mid-July
to August with huge yellow panicles 10-18 inches long followed by brown,
bladder like fruits up to 2 inches long. It is a small tree with typically
crooked trunk and limbs and grows 30 feet tall. It can tolerate dry soil.
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)
This old timey large shrub blooms
late July into August. Bloom colors range from white to reddish-magenta
or bluish purple and are two to three inches across. These can be single
or double flowers. It is a slow-growing plant up to 15 feet tall. Leaves
are produced late in spring. Plant in full sun and it is tolerant of
drought once established.
Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes Garden Tips weekly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.