When planning designs for 2024 gardens and landscapes, consider the following plants for staggering color consistency. From spring to summer to fall, they work together to transition the seasons in living color.
We are now taking professional trade orders for the spring 2024 growing season. Click here for our container order form. Click here for our in-ground tree order form. Visit our plant catalog for more information about Loma Vista Nursery grown perennial plants, trees and shrubs – all ideal for Midwest landscapes.
Spring
Amethyst Falls Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’)
Amethyst Falls Wisteria
Designing an outdoor entertainment area with pergola, trellis, outdoor television and mini bar? Adding Amethyst Falls Wisteria is an ideal accent for charm, color and light fragrance. It also beckons butterflies and hummingbirds. A natural dwarf variety, the vine produces 6-inch long lavender flowers that fade to blue as they mature. Buds form on new wood, so trimming is mainly for size and aesthetics, or training as a single-trunk tree. Encourage rebloom all season by removing spent flowers. After flowering, bean-like pods stay on the plant until winter.
While Amethyst Falls Wisteria requires a firm, steady support to climb, the vine is well behaved and non-invasive. It is deer resistant and versatile in small spaces as well as in large. This wisteria requires well-drained soil and weekly watering. Apply an all-purpose fertilizer during the growing season. Rising to 15 to 25 feet tall at maturity, this plant has a 10 to 15-foot spread in partial shade or full sun. Plant in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 9.
Chardonnay Pearls® (Deutzia gracilis)
Chardonnay Pearls® Deutzia
Chardonnay Pearls® Deutzia starts its flower show in early spring with white, pearl-like buds on lime green foliage. Buds resemble little bells as they begin to open, then bloom into fragrant, star-shaped petals with delicate crown centers. After flowering, the foliage turns bright yellow through frost. This is a fun landscape shrub that also performs well in spring-time containers.
The shrub’s habit is compact and mounded with cascading branches when in bloom, reminiscent of a bridal bouquet. Chardonnay Pearls® Deutzia prefers moist, well-drained soil. Apply a slow-release, tree and shrub fertilizer in early spring and prune immediately after flowering. Prefers sun in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8.
Summer
Stella in Purple Daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Stella in Purple’)
Stella in Purple Daylily
Bold blooms stand tall on sturdy stems with frond-like, deep green foliage. Fragrant, dark purple flowers open to bright yellow centers. Stella in Purple Daylily blooms in summer and then again in fall. Plant it with echinacea, rudbeckia or blanket flower in borders, containers and wildlife gardens designed to attract pollinators.
Stella in Purple Daylily is low maintenance and is immune to hemerocallis rust. It is drought tolerant once established. Plant this daylily in rich, well-drained soil in part to full sun. Mature height and spread is 1½ to 2 feet. Space plants 1½ feet apart from others. Best in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9.
Ardens Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus ‘Ardens’)
Ardens Rose of Sharon
Ruffled double blooms of lavender-pink flowers color the summer in abundance on Ardens Rose of Sharon. But wait! There’s more to come: dark green leaves turn vibrant yellow in fall. Temperatures can rise during our Midwest summers and when they do – not to worry. This hibiscus thrives in hot, humid weather.
Plant it by your back patio or front door, as a specimen shrub in an island bed, as a hedge or as an anchor in perennial borders. Ardens Rose of Sharon is easy to grow in well-drained soil. Flowers grow on old wood, so trimming is easy when it’s needed. Mature height is 8 to 12 feet; width is 6 to 10 feet. Good companion plants for Ardens Rose of Sharon are roses, hydrangea and echinacea. Performs well in part shade and full sun, in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8.
Fall
Goldsturm Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’)
Goldsturm Black-Eyed Susan
You’ll know it’s late fall when the black-eyed Susan blooms! Goldsturm Black-Eyed Susan is long lived, blooming from late summer through the cool weather months. Fuss-free and packed with vibrant yellow blooms, black centers start out button-flat and develop distinctive cones as the season progresses. Foliage is dark green. This 1999 Perennial Plant of the Year is herbaceous and fuss free, an ideal bedding plant. Add it to perennial borders and larger containers. Its showy flowers are perfect for pollinator, waterwise and cutting gardens. Good companion plants are Shasta daisy, caryopteris and gaillardia.
Goldsturm Black-Eyed Susan thrives in well-drained, average soil. It tolerates mild drought, but like other plants – water it regularly during the first growing season to help establish its root system. Divide in early spring every couple of years. Fast growing with an upright habit, this black-eyed Susan reaches about 2 feet tall and wide. Ideal in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9.
Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’)
Maiden Grass
If you’re looking for color and texture in your landscape design, this Maiden Grass delivers from fall through winter. Abundant, red-copper flower plumes wave above silver-green fronds in late summer before foliage turns golden-bronze after fall’s first frost. Its upright, vase-like habit keeps its form into winter, providing shelter for birds and small animals. Plant this graceful ornamental grass in a city garden, as a showy accent plant, in cottage gardens and in prairie plantings.
Plant Maiden Grass in full sun in fertile, moist and well-drained soil. Protect it from wet winter weather. Relatively maintenance free, it is drought and salt tolerant once established. This ornamental grass attracts birds and is pest and disease free, as well as deer and rabbit resistant. Cut foliage to the ground late in the winter, before new spring growth appears. Mature height is 6 to 8 feet. Spread is 3 to 5 feet. Plant in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9.
Learn More About the Loma Vista Nursery Family and Our Landscape Plants
Loma Vista Nursery grows fun and healthy plants for Midwest independent garden centers, landscape contractors and wholesale distributors. Review our website to learn about our values and best-practices as a Midwest plant grower.
Our staff members are experts in the field who love helping people learn and understand more about plants. To get help with your orders and answers to plant-related questions, send an email to sales@lomavistanursery.com or call (785) 229-7200.
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