Same state, same zone, Deanna. I'm still looking for a long-blooming peren, too. Except in the cutting garden, I mostly choose perens for foliage interest. Flowers are the icing on the cake. Peonies, iris, hosta, daylilies come to mind.

If I had to choose 1 which blooms by early summer and keeps tossing a few flowers until late frost, it'd be Geranium sanguineum 'Lancastriense', a low growing ground cover. Pretty foliage, easily multiplied, easily yanked.

In my zone 7b garden:

Agastache -- all agastache bloom a long time and I'm testing a number of different ones this year to see how they overwinter.

Perennial heliotrope
KO Roses
salvia 'Black & Blue' (may be an annual for you)
verbena bonariensis (annual for your zone, but reseeds)
reblooming daylily 'Happy Returns'
garden phlox 'Robert Poore'

Cameron

My anise hyssop started blooming May 1 and will continue, if deadheaded, til October.

What a fun thread! I hope more people will post pictures.

I had some shasta daisies in my last house that bloomed so profusely I'd bring armloads of big cheery flowers in to my co-workers every summer. They are hardy in zones 4-9 and they bloom from July to September. I had mine in full sun. They like a a pH of 5.8 to 6.5. You can propagate them from cuttings.

I also had a camellia that was divine. I wish I could tell you the name of it. I looked and looked on the web the other night but I couldn't tell. It was very tall, a good 10-12 feet (I had planted it many years earlier), and maybe about 4 feet wide, or 5 maybe. It was columnar, not bushy. Just shot straight up in a fat column, almost looked like it had been pruned it was such perfect shape, but I never pruned it. It had pale pink blooms that covered the plant very profusely. It was amazing. I can't tell you when it bloomed, sorry. Just summer. The blooms looked like this as I recall...

I wish someone could tell me what that was! Any camellia experts around here?

I'm tempted to sneak down there and take a few clippings when nobody is home - lol.

I also had pinks (Dianthus) -- tons of them along the north wall of the house. When they bloomed, that whole side of the house smelled like cinnamon and carnations. They are hardy in zones 5-8 I think.

In this house I am really enjoying my hydrangea. They are good for zones 6-9, like partial shade. I don't know how long they bloom as this is my first time to have one, but it's blooming wonderfully right now.

(these pix are all off the web, not taken by me)

I think in my zone 6 garden and I am doing this from memory not checking my journal would be:

First to bloom and last: gaillardias
very long bloom time: heliopsis, Lorraine Sunshine and the non-variegated one. I have both the single and double blooms

Rudbeckias: some of them are past prime, but the heliopsis don't show any signs of letting up

Phlox: Start later but go a very long time.

Salvias: Both perennial (cut back and get rebloom) and the annuals farinaceas which self-seed for me here and bloom early and until frost.

I have a little rose called Cecile Bruner that has bloomed for months with very little break in bloom.

The longest blooming daylily for me has been Grape Magic.

I want to try the Happy Returns. Glad to hear it really does bloom a long time.

Oceana, I would like to know which dianthus you grow. I would love to have some of them as a ground cover just for the fragrance alone.

Most of these began in May and are still blooming.

gldno1, which type of phlox do you like?

Daylily 'Happy Returns' is a pretty, soft yellow. It is now blooming again for about the 4th time, I think. This photo was taken in June. I just pull out the dead stems and brown leaves to keep it looking good through the summer. Mine are getting abusively hot sun in my garden.

Phlox 'Robert Poore' has been blooming for a month and will continue to rebloom until frost here. I don't deadhead this one. The blooms will look like they are spent, then it blooms again. Love it. I use it in front of my chimney, behind Indian Hawthornes and in another spot with Encore Azaleas.

Cameron

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My best guess is Camellia japonica 'Debutante' might be yours, Oceanna.

Salvia farinacea is perennial here, glad to know it reseeds for Glenda. My fav dianthus is 'Bath's Pink' which is a short bloomer here because of the heat, but really great foliage.

Nell

Oops...went back and checked this morning, the hyssop started blooming June 1, not May 1.

(HEAVY SIGH) Gee, I'd like to post a couple pics of my hydrangeas, tall garden phlox, monarda and astilbe, but the recent drought has made crispy critters from all of them. I am in awe of your green, blooming, lush gardens. Cheryl

I was tickled to see this thread. I love long blooming perennials and I am always on the hunt for them.

