Red Flowering Perennials
Below you will find a list of Perennials from our plant database that are red flowering. If you click on any of the photos, you will see a Virtual Plant Tag that may contain plant descriptions, usage suggestions and a link to where you can buy that plant for your landscaping.
Flowering perennials can be grown directly in the ground, in containers for patios and decks or even in hanging baskets. Mixed containers are in vogue, often a blend of annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses and even tropicals to take the urn, window box or decorative planter through the spring, summer, fall until frost. Most of these perennials grow well with average soil moisture and partial or full sun, though some can take full shade, giving the home gardener more options for use in the landscape.
Perennials with red blooms are native plants, which are more naturally insect resistant, salt tolerant and have natural disease resistance. Native perennials include the White Turtle-head (Chelone glabra) which has red accents to the white flowers; new, exciting cultivars of Black Samson such as 'Bravado' add great color range to the Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea); Bleeding Heart and many new hybrids have American roots (Dicentra); Bush's Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe bushii) is a nice mixture of red and pink; Clump Verbenas (V. canadensis) are wonderful, true-red garden additions; Coral Bells and the plentiful hybrids are a rich, vibrant red for shady garden; Campion or Fire Pink (Silene virginica) is native to eastern half of US and Ontario; Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) ranges in color from orange to red and yellow; Swamp Hibiscus or Marsh Mallow (Hibiscus coccineus) provide nice color in June or July; New York Aster or Michaelmas Daisy has red selections like 'Winston Churchill'; Bee Balm or Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma) add great summer blooms in moist areas.
Some of the non-native perennials with red flowers are: Anemones, Astilbes, Bergenias, Blood Lobelia, Canna, Clematis, Dahlia. Dianthus, Lilies, Phlox, Pinks, Poppies, Sage, Sedum or Stonecrops, Sweet William, Yarrow, Tulips.
Perennials that flower red are exciting in the landscape. Red's powerful, passionate color can be enjoyed throughout the season and blends well with other perennials, ornamental grasses, shrubs, evergreens, groundcovers and trees. Too much red can quickly overwhelm an interior room, but in the outdoor living spaces without the confined dimensions of walls and ceilings, red flowers harmonize with orange and yellow, blue, purple and white providing a striking contrast.
Red flowering perennials are great at attracting butterflies and birds, particularly hummingbirds.