Best Perennials That Bloom All Season for Cut Flower Gardens
Working on what to grow in your garden or on your farm next season?
Are you wondering if there are perennials that bloom all summer or season long that work well for cutting gardens?
If you’re looking for perennial flowers that bloom from spring to fall (and do well for cut flower use!), then this article is for you!
White Itoh Peony
While this compiled listing is helpful for a gardener at any level, we’ve specifically focused on perennial flowers that do well for cut flower gardens and floral design work.
We’ve also designed this resource to be segmented by color palette, so you can get quick access to the flowers you need in the colors you desire.
In this article, we’ll cover the following:
A beginning knowledge base for caring for perennials, growing them, and selling them
Lists of perennial plants that flower from spring to fall (all season!), segmented by color family
List of flowering perennial plants that do well in containers
We include perennial flowering shrubs in this listing, too!
(Looking for quick reference lists of perennials that bloom from spring to fall? Skip ahead to the list section of this article.)
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What Are Perennials?
Perennials are plants that go dormant in their off season (usually winter). Their roots “hibernate” over the winter and the plant may appear dead, but perennials will regrow from the root the next season. Gardeners only have to plant perennials once—unless the plant dies—and it’s not required that you replant them again every year (like annuals).
Because of this, perennial flowering plants make a great long-term investment, especially for cut flower gardens and flower farms, as they reduce the need to replant annuals each year. You can also grow perennials from perennial flower seeds, but—depending on the behavior of the plant—they can take significantly longer to establish and flower from seed than planting directly from bulbs, tubers, cuttings, or plugs.
Remember, some plants that are considered perennials in one growing zone may need to be treated as annuals in another. And some annuals can self-seed, almost acting as perennials. This is dependent on your specific zone, so to ensure you get the most out of your investment in your garden, read up on your growing zone and the care information for each flowering perennial.
Looking for annuals instead? Check out our guide to annuals that bloom all summer long.
White Anemone
The Difference Between a Tender and Hardy Perennial
A tender perennial is a plant that returns year after year in warmer climates but would fail to return in growing zones with colder winters (think a tropical hibiscus flowering every year in Southeast Texas or dahlias returning after winter in growing zone 8 through 10).
A hardy perennial is one that can usually withstand winter outside and unprotected, without being removed and stored elsewhere.
Whether a flowering perennial plant is considered tender or hardy is based on your specific growing zone and the characteristics and care of the plant.
For this article, we’ll focus on hardy flowering perennials that do well for cut flower work.
But it’s important to note (again!), that even a hardy perennial may not be considered viable for your particular growing zone. So make sure to do your research before planting flowers or perennial seeds!
A Note About Invasive Perennial Flowers
If you’re a gardener, flower farmer, or floral designer who is growing flowers and is also cautious about growing invasive perennial plants, make sure to do additional research before purchasing and planting.
What is considered an invasive plant is dependent on your region. Check with your local Department of Wildlife or Agriculture extension office to be sure.
Do You Have to Deadhead Perennial Flowers?
Deadheading, or removing spent blooms, is an important practice that can encourage your perennials to flower all season long. In some cases, you might also consider what’s called pinching blooms on your plants in order to encourage more production or longer stem growth.
Check the growing and care specifications for each flower to ensure the plant’s behavior meets your needs, as some varieties listed below even produce more blooms as you cut them!
Purple Allium
Resources for Growing Perennial Flowers for Cut Flower Gardens (And How to Sell Them!)
If you don’t need flower growing tips and you’re simply looking for perennials that will bloom all season long, feel free to jump ahead to our comprehensive lists below.
However, we’ve curated some of our favorite perennial care and flower growing resources for you here—along with some of our best flower farming resources!
How to Grow Perennials and Care for Them: Helpful Videos
How to Prune a Limelight Hydrangea: In this video, Kelly of Team Flower demonstrates how and when to prune a limelight hydrangea. (And you’ll see us recommend hydrangeas for perennial cut flower gardening in our lists below!)
How to Grow, Hydrate, and Hold Hellebores as Cut Flowers: Here, you’ll learn how to care for hellebores as a live plant and cut flower as well as tips on how to use them in floral design work. (Hellebores are also recommended later in this article.)
How to Plant Peonies: In this video excerpt from our Growing and Arranging Peonies online class, you’ll discover six simple steps to ensure you’re correctly planting these show-stopping, sought-after blooms.
Flower Farming Topics: How-To Articles
Micro Farming in Every Season—One Farmer’s Advice: Experienced flower microfarmer Kelly Wood shares her tips and methods for growing a robust (and profitable) cut flower garden with limited growing space. It can be done!