Here are a few I have found and love.

These two are in bloom when I brush the snow off them in March and still have bloom when the snow flies in November. I am in Aw each year.

Alpine Pansies

English Daisies

In this picture is Catmint,a favorite blue/purple which blooms in my garden from late may until frost. And Armeria maritima 'Splendens' or Sea Pink blooms from May to from til frost.

Dianthus 'Sweetness' along with Catmint

Dianthus 'Sweetness' and The Fairy Rose.

This is my first year with my Fairy rose but I am soooo happy with it. It has been dripping with blooms and bud since June.

I also have lots of different roses which bloom in flushes thorough out the gardening season from June to October. But there are a few stand outs which are seemingly always in bloom.

Lillian Austin

Alba Meidiland

Margaret Meril

Sexy Rexy

and The Fairy Rose of course.

I almost forgot Columbine. Mc Kana Giant blooms the longest in my garden. ( Once again catmint in back of it. Can you tell I think Catmint is a good back drop!)

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Beautiful pictures Cameron. So much color, love it!

Thanks so much for sharing everyone.

Carrie B.

Here is a link that might be useful: Album

Cameron, heliatrope is the one that smells like vanilla, is that right? The smell is heavenly!

Nell, thanks! Does Debutante grow straight up in a manicured column like that? I would LOVE to get another plant like the one I had in my old house. It was glorious in bloom. Icky looking as they turned brown and dropped all over, but well worth it.

I love my pansies too. And lavender.

Carrie, I can almost smell those roses. They are exquisite! I just got some dianthus and it came in kind of a big clump. Should I have pulled it apart into separate bits when I planted it? I planted it as the one clump. I've been watering the dickens out of it in this dry weather but all the blooms disappeared and I don't know if it's too happy.

I got 2 brand new roses this summer and I love them. I'll have to go out and read the tags to see what they are.

Thanks for the pictures! ALL the threads over here should have photos, IMHO. :o) This really helps me see what I would like to plant in my garden. This is a great thread and I hope more favorites and photos will be added.

What about more daisy types of plants? I do love daisies of all sorts. They seem so cheery.

Gldnol, I'm sorry, I don't know. I wish I knew what the ones were at the old house. They bloomed for years, then one year they all died and attempts to put more in that bed failed. I'm no gardener so these things are a mystery to me. I just got pale pink ones, pretty much solid color as I recall. Sorry I can't be more help. I'm learning but have miles and miles to go.

((((Cheryl)))), I'm so sad your plants dried up. :(

Carrie, I wanna paint that Margaret Meril -- perfection! I'm drooling over your album. The words are hard to read, white against the pale green. Your pictures are gorgeous!

Well, not sure if I'll post pics since that tends to take me a while, but I'll try to list some of my longer-blooming perennials. I'm in zone 5, but not really the same area, so who knows how my experience will compare.

Geranium - nimbus & brookstone (?) - I just cut them back. Iirc, they started blooming sometime in June. I'm hoping to get another flush out of them.

Centaurea montana - they were blooming full bore with the iris, and are still sputtering on and on. I do deadhead fairly regularly.

Nepeta - I'm on flush #2

Agastache Blue Fortune - they started blooming about mid-July. Iirc, they bloomed until full frost last year, and probably started about the same time.

Russian sage - they also started about mid-July, and should go through frost.

Daylily Happy Returns - iirc, they started blooming early July, and are still going. I don't know how long they will keep going - last year (their first) they didn't have nearly as much repeat bloom.

Thank you Oceanna, I changed the album to classic black.

Did you notice what was behind the Sexy Rexy Rose? Yup, blackberry. Menace!

Also so I forgot to label Dianthus 'Raspberry Swirl'. It's all by it's self. Raspberry swirl doesn't re bloom as well as Sweetness and it's not as fragrant. But it is very pretty!

Perennial heliotrope does not smell good. It's nothing like the annual heliotrope. However, it blooms all the time and the deer and rabbits don't eat it.

