19 Colorful Perennials to Keep Your Vases Filled with Cut Flowers All Season Long

A North American prairie native that attracts butterflies, blazing star (Liatris spicata) produces spikes of white, rose, or purple flowers in summer. This sturdy, drought-tolerant perennial adds a vertical accent to a garden, and the cut blooms even dry well.

Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Liatris Mix ($24, QVC)

Also known as tickseed, coreopsis produces daisylike, 2-inch blooms in shades of yellow, orange, and rusty red throughout the summer months. This easy-to-grow native perennial is not at all picky about soil, growing in poor, shallow, chalky, or dry conditions. Plus, it draws pollinators and resists deer.

Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 5 feet tall and to 3 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Uptick Coreopsis ($23, The Home Depot)

This salvia is a wonderfully long bloomer: It starts flowering in early summer and continues through early autumn if you keep cutting off the faded flowers. Its long, slender clusters of blooms are great for filling in bare spots in flower arrangements.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 4-9

Buy It: 'Bumblebee' Salvia ($16, Bluestone Perennials)

Not only is yarrow (Achillea millefolium) one of the best perennials for cut flowers, but its stiff blooms also work well for long-lasting, dried arrangements. In the garden, yarrow is one of the most maintenance-free plants you can grow: It resists drought, heat, deer, and rabbits, and is also a blooming machine, producing flat-topped clusters of yellow, orange, red, pink, or white flowers (depending on variety) throughout the summer.

Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Achillea 'Sassy Summer Sunset' ($17, Jackson & Perkins)

This perennial garden favorite produces large clusters of fragrant flowers from summer to early fall. Garden phlox has few rivals for its colorful floral display and light, sweet fragrance. Those big blooms attract all kinds of butterflies and other pollinators, too. It's well-suited for the back of borders and in cottage gardens.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Goliath' Tall Phlox ($26, The Home Depot)

Fill your late-summer and fall garden with cheery anemone blooms. This vigorous perennial produces clusters of silky, shallow-cupped, white, rose, or pink flowers with yellow buttonlike centers, surrounded by a halo of yellow stamens.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Anemone 'Pamina' ($21, Jackson & Perkins)

Popular in florist shops, lilies such as 'Stargazer' are some of the most stunning flowers for arrangements. Their star-shape blooms appear in several shades, from pink and red to orange, yellow, and bicolors. Many varieties also add a sweet fragrance to your garden (and your bouquet!). Just beware if you have cats: all parts of lilies are lethally poisonous to them.

Test Garden Tip: Extend the show by growing different varieties. Asiatic lilies, for example, bloom in early to midsummer; orienpet hybrids bloom in mid to late summer.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3-8 feet tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Stargazer' Lily Bulbs (from $20, Etsy)

Much like the name suggests, clustered bellflower produces showy, bell-shape flowers that come in shades of blue, purple, and pink. These perennials usually bloom for several weeks in summer and the cut flowers can last for a week or more in the vase.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 50 'Blue Uniform' Bellflower Seeds ($3, Swallowtail Garden Seeds)

Providing a steady stream of summer's prettiest blooms, purple coneflower is easy to grow. This native perennial has daisy-like flowers in abundance from midsummer to the first fall frost, which often attract butterflies and other pollinators.

Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Cheyenne Spirit Coneflower ($15, Michigan Bulb Co.)

The stiff, sword-shape leaves of bearded iris provide a striking vertical accent in the garden, but the flowers are easily the showiest part of this plant. Their colors run the rainbow from deep burgundy red to pastel pinks and yellows, to every shade of blue and violet and begin appearing in late spring. Some varieties even have multicolored blooms.

Test Garden Tip: Look for reblooming iris varieties. They put on a spring show and often flower again in fall.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Reblooming Bearded Iris Collection ($40, Breck's)

Often sweetly fragrant, peony is a very long-living plant that forms 2- to 4-foot-tall clumps of leaves. Numerous varieties offer a wide range of flower colors and blooming periods from late spring to early summer.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Riches and Fame' Peony ($40, Breck's)

They may not be the showiest flowers around, but lady's mantle's frothy, chartreuse blooms work very well for rounding out a homegrown bouquet. This easy-care perennial blooms in early summer and goes with seemingly everything.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 4-7

Buy It: Lady's Mantle ($14, White Flower Farm)

Sprays of beautiful New England asters are a must for fall bouquets. These perennials have daisy-like flowers in shades of pink, purple, blue, and white. Smaller selections make great fillers in a flower arrangement.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Aster Mix ($24, QVC)

With dramatic, colorful blooms atop tall stems, bee balm is the perfect perennial for filling your vases in summer. You can find cultivars in red, pink, lavender, violet, or white. Plus these flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds and butterflies.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Jacob Cline' Bee Balm ($17, White Flower Farm)

Use obedient plant's tall, pink or white flower spikes to bulk up your bouquets. This easy-growing wildflower earned its name because you can bend the individual flowers to face different directions.

Growing Conditions: Part shade to full sun in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and indefinitely wide

Zones: 2-8

Buy It: Crystal Peak White Obedient Plant ($11, High Country Gardens)

Beginning in late spring, airy wands of small, bell-shape blooms appear over the colorful foliage of coralbells. The flowers can be bright red, pink, or white, depending on variety, and make perfect fillers between bigger blooms.

Growing Conditions: Full shade to full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 30 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Dolce Wildberry Coralbells ($26, The Home Depot)

Add an exotic touch to your favorite flower arrangements with crocosmia. This gladiolus relative bears clusters of bold red, orange, or yellow flowers on the ends of long, gracefully arching stems.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 6-9

Buy It: 'Erika' Crocosmia ($9, Easy to Grow Bulbs)

This heat- and drought-tolerant native perennial can provide long-lasting color in a sunny cutting garden. Blanket flower doesn't mind poor soil, either. Its daisy-like, 3-inch wide, single or double flowers bloom throughout the summer and into the fall. Pollinators love it, too.

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Goblin' Blanket Flower ($31, Breck's)

This easy-to-grow plant comes in a variety of sizes from low-growing groundcovers to taller types that are ideal for cutting. Deadhead it diligently and veronica may be one of the longest-blooming perennials in your garden.

Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil

Size: Grows 2 feet tall and wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Red Fox' Veronica ($10, Etsy)