Berlandiera lyrata is an amazing blooming champion. Native to south-eastern Colorado as well as the SW region, Berlandiera really does emit a strong aroma of chocolate or carob all morning.
I love the succession of ephemeral flowers in my garden: the spring-blooming bulbs that begin the wake-up call to the garden and pollinators, the delicate pasque flowers (Pulsatilla, primroses (Primula), Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium), bluebells (Mertensia), voluptuous peonies and many more.
Most of them give us several weeks of wondrous blooms and food for pollinators. But I also love the “energizer bunnies” of the garden, the perennial flowers that keep going and going. If your garden is on the small side, you may not have room to accommodate a large diversity of plants to provide a long bloom succession. So, what are the best perennial plants for a very extended bloom period?
At the top of the list is Berlandiera lyrata, aka Chocolate Flower or Chocolate Daisy. This amazing blooming champion is a very drought-resistant SW regional native, found in Arizona, New Mexico and SE Colorado. But it grows easily in the Denver metro area, where a new crop of inch and a quarter diameter, daisy-like flowers emerges each day, showing off deep red disc flowers ringed by showy lemon-yellow ray flower petals, and that delightful chocolate (or carob?) aroma. From mid-spring through fall, we see native bees and honeybees working the flowers until mid-day, when the flower-stems arch downward, giving the flowers a reprieve from the hot sun until things cool down in the late afternoon or evening. This strategy allows the tap-rooted plant to live on very little water, so please don’t water Chocolate Flower when it droops! You’d be killing it with kindness! We currently have lots of Chocolate Flower plants, and they’re on sale for 30% off!
Here are some more long-blooming (~4 weeks or more) perennials (and a few small shrubs) for our area:
Aethionema grandiflora (Persian Stonecress)
Anemone tomentosa (Grapeleaf Anemone)
Aquilegia chrysantha (SW Yellow Columbine)
Asphodeline damascena (Ithuriel’s Spear)
Aster sp. (aka Symphyotrichum) many species
Berlandiera lyrata (Chocolate Flower)
Caryopteris (Blue Mist Spirea)
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Hardy Plumbago)
Clematis fruticosa ‘Mongolian Gold’ (Yellow Bush Clematis)
Coreopsis lanceolata, verticillata, and more
Corydalis ochroleuca
Dalea purpurea (Purple Prairie Clover)
Datura wrightii, D. meteloides (Angel’s Trumpet)
Delosperma cooperi (Cooper’s Hardy Iceplant)
Dianthus cruentus
Dianthus nardiformis
Dianthus “Tuscan Honeymoon”
Digitalis grandiflora (Yellow Foxglove)
Digitalis thapsi ‘Spanish Peaks’ (Spanish Peaks Foxglove)
Echinacea purpurea, E. tennesseensis
Engelmannia peristenia (Engelmann’s Daisy)
Ericameria nauseosus nauseosus (Dwf. Blue Rabbitbrush)
Eriogonum umbellatum ‘Kannah Creek’
Erodium manescavii, E. Petraeus (Storksbill)
Gaillardia aristata (Blanket Flower)
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Geranium x cantabrigiense varieties
Glaucium acutidentatum
Grindellia squarrosa (Rosinweed)
Heterotheca villosa (Hairy Goldenaster)
Heuchera sanguinea ‘Firefly’ (Coral Bells), H. sang. ‘Ruby Bells’ (Coral Bells)
Hylotelephium – Matrona, Autumn Joy, Autumn Fire, Purple Emperor,
Leucanthemum varieties (Shasta Daisy)
Malva sp.
Melampodium leucanthum (Blackfoot Daisy)
Mirabilis multiflora (Desert Four O’Clock)
Monarda x didyma varieties (Beebalm varieties)
Monardella macrantha ‘Marian Sampson’
Nepeta varieties (Catmint)
Oligoneuron (aka Solidago) Goldenrod
Origanum laevigatum varieties
Origanum ‘Amethyst Falls’
Penstemon barbatus (Scarlet Bugler)
Penstemon eatonii (Firecracker Penstemon)
Penstemon fruticosus
Penstemon pinifolius and varieties (Pineleaf Penstemon)
Penstemon richardsonii (Sawsepal Beardtongue)
Penstemon strictus (Rocky Mt. Penstemon)
Penstemon x mexicale ‘Red Rocks’, Pike’s Peak Purple’, ‘Shadow Mountain’, ‘Caroline’s Hope’
Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage)
Pycnanthemum (Mountain Mint)
Ratibida pinnata (Grey-headed Coneflower)
Roses – Miniature and Patio varieties
Rudbeckia sp. (Black-eyed Susan)
Ruellia humile (Wild Petunia)
Salvia darcyi, gregii, nemorosa varieties, x superbus and pachyphylla varieties
Saponaria ‘Max Frei’
Scrophularia macrantha (Red Birds in a Tree)
Solidago (aka Oligoneuron)
Sphaeralcea munroana, S. fendleri (Globemallow)
Thelesperma filifolia (Greenthread, Navajo Tea)
Townsendia hookeri (Hooker’s Townsend Daisy) mid-winter to mid-spring
Verbena bipinnatifida
Verbena bonariensis
Verbena rigida ‘Santos Purple’
Verbena wrightii
Zinnia grandiflora (Prairie Zinnia)