Pardon Me daylily blooms continuously for about 3 months in my garden - hope it would do as well in your zone. It starts about 4 weeks later than Stella d'Oro here, and is red with a yellow throat - medium to small size blooms. I grow Velvet and Lace dianthus from seed and they are perennial. If I keep them deadheaded they bloom through the summer, with red-to-black blooms with white picotee about 8-10" tall and fragrant.

My longest bloomers though are the reseeding annuals salvia coccinia (lady in red or coral) and melampodium, which may get a late start in your zone.

Carrie, I didn't even know pansies could be perennial! At first I wondered it they self-seeded, but quick web search did indeed show me perennial pansies called Violas. Where I used to live I got tired of pansies because every October/November we would all rip up our summer annuals and plant pansies to bloom outside and in window boxes through the winter. When March came we'd rip up the pansies, already getting a beating by the heat, and do summer annuals. Unfortunately, even though I enjoyed seeing them blooming everywhere in January, I did get tired of the entire blooming world being purple and yellow! Now where I live pansy-overload is impossible, so I think it's time to stock up!

Deanna, I would be happy to send you some seeds in the fall if you like. Or anyone else who would care for some, for that matter. I don't plan to put any down this year. I'm like you Deanna, not a fan of pansy overload. But a little bit is nice to fill in some nooks and crannies.

P.S. I think all violets, jonny-jump-ups and pansies are referred to as viola. But I certainly wouldn't bet the house on that. I could be wrong.

Did you notice what was behind the Sexy Rexy Rose? Yup, blackberry. Menace!

You have my sympathy! Hope you have some sharp pruners.

I lived in the Boston area for a few years and had great success with Hydrangea which seemed to bloom nonstop during the warm weather. Hydrangea blooms dried on the bush and added winter interest. Summer bulbs, such as Dahlia, also bloomed all summer. Astilbe and shasta daisy were also good bloomers during the summers there.

Here in minnesota my hollyhocks were in bloom for the 4th they'll continue until frost, and a hardy colored hydrangea that is good is the macrophylla endless summer, although you may have more choices in your zone. edwena

My favorite long-bloomer is a shrub, actually. It's pink cestrum, and a hummer favorite. This was planted in 2002 and has NEVER once been out of bloom since. Even for coastal Northern CA, that's an amazing feat. Sadly, they don't make good cut flowers, though. Outside of this, the oleander (flowers stay for 7 months) comes in second, and after that the roses, which bloom successively in flushes starting in March and going until December (but they slow down a lot starting in November). Roses never really go dormant, in fact, which makes it hard to figure out when to prune them here.

Cestrum before I pruned back that weird overhanging branch, LOL:
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Close-up of flowers:
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I can not for the life of me get any daylily to rebloom here. I just don't see "Happy Returns" reblooming here in the city much at all - anywhere. Maybe it's the temperature at re-bloom time?

My favorites are native honeysuckles, cup plant, dahlias, gingers (hedychiums)& mexican hats - sometimes that changes, but in general, these give me the longest season of bloom.

Here is a rose I have blooming right now.

Here are some rose pics I took earlier in the year. I don't have pictures of all my roses yet.

Here is my red Dianthus. Not many blooms any more, but a few still hanging in there.

Now this really is one of my all time favorites. This is my big red Dahlia. I have a white one too, and it's almost ready to bloom, but not yet.

There are my Shastas...

I LOVE my clematis...

Beautiful pictures everyone. I love my lillies the most and still have several blooming. My pholox bloom a long time and are easy to take care of. I can hardly wait to see if I ever have clematis that looks like all of yours here. Wow! I just love all the pictures everyone shares. Punk

Oceanna, I also LOVE your Clematis!!!! What a beautiful color. Do you know the name of it? I WANT one!

Thanks,
Carrie B.

Carrie, no I'm sorry I don't. It was here when I bought the house and I'm lucky to remember my kids' and dogs' and birds' names. I adore it... it goes crazy every summer. Maybe someone else here can name it for you? I only know it likes water on warm days... or it will lose all its blooms. It gets north/east sun, and is in shade in the afternoons. I hope that helps. If there are some secrets about clematis, I don't know them.

Sorry I did two the same of the dahlias, oops!

Punk, I had ONE day lily in my last house, and everyone's pictures of lilies here is making me want more. Do you plant them in fall?