How to Celebrate Your Work-In-Progress Garden (Even If It Isn’t “Insta-Ready”): Here, you’ll discover ways to celebrate and honor growing flowers—even in the middle of the mess. Starting small is something to be celebrated—we all get started one step at a time!
Revenue Ideas for Flower Farmers: While this article is written for flower farmers, it applies to gardeners and floral designers who want to earn a bit of extra income from their flower growing as well! Get creative ideas to earn income with your full-service flower farm, microfarm, or gardens.
We also have an educational podcast published each week that covers flower farming and floral design topics (and everything else flowers!). Check out podcast episodes here.
Purple Clematis
Perennials That Bloom all Summer from Spring to Fall—Complete Lists of Excellent Cut Flower Varieties
Now to the really fun part! If you’re planning your flower growing endeavors for the next growing season, you’re in luck. In the remainder of this guide, we’ll cover perennials that bloom from spring to fall (which is what we consider as blooming all season long).
Tips for using the lists below:
These perennial flower lists are segmented by color palette. You’ll see some flowers repeat on the lists below. Because we’ve created this guide to be an easy reference for flower farmers and floral designers who also grow flowers, we’ve set up our resource in this way. But you’ll see specific color varieties recommended when we can provide them!
Cool season flowers (or early season flowers) are marked for your reference. You’ll see an asterisk (*) mark flowers that do well as a cool season or early season flower. However, we’ve strategically included varieties on this list that continue to flower throughout their season, depending on your growing zone.
You’ll also see perennial flowering shrubs in this list. While technically considered shrubs in their own right, in this listing you’ll see suggestions of perennial shrubs that flower and do well for cut flower gardening and floral design work.
Photos of each flower are not provided. In this guide, we didn’t include photos of every flower listed, and that’s intentional. Including a photo of each variety listed would’ve made for quite the hard-to-load article. If you need to check on the appearance of a flower, we suggest simply opening up a new tab and doing a quick internet search—and then jumping back in this guide!
The perennials recommended work well for cut flower gardens and floral design work needs. Because there are thousands upon thousands of flower varieties in existence, we’ve simplified this list to include types of popular perennials that will produce frequently for cut flower gardens and floral design work. We’ve focused on including plants that generally rebloom throughout the season or produce multiple blooms in a season without significant assistance. So that’s why you won’t see some favorite perennials on this list.
Would you like to see a specific perennial or variety added to this list that’s also excellent for cut flower gardening or floral design work? We’d love to hear from you! Simply contact us via the red button on the right corner of this page.
Learn how to grow flowers for market in our Foundations for Growing Cut Flowers online class. You’ll get lifetime access to complete growing lists, comprehensive video instruction and notes, and so much more.
Perennials that Bloom All Season in a Bright Color Palette
Purple Lupine
The perennials listed below come in a variety of bright, cheery colors to liven up your garden, bouquets, and floral arrangements.
Yarrow
Monarda (also known as Bee Balm)
Perennial Scabiosa
Delphinium (alo called Larkspur)
Foxglove (also known as Digitalis—note: this plant is poisonous)
Lupine*
Perennial Sunflowers
Echinacea (also known as Coneflower)
Rudbeckia (also called Black-Eyed Susans)
Blue Milkweed (Tweedia)
Bigleaf/Mophead Hydrangeas
Peonies*
Anemones (including the Japanese Anemones)
Blazing Star
Phlox
Lily (An important note about lilies: While most do not bloom more than one flower per bulb or stalk per season as a perennial—depending on your growing zone—they are fast reproducers each year if you let them self-seed, providing a great investment and much greenery once the flower dies off. And Day Lily varieties do bloom twice per season.)
Lady’s Mantle
Aster
Bee Balm
Obedient Plant
Coral Bells (this perennial plant also offers striking foliage)
Veronica (also known as Speedwell)
False Goat’s Beard (also called Astilbe)
Tickseed (also known as Coreopsis)
Roses
Hostas
Iris (An iris rebloom is truly dependent on the variety you choose—there are reblooming varieties that you can use for cut flower gardens.)
Sedum (non-creeping varieties like Autumn Sedum make great cut flower varieties)
Millenium Allium
Daylilies
Columbine
Spirea
Weigela
Camellia*
Butterfly Bush (also known as Buddleia)
Flowering Quince
Elderberry
Lilac
Hellebores
Easy to Grow Perennials in a Creamy Peach or Blush Color Palette
Blush Digitalis (or Foxglove)
In this list, you’ll find flowers that bloom all season long and come in creamy blush and soft peachy and apricot tones—timeless colors that are well-loved by wedding clients!
