I love the reds, oranges, pinks, and whites of many great sun gardens.  There’s something about cool blues, greens, and lavenders, though, that just seems to explode in a bright, hot summer garden.  Cool colors draw the eye and add fantastic contrast, especially in hotter areas.  They have a pleasant calming effect, and they very often shimmer beautifully in the low light of a summer evening, be it moon or fire.

Pincushion Flower Fama Deep Blue

For brilliant blues that stand up to serious heat, you can’t beat Pincushion Flower Fama Deep Blue.  It’s a heavy bloomer with large, bright blue flowers that make long-lasting cuts.  It grows well in full sun, and thrives all summer, even into zone 9. 

Pair it with it’s white counterpart Pincushion Flower Fama White , or let the blue play off the vivid yellow of Rudbeckia Goldsturm Strain.

Hydrangea Let's Dance^TM Starlight is the first ever-blooming macrophylla Hydrangea. Starlight is unique because it blooms on both new and old wood. So, if you happen to have a late frost that kills off your early blooms, your hydrangea will still have a goo showing later in the season. The bloom color is dynamic, aging from their usual pink or blue to a fun minty green as the season progresses.

This hydrangea provides three season interest, blooming through the summer into the fall. The fluffy blooms are excellent for cut-flowers, and this shrub can also be tamed for patio or container gardening. This is just one of many new fall planting items from Park Seed.

This is definitely one of the prettiest flowers I've seen in a while, and that is saying a lot working here. Coneflower 'Tomato Soup' has some of the warmest, purest colors you can find in nature. Not only is it pretty – it's tough to. Echinaceas resist heat and drought, and  it will shrug off pests that devastate lesser herbaceous perennials.

These enormous blooms, easily five inches across, will keep you entertained though the whole summer if you deadhead promptly. You can expect blooms from the early spring well into fall. This is a truly beautiful plant that will make an excellent focal point in your perennial beds.

Over 100 fall items have been added to ParkSeed.com, including old favorites as well as many new items. The fall line-up includes bulbs, perennials, shrubs, and trees. Remember, fall is the best time for planting!

A few of the newest items are creating a little buzz, so I will go ahead and share with you three items that I predict will be fairly popular this year:

Blanket Flower 'Commotion^TM Tizzy' is a floriferous little full sun perennial with unique crimson and orange blooms that will steal the show. A definite conversation piece, 'Tizzy' is sure to be huge this season. This blanket flower is also drought and heat tolerant, a great summertime perennial.

India Pink is a Spigelia with bright red, upright blooms that have been compared to fireworks for the way they pop against the mat foliage. It's fairly adaptable, thriving in full sun and part shade. India pink loves this rich moist soils of shade borders and along garden paths.

Another item that seems to be picking up steam is our Dynamite Premium Fertilizer. This is an all-purpose concentrated plant food that is so environmentally friendly it has won an award from the EPA.

Cannas or Canna Lilies are a close relative of gingers and bananas, and some varieties
are grown agriculturally for their starchy tubers or their seeds. Most
gardeners love Cannas' large beautiful leaves and their big showy
flowers.The flowers range from deep red to bright yellow, and they are
great for attracting pollinators and pest eaters like bees, birds, and
bats to your garden.

Native varieties of Canna can be found in
the wild from South Carolina to Texas and south through the more
temperate areas of South America. Although they are traditionally a
more tropical plant, cultivated varieties will tolerate milder climates
if given at least half a day of full sun and plenty of moisture. They
are wonderful for containers and patio gardens.

Cannas are
naturally resistant to most pests — slugs and snails may be fond of
the big juicy leaves. The genus Canna is not prone to many diseases. If
you use well-drained soil and deadhead wilted blooms you will prevent
most any fungus that might be tempted to attack your plant.

Shades gardens are a fun project that forces the gardener to be creative. Most plants that thrive in low light are monotone and maybe even a little drab, but there are a few colorful plants that can really make the darker areas of your garden shine.

Most shade gardens start with an interesting blanket of ground covers and plants grown for foliage interest. Vincas and Clematis make excellent ground covers and climbers and their colorful blooms contrast well with the dark foliage. Heucheras and Hostas comes in many shades and shapes, providing exciting foliage interest.

There are, in fact, a few really beautiful flowers that will thrive in the low light and contrast well with the deep colors of the shade foliage. Here are a few varieties perfect for shade garden blooms:

Aquilegia 'Blackcurrant Ice'
Lenten Rose 'Royal Heritage'
Bellflower 'Samantha'

Check out other plant for Full Shade and Part Shade.

Dahlias are the perfect perennials for those warmer, drier zones. They love full sun and prefer sandy, well-draining soil. They are also fairly versatile in the landscape, ranging in size from the short little border plants to the towering stems and full blossoms of the larger varieties that make great colorful backdrops to the rest of your flower garden.

Park Seed offers a huge variety of Dahlias online, including mixes and collections. Dahlia 'Dark Angels Dragon Ball' is a customer favorite with a really unique look. 'Dragon Ball' has a very surreal look — the brightly colored geometric blooms really stand out against the dark foliage. This is a more compact Dahlia, perfect for containers. Another top seller, Dahlia 'Lucca Johanna', is billed as the "perfect cut flower." The long stems reach up to 4 feet, topped with big beautiful double blooms that gradient from a pink edge to white to a deep primrose center.

In the last couple of years we’ve gotten a lot of requests from customers for Coral Bells that perform better in the hotter summers that many of us have been experiencing.  We’re really happy this year to be able to offer two new plants that fit the bill perfectly.  Heuchera ‘Southern Comfort’ and Heuchera ‘Mahogany’ are two of the very best heat-tolerant Coral Bells that we’ve ever seen around here.  Both are products of amazing breeding advances that have been made in recent years.

Heuchera are prized for the full, spectacularly-colored foliage that they bring without too much effort on your part.  They are unusually vigorous plants, growing with full, neat habits that very rarely get straggly or sparse.  They look great in your garden year round, most
getting even more beautiful in the cooler weather.  In recent years the red, copper, brown, and yellow colors have become ever more popular as accent plants that can really help everything else in the garden to pop.  They also feature creamy-white blooms on tall stems for part of the year.  They’re especially great in border plantings in part shade (depending on zone), or as a neat accent in mixed containers.

Shade gardening can be tough.  One problem that a lot of gardeners have in their shady areas is that they tend to be a little monochromatic.  The flowers are generally less profuse,and the foliage is mostly a dark green.  There are, of course, Hostas that feature different colors, but why limit yourself?  One other option is Brunnera Spring Yellow, new to Park Seed this fall. 

This Brunnera’s leaves open pure yellow and keep golden tones, mingled with streaks and speckles of chartreuse and green, throughout the summer.  This foliage piles up in a healthy, full mound of gold about 15 inches high.  The best thing about this interesting shade perennial, though, is the sprays of tiny blue flowers that it acquires in mid-spring.

Brunnera Spring Yellow is hardy all the way to zone 3, so it’s a great shady option for more difficult climates.