In some areas of the country, the summer temps are holding steady, while in other cooler growing zones, the summer is beginning to wind down. But August is still awash in colorful plants and flowering ornamentals to bring color and interest to your landscape!
Feeding hungry pollinators and hummingbirds working to fatten up for migration or native bees still gathering food for the next generation, while continuing to fill your bouquets with fresh blooms! August blooming plants, trees, shrubs, and vines are up to the late summer challenges your landscape can face.
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The Best August-Flowering Plants At NatureHills.com!
From large to small displays, plants that bloom, rebloom, or continue to flower all summer are breaths of fresh air. Fill that void between the bountiful summer blooms and the autumn display with August-flowering plants or plants with a colorful fruit or seed pod display for this final month of summer.
August-Flowering Trees
With showy red fruit in August, Kousa Dogwoods and showy Crabapple trees all have colorful displays this month! Here are a few other trees that are ‘late bloomers’ and are still showing off their colorful blooms or putting on a show this month!
Top August Flowering Trees
Mimosa Trees may still have some blooms, Smoke Trees still have their showy ‘puffs’ of stems that remain colorful after the flowers fade, and Crape Myrtle Trees still have their colorful bracts. Those golden dangling fragrant flowers of the Golden Rain Tree have become ornamental papery lantern seed pods this month!
Plus there are many Fruit Trees and Fruiting Plants that have a colorful display of delectable fruit (either for you or the birds) ripening on their branches.
Shrubs That Flower In August
Beautiful hedges and mixed shrub borders gain late-season pops of color with these pretty flowering bushes!
Rose Bushes like Floribunda, Grandiflora, Shrub, and Hybrid Tea are still pumping out their gorgeous flowers. Keep deadheading flowers to encourage new blooms!
Hydrangea are still in full bloom, Hardy Hibiscus and Tropical Hibiscus, and Butterfly Bushes continue flowering until autumn! Smokebush still has its colorful puffs. Abelia Bushes are flowering until autumn and Crape Myrtle Bushes keep those no-fade showy bracts in the
Shrubs That Show Off In August!
- Bluebeard Bushes start showing off this time of year!
- Gardenia Bushes like the August Beauty Gardenia
- Rose of Sharon Shrubs (Althea)
- St. John's Wort Shrubs (Hypericum)
- Summersweet Shrubs
Potentilla bushes continue and Spiraea bumalda types will rebloom beautifully if they were deadheaded after the first round of blooms. Encore® Azalea, Bloomerang® Lilacs, and Reblooming Sonic Bloom® Weigela are pumping out flushes of rebloom throughout the late summer! Plus your Smokebush puffs are still colorful and showy!
Beautyberry bushes and Elderberry bushes are showing off their fruit, Coralberry, and Snowberry bushes are showing off their bubble-like fruit displays, and Viburnum berries are reaching their prime - much to your songbird's delight!
Perennials That Flower In August
These smaller filler plants of the landscape, easy to grow Perennials easily fill your garden and your vases with color and your yard with pollinators! Many of these summer flowering plants continue to bloom or are vigorously reblooming this month!
Asters are gearing up to start flowering until fall in August! Get ready for a surprise when the Surprise Lilies (Naked Ladies) erupt from out of nowhere too!
Top August Perennials
Strong summer bloomers like Black Eyed Susan and other Rudbeckia, Cardinal Flower, Coneflower, Daylilies, Catmint/Catnips, Perennial Salvia, and Russian Sage show no signs of slowing down!
- Stonecrop Sedum
- Dahlia
- Hyssop (Agastache)
- Japanese Anemone
- Leopard Plants (Ligularia)
Hardy/Perennial Geranium (Cranesbill) especially Rozanne Geranium which will continue to bloom with thunderous amounts of blooms all during the heat of summer. Coreopsis are reblooming sporadically this month, and Blanket Flowers are also still popping flowers in drifts if you have sheared back their first flushes or continue to deadhead!
Don’t forget your Ornamental Grasses are in full plume and showing off their flower colors!
Top August-Flowering Vines
These vertically growing vines bring tall color without taking up too much garden space!
- Honeysuckle Vines (Lonicera) - Perfume your garden into the late summer
- Hops Vines (Humulus) The bright green pinecone-like bracts are very colorful
- Trumpet Vine (Campsis) aka Trumpet Creepers - Flowering until frost in many areas
- Jasmine Vines (Trachelospermum) - Ultra fragrant pure white blooms
- Climbing Roses
Caring For Late Summer Flowering Plants
Want to keep your plants blooming beautifully despite the heat and humidity? Here are a few tips and tricks to use in your arsenal that will guarantee happy, healthy plants!
Always choose plants rated for your climate and Hardiness Zone. Go native and Xeric whenever possible - especially in drought-prone areas.
Add a 3-4 inch thick layer of arborist wood chips over the soil surface to hold in moisture more regularly and prevent evaporation and soil-born disease from the mud splashing up on the plants. Water using the Finger Test and water in the evening or morning to ensure your August flowering plants can remain stress-free and able to keep flowering throughout the late-summer months.
Check out more tips to prevent summer heat stress in our Garden Blog Here!
Showy Summer Wrap-Up!
Keep the summer color show going these last dog days of summer! The heat can still be on but your landscape doesn’t need to show it! Late-season flowers, reblooming plants, and extended-bloom shrubs and trees are here to brighten the garden until fall-blooming plants take over!
Check out Nature Hills Nursery's full inventory of plants for all seasons in your growing zone to make it easy to create a never-ending change of scenery for your landscape! That way there is always something new and exciting to look forward to!
Happy Planting!
