With the arrival of spring, herbaceous perennials have popped up throughout the landscape! However, as you tour the garden in early spring you may notice that certain perennials are noticeably absent. Don’t worry. Several perennials are tardy every year. These perennials require several weeks of warm soils and air temperatures before they begin to grow in spring. Sometimes they do not emerge from the soil until June!
This means the gardener must be patient and wait until mid-June on these late emerging perennials. Don’t remove them or plant other perennials in the same site until you are sure they are not coming back. Mark their locations in the garden so you know where they are located and wait. Your patience will most likely be rewarded with an attractive flower display in late summer.
Perennials that are Typically Late to Emerge in Spring
- Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)
- Blue spirea (Caryopteris x clandonensis)
- Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
- Hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus hybrids)
- Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica)
- Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
- Leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)
- Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis)
- Monbretia (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora)
- Red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria)
- Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
- Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Whirling butterflies (Gaura lindheimeri)
