19 Colorful Perennials You Need to Have in Your Cutting Garden

A North American prairie native that attracts butterflies, blazing star produces spikes of white, rose, or purple flowers. This sturdy plant adds a vertical accent to a garden, and the cut blooms even dry well.

Light: Full sun

Water: Needs good drainage, tolerates drought well

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Dotted Blazing Star ($7, High Country Gardens)

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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Drought-tolerant

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

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Early Sunrise' Coreopsis, ($13, Bluestone Perennials)

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

Light: Part or full sun

Water: Can handle extended periods of drought

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 4-9

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

Not only is yarrow 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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Extremely drought tolerant

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Apricot Delight' Yarrow, ($16, Bluestone Perennials)

This old-fashioned 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. It's well-suited for the back of borders and in cottage gardens.

Light: Part to full sun

Water: Wilts quickly in heat and drought, but bounces back quickly when given moisture

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Tall Phlox ($6, Tennessee Wholesale Nursery)

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.

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Japanese Anemone, ($17, Bluestone Perennials)

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!).

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

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Fairly drought tolerant

Size: Grows to 8 feet tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 10 'Stargazer' Lily Bulbs, ($24, Holland Bulb Farms)

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.

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Drought-tolerant, but doesn't like soggy 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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Drought-tolerant

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Wild Berry Coneflower, ($15, The Home Depot)

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.

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

Light: Full sun

Water: Keep evenly moist

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Pink Attraction' Bearded Iris, ($12, White Flower Farm)

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.

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Riches and Fame' Peony, ($26, 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.

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Keep evenly moist

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 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.

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Aster Seed Mix, ($3, Harris Seeds)

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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Jacob Cline' Bee Balm, ($16, White Flower Farm)

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

Light: Part shade to full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and indefinitely wide

Zones: 2-8

Buy It: Crystal Peak White Obedient Plant, ($9, 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.

Light: Full shade to full sun

Water: Keep on the dry side

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 30 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Pink Pearls' Coralbells, ($18, Bluestone Perennials)

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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Keep consistently moist

Size: Grows to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Zones: 6-9

Buy It: 'Erika' Crocosmia, ($5, 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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Fairly drought tolerant

Size: Grows to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Goblin' Blanket Flower, ($13, 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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Fairly drought tolerant

Size: Grows 2 feet tall and wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: 'Red Fox' Veronica, ($41, Nature Hills)