Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Wildflower / native plants that flower in July & August?

Anna33Anna33 Posts: 316
in Plants
As the title says, really...! What are some wildflowers and/or native plants (or close cousins, at a push) that flower in July and August? Also some old-school medicinal plants that flower during this period?

I've got a lot of cultivated plants in borders, but I'd like to include some more relaxed planting in the next year or two, and am just planning ahead. I'm good with lots of ones that flower Spring & early Summer, but I know less about those which flower later in the year.
«1

Posts

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I'd recommend Daucus carota, wild carrot, which is beautiful - flowers from midsummer to autumn, and attracts loads of insects.  Also meadowsweet, which smells gorgeous too.  Knapweed flowers quite late in my meadow area, as does St John's Wort; purple loosestrife carries on until September in a dampish spot.

    I'm not good on medicinal plants but I'm sure someone else will be...
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • Anna33Anna33 Posts: 316
    Thank you! This gives me a few good starting plants. I only discovered recently that the St John's Wort that is the medicinal one is far more attractive than the car park Hypericum that I'm used to seeing. I'd written off the Hypericum family until then!
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    Campanula persicifolia keeps flowering through the summer, especially if you deadhead and Campanula cervicaria flowers June onwards

    If you have alkanet, pulling the flower stems off after they’ve finished will give you another flush a month or so later
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited June 2022
    Red clover ... Trifolium rubens ... flowers through July and August  and will give you a second flush later on if you cut them hard back.

    Tansy ... Tanecetum vulgare ... flowers July to October.

    Both really good for wildlife and have a long history of medicinal use. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    If you have anywhere damp, wild angelica is lovely
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Betony is good in my sunny patch, I have a light and a darker pink one. The darker one seeds itself around, the pale one doesn't seem to.
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    If you have any "wild" areas in the vicinity and have the time/inclination over the next 2 or 3 months, it could be worth having a nose around to see what's flowering and in what conditions.
    Take some pics whilst you are at it and the clever people on here will be able to ID the plant for you.  At least then you have a better idea of what seeds /plants would be worth trying in your garden.
  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    Feverfew seems to flower pretty much through the summer from late spring on.  Not sure if it's truly native, or just naturalised here.  Spread very easily and pops up everywhere, but easy to pull up if it grows where you don't want it.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    Goldenrod (solidago) is nice. There are lots of cultivars now and I have the wild weedy type near my pond and the more refined, goldenmosa and fireworks in the borders. It is medicinal but I don't know why.

    The perennial cornflowers are one of the most loved plants by pollinators and I have a big selection of them with centaurea scabiosa and dealbatus towering above the others.

    Knautia arvensis is also a nice native plant but knautia macedonica performs far better and for most of the year. It is the plant that flowers the longest in my garden and it even flowered every day all through winter last year.
  • Anna33Anna33 Posts: 316
    Wow, this is an awesome list of suggestions, thank you. I've already got heaps of Feverfew, which is looking lovely at the moment (I suspect next year it might make a break for world domination if I let it spread more), and had been thinking about things like Tansy. And I keep forgetting about Knautia.

    This is a really good list, though, and all things I'd like to find a home for where they'll suit my conditions. I've got both damp and dry areas, and sunshine and shade in different spots, so will have a good research of all of these suggestions.

    Thank you again!
Sign In or Register to comment.