Hellebores
Delphinium
Lupine
Digitalis (also known as Foxglove—note: this plant is poisonous)
Columbine
Peonies*
Panicle Hydrangeas
Oakleaf Hydrangeas
Let’s Dance Starlight Hydrangea
Sedum (non-creeping varieties like Autumn Sedum make great cut flower varieties)
Foxglove (also known as Digitalis—note: this plant is poisonous)
Burkwood Viburnum
Coral Bells (this perennial plant also offers striking foliage)
Lily
Deutzia
Lilac
Spirea
Camellia*
False Goat’s Beard (also called Astilbe)
Coreopsis (take a look at the Creme Caramel variety for creamy peachy tones).
Iris (An iris rebloom is truly dependent on the variety you choose—there are reblooming varieties that you can use for cut flower gardens.)
Blue Milkweed (Tweedia)
Echinacea (also known as Coneflower)
Coralbells
Flowering Quince
Daylilies (check out the Siloam Peony Display Daylily—it’s gorgeous!)
Hostas
Pink Muhly Grass (while not a flower so to speak, the blush heads look amazing in arrangements)
Yarrow
Butterfly Bush (also known as Buddleia)
Tickseed (also known as Coreopsis)
Aster
Weigela
Elderberry
Bee Balm
Obedient Plant
Perennials that Bloom in a Moody Color Palette
Smokebush (also known as Cotinus)
The flowers below come in moody and romantic tones such as purple, lavender, merlot, and even some purplish-chocolate colors.
Lavender
Daylilies
Eryngium (also known as Flat Sea Holly)
Perennial Scabiosa
Butterfly Bush (also known as Buddleia)
Tickseed (also known as Coreopsis)
Coral Bells (this perennial plant also offers striking foliage)
Delphinium (check out the Magic Fountains Cherry variety—it’s a real stunner!)
Perennial Sage (this comes in many varieties, and Russian Sage is an architectural favorite)
Lily
Lilac
Bee Balm
Elderberry
Clustered Bellflower
Anemones
Spirea
Sedum (non-creeping varieties like Autumn Sedum make great cut flower varieties)
Peonies*
Rudbeckia (take a look at the Cherry Brandy variety!)
Lupine
Foxglove (also known as Digitalis—note: this plant is poisonous)
Iris (An iris rebloom is truly dependent on the variety you choose—there are reblooming varieties that you can use for cut flower gardens.)
Coreopsis (see the Mercury Rising and Red Satin varieties)
Smokebush
Millenium Allium
Sedum Night Embers
Hellebores (there are even black hellebores—yes, you read that right!)
White Perennials that Bloom All Season
White Larkspur
Whether you do a lot of wedding floral design work or just love a couple clean and white options for your garden, the flowers in the list below will suit your needs!
Leatherleaf Viburnum
Perennial Scabiosa
Delphinium
Aster
Weigela
Columbine
Millenium Allium
False Goat’s Beard (also called Astilbe)
Veronica (also known as Speedwell)
Phlox
Lilac
Hostas
Camellia*
Spirea
Elderberry
Butterfly Bush (also known as Buddleia)
Anemones (including the Japanese Anemones)
Bee Balm
Foxglove (also known as Digitalis—note: this plant is poisonous)
Panicle Hydrangeas
Oakleaf Hydrangeas
Endless Summer Bigleaf/Mophead Hydrangeas
Snowball Bush
Blazing Star
Milkweed (while most known for its pinkish, orangey, and even blue flowers, Milkweed flowers appear in lacey white as well!)
Lupine
Echinacea (also known as Coneflower—and yes, these flowers do produce in white! Check out the Powwow White variety.)
Lily
Tickseed (also known as Coreopsis)
Obedient Plant
Deutzia
Larkspur
Best Perennials for Pots in Full Sun
Purple Columbine
Here’s a quick list compiled of the perennials listed above that also do well in containers in full sun.
If you'd like to have a cut flower garden for your own design work but have limited in-ground growing space, these flowers below could be a great option.
Autumn Sedum
Aster
Tickseed
Daylilies
Echinacea (also known as Coneflower)
Coral Bells
Hostas
Perennial Scabiosa
Lady’s Mantle
Dwarf hydrangea varieties
Yarrow
Bee balm (also known as Monarda)
Anemones
Lavender
Some peony varieties
Columbine
