Longest Blooming Flowers for Months of Color

Flowers, plants, trees and shrubs all belong to a certain category of annuals or perennials. An annual will survive for one year, whereas perennials will last for many years with the right care.

 

Plant Flowering Plants that Give Your Lawn the Bountiful Blooms

 

Choosing flowering plants for zone 8b will give you plants that can survive well in your Texas landscape and provides months of color.

Annual Flowers for Texas

 

The advantage of choosing annual flowers for your landscape is that you can choose different varieties of blooming beauties to replace the plants when the flowers have expending all their blooms.

 

Yarrow

 

Some of the longest lasting blooms are on the yarrow, which is a lush, mound of foliage that grows about 1 foot high and 2 feet wide. There are several different varieties to choose from to add brilliant color to your flower garden that works well for attracting butterflies and resists fading to give you months of color. You can choose from candy apple red called “Red Velvet,” the delicate pink and purple blooms of “Cameo,” the golden color of “Moonwalker,” or a beautiful salmon color appropriately called “Salmon Beauty.”

 

Agastache or Mexican Giant Hyssop

 

This lovely flowering plant gives beauty and height to your flower garden. The flowers have a wonderful lemon scent and are brilliant on 12-inch spikes. It grows 3 to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide to fill in spaces in your flowerbeds. It attracts hummingbirds and bees and you can make tea out of the young tender leaves. “Globetrotter” and “Sangria” are the pink versions of agastache whereas “Heronswood Mist” is a deep purple and “Korean Mint” is a lighter shade of purple. The pink variety is called “Sunset Hyssop.”

 

Amaranthus Caudatus

 

This flowering plant grows so fast you will hardly believe your eyes. It sports 2 feet long tassels of bloom poms that cascade down through the big tropical and variegated foliage from mid-summer to the first frost in Texas. The green variety is called “Emerald Tassels,” the red variety is “Love-Lies-A-Bleeding” and “Hot Biscuits” is an orange color. The “Giant Purple” speaks for itself in color and grows impressively tall to 6 to 7 feet for a large blooming focal point in your flower garden.

 

Snapdragons

 

Snapdragons are a favorite among all of the landscape design for the bountiful blooms that last from spring up to the end of fall. The 3-foot stems are very strong and hardy, as they have to be to support the large amount of blooms on top. They are available in many colors of interest. The color palette includes many, many varieties in lovely colors from goldens, pinks, oranges and all the way to deep red varieties. If you have them cut back after the first blooms fade to about 8 inches tall, you will get a second flush of long lasting blooms of glorious color in your landscape design.

 

Flowering Perennials for Texas

 

If you choose perennials for your landscape, they will last more than one season. Some die back in the winter but still have beautiful green foliage all winter long to provide you with color.

 

Geraniums

 

Hardy geraniums come in a variety of solid colors from pinks, blues, vivid purples and mild whites. They have attractive cup shaped and delicate blooms that last all through the fall and some varieties survive the winter in Texas without any loss of the bright green foliage.

 

Asiatic Lilies

 

Asiatic lilies are a favorite among florists for their long lasting blooms as cut flowers; however, leaving them in your garden allows them to have an even longer life. It is the earliest blooming in the lily family for a longer bloom period throughout the year. The two foot stems sport beautiful blooms that are very delicate in a color palette from yellows to oranges and pinks to reds. You can also find many varieties that are variegated with two color flowers for an even more surprising display of color.

 

Fruit Trees

 

Many types of fruit trees grow well in Zone 8b, such as figs, peaches, pears, bananas, apples and citrus. Choosing fruit trees to add to your landscape adds bold colors, flowers and fragrance and visual interest in your lawn.

 

Pear Trees

 

Cleveland pear trees work well in zone 8. They exhibit large clusters of white flowers with a lovely fragrance in spring. It quickly matures up to a height of 30 to 40 feet tall and prefers sunny areas of the lawn. The leaves turn a beautiful deep scarlet red in the fall for interest all year long. The kieffer pear is heat tolerant tree, growing from 15 to 30 feet tall with a 12 to 20 foot spread. It produces golden colored, sweet pears.

 

Cherry Trees

 

The Kwanzan cherry tree is a fast growing tree that displays soft clouds of deep pink colored and very fragrant flowers in the spring. They mature to a tree of 30 to 40 feet tall and wide.

 

Apple Trees

 

The dwarf gala apple tree works well in a smaller lawn. They resist softening and bruising and provide flavorful and delicious fruit. The Winesap apple tree produces an abundance of pink flowers and tart apples on a hardy tree.

 

Citrus Trees

 

The hardiest of citrus trees for Texas include the Meyer lemon. It produces fruits that are almost seedless and you can choose a dwarf variety if space in your landscape design is an issue. Even a dwarf Meyer lemon tree will produce a large harvest.

 

The Key West lime tree is the most cold hardy of the limes. It produces small bright green limes with a sweetish taste and has been made famous for the favorite dessert of many–the Key Lime pie.

 

Satsuma’s are small oranges that are very easy to peel and often called “kid’s oranges” since they can easily peel them without the help of an adult. The fruit ripens before most cold weather occurs. Choose from Owari, Brown’s Select or Armstrong Early in zone 8.

 

Tangerines are also hardy in Texas. The best varieties that can withstand light freezes are Dancy, Ponkan and Clementine.

 

Sweet oranges include Ambersweet and Hamlin and if you prefer a naval orange choose Washington, Summerfield and Dream for a variety with a large bumper crop.

This large variety of different types of flowering plants and trees can add interest to your landscape for interest in long flowering and fruit producing elements to make your design shine.