Plant Now for Summer Color: Top Suggestions from Monrovia for a Full Color Summer

Azusa, California – Spring is an exciting time in the garden. As the first blossoms of the season start to transition, there are ways to make sure your garden is ready for its next act. Planting varieties that flower through the heat of summer is a great way to keep your garden bright, beautiful and in bloom. Here are our top selections to plant now for color all summer long.

 

Colorburst™ Cape Fuchsia Series
For eye-catching color in the garden, it’s tough to beat Colorburst™ Cape Fuchsia. Loads of bright, colorful blooms cover the plant from mid-summer well into fall. The flowers are a unique tubular shape that dangle from the plant, providing movement and bright hues in the garden. Birds and butterflies love the trumpet-like blooms too. The Colorburst series, exclusive to Monrovia, is available in four varieties including Deep Red, Yellow, Orange and Rose. Each grows 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, providing long-lasting color in beds, borders and large containers. Colorburst is an herbaceous perennial in Zones 6-10, remaining evergreen in mild climates.

 

Evolution™ Coneflower Series
With Evolution™ Coneflowers you’ll have loads of bright, long-lasting blooms in the garden from late spring through fall. These heat loving, full sun perennials were selected as a Monrovia exclusive because they feature richer, more vibrant colors than older coneflower varieties. Each plant provides plenty of gorgeous blooms, so you’ll always have enough to cut for indoor arrangements. In the garden, Evolution Coneflowers are also magnets for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Available in five different colors, each grows 18 to 20 inches tall and 18 inches wide and are recommended for Zones 4-9.

  • Evolution™ Colorific™ Coneflower
    Echinacea 'Balevoeen' PP #30,998 – Evolution™ Colorific™ is truly an eye-catching coneflower. The blooms mature through multiple shades of pink, bringing a unique color spectrum to containers and landscape beds.
  • Evolution™ Embers™ Fever
    Echinacea 'TNECHEF'' PPAF – The glowing red blooms of Evolution™ Embers™ Fever will make you stop and stare. This coneflower is perfect for adding bold color.
  • Evolution™ Embers™ Sparks
    Echinacea 'TNECHES' PPAF – Evolution™ Embers™ Sparks features golden-yellow petals that surround showy cones. The blooms are great for cutting!
  • Evolution™ Fiesta Coneflower
    Echinacea 'Balevoesta' PP #31,029 – Another great choice for bold color, the blooms of Evolution™ Fiesta Coneflower emerge in a hot coral hue, then the flowers age to a softer orange pink.
  • Evolution™ Yellow Falls
    Echinacea 'Balevoelf' PP #31.064 – Evolution™ Yellow Falls offers deep yellow blooms with petals that arch downward. It is great
    in the garden or in containers.

 

Seaside Serenade® Hydrangea
The varieties in Monrovia’s exclusive Seaside Serenade® Hydrangea Collection were chosen not only for beauty, but because they perform better in the garden. Their stunning colors, longer lasting blooms and stronger stems bring more enjoyment to the summer landscape. Each Seaside Serenade Hydrangea stays compact, topping out at about 3 feet high, making them the perfect hydrangea for large and small garden spaces, as well as containers. They thrive in Zones 4-9 and provide color from summer through fall. Here are just a few selections to try.

  • Seaside Serenade® Newport Hydrangea
    Hydrangea macrophylla 'HORTMANI' PP #28,085 – This beautiful mophead variety features striking flowers that are a deep plum in acidic soils or a vibrant pink in more alkaline soils. Like its siblings in the Seaside Serenade® Collection, Newport features exceptionally strong stems that do not flop in windy or rainy weather.
    Newport and several other Seaside Serenade Hydrangeas are tetraploids. Tetraploid hydrangeas have a shorter distance between the leaf nodes, keeping the plant compact. It also makes the stems sturdier and stronger. The stems, leaves, and flowers are also thicker and waxier, allowing the blooms to last much longer, up to 3 months, on the plant. Newport blooms on old and new growth, reblooming from early summer until autumn.
  • Seaside Serenade® Fire Island Hydrangea
    Hydrangea macrophylla 'HORTFIRE' PP #29,058 – The bi-color blooms of Seaside Serenade® Fire Island Hydrangea really turn heads in the garden. The white blossoms feature an eye-catching, rosy-red edge. As the blooms mature, the ruffled edging turns a deep pink, providing a unique look throughout the growing season.
  • Seaside Serenade® Cape May Hydrangea
    Hydrangea serrata ‘SMHSMAKF2MT’ PP #30,020 – Lacecap hydrangea lovers will fall for Seaside Serenade® Cape May. This variety features large, intricate blooms that are either a true blue in acidic soils or a clear pink in alkaline soils. Cape May’s leaves show just a hint of burgundy as they age.

 

Nitty Gritty™ Groundcover Roses
The Nitty Gritty™ Groundcover Rose Collection features five varieties of colorful, practically carefree shrubs. They are own-root roses that offer exceptional disease resistance. The flowers appear in waves from late spring to autumn. They are perfect for front border plantings, as accent plants or planted together for a mass of color. These roses look great in containers too! Each of the five colors reach up to 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and are recommended for Zones 4-9.

 

Visit your local garden center orMonrovia.com for more information, inspiration and to purchase these exclusive Monrovia varieties.

Images available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qwzyvy4ta99pxnj/AACro_kf-7V8lDF1hRhp59GBa?dl=0

Photo credit: Doreen Wynja for Monrovia

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Need more ideas or images? Contact:
Kathleen Hennessy, [email protected] or 952-224-2939 ext. 120

About Monrovia
Inspired by the beauty of plants, gardens, and landscapes everywhere, Harry E. Rosedale, Sr. founded Monrovia in 1926 to be a premier grower of shrubs and trees. Monrovia collaborates with plant breeders around the world to introduce improved plant varieties to North America. Monrovia plants flourish once planted to beautify gardens and landscapes. Please visit www.monrovia.com to learn more.