At a certain point during the mania of spring I begin to feel very conflicted about summer. I can’t resist looking forward to my August vacation with the impatient ardor of bone-deep exhaustion: I want to be napping on a dock or screen porch with a book in my lap for an uninterrupted week starting yesterday. I can almost taste the blueberries... But even if I could fold time I would never opt to skip the part where the beneficiaries of spring’s frenzied labors grow legs and bear flowers.

I feel similarly conflicted when I visit nurseries. I have every intention of planning and planting for late summer because part of me can’t wait for the lazy days of watching the hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies do all the work. But August, never mind September, seems impossibly far away especially as soon as I see early season beauties on display in full glorious bud or bloom. Those are what I want. Even if I have them already. I want more.

Why do I have only one cushion spurge? Euphorbia polychroma ‘Bonfire’ is lit from within, glowing burgundy through amber to a bright yellow-green inflorescence. I should have at least ten. I also never met an epimedium I didn’t want to bring home by the arm load. My clump of Epimedium × versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ has spread its fairy wings with enough generosity over the last few years to satisfy my greed. The cultivar ‘Kaguyahime’ on the other hand, with its blood-speckled foliage and large (for a barrenwort) purple flowers, will never increase fast enough. And I love (truly, madly, deeply) ‘Amber Queen’, which also has speckled leaves but trades purple for translucent peach flowers that quiver on such invisible stems they look like four-legged insects caught in a glistening web.

Add Corydalis lutea, solida, and the white ochroleuca to the list. I’m still waiting for Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) to take off in my garden. And how could I not know pink lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis var. rosea) existed before seeing them everywhere (except my garden) this year? Want.
Meanwhile, I—and you—should be focused on extending the season. Early summer doesn’t really need us to add to its display. It’s pretty great as it is. Late summer, however, needs a boost or the whole garden, all but mums, asters, and goldenrod, will burn itself out in the heat of midsummer. We owe it to ourselves and the pollinators to plant the annuals and tender perennials that will pull the garden through the dog days. Things like African blue basil, cuphea, and salvias such as S. guaranitica, ‘Indigo Spires’, and the burgundy flowered ‘Wendy’s Wish’. They seem too little now, too far from blooming, and too expensive to rate a spot on the checkout counter but, believe me, they are worthy. How quickly they grow to maturity and how soon they bloom never fails to thrill me. The ones I listed will have set buds if they’re not already flowering. Others, like pineapple sage and S. leucanthemum that hold their horses for the shorter, cooler days of fall, are worth the wait.

I have never gotten dahlias planted before July. This year I could hardly wait for the ground to warm to the requisite 60F. With any luck, they’ll come into bloom before my August vacation instead of a month later. So, no matter how distracted I am by spring; even if some of my other gaps and open slots go to this season’s impulse purchases and divisions, I’m time traveling, and you should too. Plant ahead for color and pollinator activity in late summer, because that’s when you and your garden need it the most.


Kristin Green is a Bristol-based gardener and author of 'Plantiful: Start Small, Grow Big with 150 Plants that Spread, Self-Sow, and Overwinter'. Follow her blog at trenchmanicure.com.