Best Perennials for Wisconsin and Midwest climates

Best Perennials – These great looking perennial flowers are easy to grow in the Midwestern states and best of all they come back year after year no matter what our climate delivers.

Kims Knee High Coneflower – Read More In Wisconsin the weather can be unpredictable and with that so can the challenge of finding the right flowering plants for your garden. Here is a list of some of the best and most hardy growing perennial flowers to plant in your cold weather climate garden.

Coneflowers – Also called Echinacea, blooms from summer through the fall. There are a variety of plants that range in sizes from 16 inches all the way up to 4 feet. The traditional cone flowers are in pink, purple and white but they also come in greens, oranges, bright red, and many other vibrant colors for your garden.

Hardy Geraniums – Great landscape flower known for its soft pink flower and unique variety. They do best in well-drained soil. Plants start to flower in June and grow about 6 inches high and 14 inches wide. They do well in the sun and require very little water.

Black-Eyed Susans – The Rudbeckia is one of the easiest perennials to grow with large golden flowers and black centers. They attract butterflies and provide food for the birds in the winter. They are heat and drought tolerant and require little maintenance. They continue to spread year after year throughout your garden.

Allium – Allium is a hardy perennial with long-lasting, showy blooms. Plant several throughout your perennial bed or other areas where they can pop up and color your summer with their little spheres of lavender/pink color. They are long lasting and hardy and make a natural partner for a shade loving Hosta.

Late Panicle Hydrangea – These are especially recommended in the Midwest because of their cold tolerance. These shrubs are fast growing and are great for informal screens, specimen plants, or for cut arrangements. Cut the flower heads when they are fully open and hang to dry in a warm, airy place. The Late Panicle also comes in a tree form.

Sedums – Sedums are very easy to grow and can be divided and spread throughout your yard as they grow year after year. One of the favorites “Autumn Joy” is very familiar to Midwest gardeners and produces green broccoli like buds, which open into large pink flower heads that deepen to rusty red by fall. Other favorite sedums include ‘Purple Emperor’, ‘Vera Jameson’ and ‘Meteor’.

Russian Sage – Russian Sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, is a deciduous semi-woody sub shrub with upright, grayish white stems and lobed, silvery gray leaves. The sage ranges from 3 to 5 feet tall. It’s an excellent companion to plants such as roses, ornamental grasses or tall sedums and requires little maintenance.

Butterfly Plant Cinderella – Asclepias incarnata ‘Cinderella’, is a virtually hassle-free perennial, offering three months of vanilla-scented, rose-pink flowers in large, compact clusters from midsummer to early fall. Attracts Hummingbirds and Butterflies, but is Deer Resistant – Pink Blooms Mid-summer through fall.

Hostas – Hostas are shade loving perennials that have some flowering blooms on certain plants.

Salvia – The Salvia ‘May Night’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Mainacht’, has glowing purple stems loaded with violet-purple flowers that bloom from June to October.

There are many other perennials that do well in the colder Midwest climates. The hosta is great for shady places. Lilacs, Rhodendrons, Ajuga, lily of the valley, bleeding heart, tulips, Oriental poppies, daffodils and hyacinths are always a favorite, the primrose, which is the earliest to flower most years are all good plants for spring flowers around Wisconsin. As we enter the warmer days of summer try out the Coral Bells, Ladies Mantle, Clematis, Lilies and Astillbes.