Best Flowers for Long-Lasting Blooms in My Scottish Garden

Feb 7

There are some plants that are just incredible! They flowered in my garden for months and months on end! I couldn’t recommend these plants more!

I am in Edinburgh, in a medium sized south facing garden. A lot of these plants need full-sun to part shade. I will post about my favourite shade tolerant plants in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.

The criteria for plants to make it onto this list:

Must flower for at least 3 months
Be packable for my daughter
Add joy to my garden
Fit my colour pallette

I want my garden to be pretty but I DO NOT want it to be a lot of work! What about you?

So this post is for you if you want to have a lovely garden that doesn’t require hours and hours of work. If you want a garden that is lovely and pretty without all the hassle and worry.

Most of these plants are fairly easy going. Some require a little bit more work but I will tell you which ones they are. Before we get stuck in:

If you want to learn more about how I use these roses have a look at my YouTube Channel ⬅️, I will cover that in my February Garden Video.

I also have a Free Garden Coaching session coming up, you can join it by clicking here ⬅️

Flowers in a Family Garden

A bouquet picked by my daughter from our garden

Yes, it is doable. And in fact, your kids will adore the flowers, too.

One of my daughter’s favourite things to do is pick flowers either for a little bouquet like this one ⬅️ or pick them for her Magic Cafe Coffee.

The abundance of flowers will also attract bees and butterflies which kids (and I) find so magical.

You might have to move the football goal from right in front of these blooms, though.

Longest Flowering Blooms In My Scottish Garden

Let’s get stuck in, the most prolific flowers are:

Cosmos

Incredible blooms and cheapest of all the flowers in my garden.

Easy to start from seed
Flowered from July to December
Needs dead-heading to keep flowering
Colours range from deep red to pure white

I absolutely adore cosmos for being a brilliant “gap filler”.

Anywhere in your garden that you have a gap and that gets a bit of sun, throw some cosmos seeds on the ground (once frosts have passed, for me in Edinburgh that’s the end of May) and watch these gorgeous beauties spring up

Dahlias

Dahlia’s are known for being a lot of work BUT these beauties are worth it!

This Dahlia is called Mystic Dreamer and it flowered in my garden from May until December. I was completely blown away by its flowering abilities.

In colder climates you have to dig up Dahlias to help them get through the winter. I have dug up some but left others-I’ll let you know how I get on.

Bees and butterflies adore this Dahlia but not all Dahlias are so attractive to wildlife.

Nemesia

There are a few different ones, this one is called Wisley Vanilla.

And I love it!

It has the most gorgeous scent and flowered for me from April until November.

This one is grown as an annual in the UK but I have found some make it through the winter and some have self-seeded around the garden.

I’m not a huge fan of annuals but these ones are so worth it!

Nepeta

Another flower I absolutely ADORE! Why?

It flowers for months
Bees to crazy for this plant
It is so pretty!
It is very easy to propagate (make more)
It has a lovely scent when you crush the leaves

I am propagating 4 and have order 3 small Nepetas as well as already having 4 in my medium sized garden. Can you tell that I love them

Mexican Fleabane

Is just too cute!

It has these dainty lovely little flowers. It also flowers for ages AND it self seeds around your garden.

You’ll have it popping up in all your nooks and cranies.

Rose Desdemona

As I go through the list I realise that this is yet another plant I absolutely love and couldn’t recommend more!

Why?!?

It smells INCREDIBLE
This rose flowers for months
It is so beautiful!

This is another plant I have multiple of in my garden and I wish that I had more. This plant is amazing!

I know roses seem like a lot of work but it’s mostly about getting the foundation right. I’ll explain how to do it in my FREE February Garden Coaching you can get the link here ⬅️

Scabious

As you can see the bees adore this flower.

I found that it flowered very prolifically from May to August and then slowed down a bit but it still has some flowers on it even now (and it’s February!)

Verbena Bonariensis

Another easy to look after long flowering plant adored by butterflies.

It self seeds freely around the garden OR you can easily propagate it to get more of it in your garden.

It is quite tall so a good one to give your border some height.

This is the only plant on the list that SHOULDN’T be deadheaded. It flowers for ages without any help.

What do you think of the longest flowering plants in my garden? Did you find the same? Or do you have other favourites? I’d love to hear from you! Email me elisabeth@joyfulgarden.co.uk and let me know

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