15 Common Perennial Flowers

Perennial flowers are plants that come back year after year, making them a popular choice for gardeners.

Here are 15 common perennial flowers that you can consider for your garden:

Peonies (Paeonia): Known for their large, beautiful, and fragrant blooms, peonies are a favorite in many gardens.

Daylilies (Hemerocallis): Daylilies are easy to grow and come in a wide range of colors and shapes.

Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta): These bright yellow flowers with dark centers add a cheerful touch to gardens.

Coneflowers (Echinacea): Coneflowers have striking, daisy-like blooms and are great for attracting pollinators.

Hostas (Hosta): While primarily grown for their attractive foliage, hostas also produce delicate, lily-like flowers.

Shasta Daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum): Shasta daisies have classic white petals with a bright yellow center.

Iris (Iris spp.): Irises come in various colors and have unique, fan-shaped flowers.

Lavender (Lavandula): Known for their fragrant spikes of purple flowers, lavender is both ornamental and aromatic.

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis): The distinctive, heart-shaped flowers make bleeding hearts a charming addition to the garden.

Yarrow, (Achillea millefolium): Yarrow produces flat clusters of tiny flowers in various colors, attracting pollinators.

Astilbe (Astilbe spp.): Astilbe's feathery plumes of flowers come in shades of pink, white, and red.

Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia): This aromatic perennial boasts tall spikes of lavender-blue flowers.

Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.): Coreopsis, also known as tickseed, offers bright and cheerful yellow or red blooms.

Bee Balm (Monarda): Bee balm, also called Monarda or Bergamot, attracts pollinators with its colorful, tubular flowers.

Sedum (Sedum spp.): Sedums are low-maintenance succulent perennials with clusters of star-shaped flowers.

These are just a few examples of common perennial flowers that you can incorporate into your garden. Perennials offer a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes to suit your garden's style and climate.

Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis

Lemon Balm

Melissa officinalis

Use Lemon Balm in herbal teas as well as adding handfulls to regular sweet tea. It gives a container of sweet tea a nice, fresh lemony flavor without having to buy lemons or lemon juice.

This plant is in the mint family and grows with all the vigor and zest you would expect from a mint. The foliage makes an interesting enhancer against other plants but it needs to be planted either in shade or around hardy shrubs that won't be overwhelmed by its growth habits.

Very invasive, however it is said to have medicinal uses. Fresh or dried leaf tea was used as a folk remedy for fevers, painful menstruation, headaches, colds and insomnia. Used as a mild sedative. The leaves were pulverized for treating sores, tumors and insect bites.

While it is used in tea breads & herbal teas, and as a garnish for fish dishes & lemonade, the lemon scent is more in line with lemon furniture polish than true lemon. It does, however, make a nice perennial addition to the herb garden, either as part of a lemon-scented herb collection or as a part of a shady bed.

In order to keep this plant from becoming an invasive pest, remove all the flowers before they fade & set seed.

Lemon balm is a wonderful herb grown for its strong lemon flavor and aroma. Plants grow up to two feet tall with white unnoticeable flowers. The leaves can be used in teas, salads, and cooking. Its leaves will loose flavor after drying so it’s best to use fresh.

Plants grow quickly and it spreads to form large clumps, which some gardeners consider to be invasive. Deadheading after flowering is recommended because seedlings can be a nuisance to control. It grows best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade.

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Propagation Methods:
-From nonwoody stem cuttings
-Seed Collect: Allow seedheads to dry on plants

Additional info:
-This plant attracts bees, butterflies and birds
-Flowers are fragrant
-Drought-tolerant; suited for xeriscaping
-normal Water Needs; Water on a regular basis; do not over water
-Requires constant moist(not wet) soil; do not let dry out between watering
-Self-sows In a free manner; deadhead if you do not want unwanted seedlings next season
-Bloom Time: Mid Summer-Early Fall
-Hardiness: USDA Zone 4a - 9b