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Perennial Flowers for Wyoming Gardens The following perennials were picked for their true durability. These are the ones you want for those really tough locations where you want a bit of color whether it be poor soil, high wind or that sunny dry spot. These will thrive with occasional deep watering once a month in cooler periods. and twice a month in the heat of summer.
At 36-42 inches tall with 3-4 inch wide golden-yellow flower heads from later June through autumn above silvered green fern-like foliage, this reliable old standard fills a great place at the back of the border or as an accent near caryopteris or Russian Sage. This one does not run about through the flower bed and will stay around for years. Enjoy it as a cut or dried flower, too!
 Little Trudy Catmint (Nepeta x Little Trudy)
Plant Select® 2008 This selection was made from one of our growers for its low spreading and long blooming habit. Well branched stems of rippled, soft gray foliage hug the ground for an 18” to 24” wide mound when this plant matures. Profuse lavender flower stalks 8” to 12” tall cover the plant from early to late summer. Deer resistant.
Walker’s Low Catmint (Nepeta faassinii x ‘Walker’s Low’) Perennial Plant Association Plant of the Year for 2007and is no stranger to Wyoming conditions! Compact mounding gray green leaves topped by lavender blue flowers recurring from late spring through autumn. This 10-14 inch tall sterile hybrid won’t reseed around the garden. Full sun to part sun and like it’s bigger brother, deer resistant!
Applying pre-emergent herbicides is a choice for many people to prevent germination of those weed seeds. Apply in early spring before germination begins and repeated per label directions throughout the season to be most effective.
This vase shaped 3 to 4 foot accent plant makes a vivid statement behind xeric perennials or in the middle of a stand of plants! Blue-violet flower spikes top silvery gray foliage in late summer through hard freeze. This high desert native of Afghanistan thrives in lean soil on hot windy sites and has proven itself reliable on Wyoming’s high plains as well. Deer don’t touch it!
The key to Penstemon success is two-fold, do not over water or they will grow floppy or die and second do not over fertilize. Most will live more years in our mineral soils than in a tended garden bed! You will be rewarded for your restraint. The hands on gardener can dead-head to prolong some species blossoming and add years to the plant’s life.
These Casper tested long-lived perennials covered in scarlet tubular flowers for nearly two months in the summer will be a hit with you and the hummingbirds! Later in the season this somewhat xeric plant will be a dark green mound looking a lot like a miniature evergreen, 8 inches tall.
Plant Select Mexicale hybrid penstemons! hardier Zone 4 Full Sun or Part Sun
Blooms in bright rose all summer. Introduced in 1999 and grow12-15 inches high mounding 8-12 inches wide.
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun Summer 12 to 15 inches 8 to 12 inches 4 Full Sun to Part Sun
Blooms in violet purple with intense veining in the throat area. Introduced in 1999 and grow12-15 inches high mounding 8-12 inches wide.
Introduced in 2007, blooms in a softer luminous lavender-blue with red-purple veining in the white throat. It is a larger presence in the garden at 18-24 inches high by 18 inches wide.
Bridges Penstemon
(Penstemon rostriflorus) Plant Select® 2006 During later summer a continuous succession of small scarlet red tubular flowers in elongate panicles top slender stems with dark green narrow leaved foliage that forms a basal rosette and climb upward. Long lived if not pampered. Height: 1-2 feet and 1 foot width at maturity.
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun Late Summer to Autumn 1 to 2 feet 1 foot 4 Full Sun
"What if we had a drought and our garden plants didn't even know it?"
Seafoam Artemisia (Artemisia versicolor) Plant Select® 2004 Finely filigreed silver-gray foliage gives a frothy appearance on a mound that will spread to nearly 3 feet wide and up to 18 inches tall. Never floppy due to the plants’ woody underpinnings. Wonderful year-round textural accent plant for xeric gardens. Rabbit and Deer resistant.
Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus ruber) This durable plant stands up to wind and handles dry clay but will also thrive in more moisture as long as the soil drains well. The rose-red blooms last from late spring through summer. Give it room as it will grow to 24 inches tall and 30 inches wide and will reseed a bit for a natural look. Also this charmer can go around the corner from heat into partial shade successfully to help tie different parts of the landscape together! Butterflies love it but rabbits don't.
Poppy Mallow 'Prairie Wine Cups' (Callirhoe involucrata) Plant Select® 1999 This low growing native prairie plant blooms repeatedly during summer in bright burgundy cup-shaped flowers with white eyes on low arching stems with dark green deeply cut leaves. Flowers and foliage are reminiscent of Cranesbill Geraniums on this Poppy Mallow but at less than 1’ tall and up to 3’ in diameter, the form is not. The only drawback to keeping this darling besides drowning in wet clay is that rabbits munch too much during those years of cottontail population explosions. Plant in soil that drains, or in clay kept on the dry side, taking care to seat the plant at grade and not in a low spot.
 Kannah Creek Buckwheat
(Eriogonum umbellatum var. aurem ‘Psdowns')
Plant Select ’07 and a true Wyoming native! This mid-sized perennial puts on a glowing yellow show that turns orange as the flowers age during a May to July bloom season. These vigorous 12-15 inch tall by 12-24 inch wide plants adapt from xeric to moderately moist settings and tolerate conditions up to 10,000 feet! In Autumn, the dark green leaves turn mahogany color and persist that way through winter.
Arizona Sun (G. aristata ‘Arizona Sun’) This spectacular performer in All American Selection test trials, is a real shorty; at only 8-10 inches tall and 10-12 inches wide, it even fits in pots and planters! Flower style is traditional with mahogany red petals edged in bright yellow blooms throughout the summer.
Prairie Sunshine Hymenoxys (Tetraneuris scaposa) This is a unique Great Plains native that has bright yellow 1 inch flowers on 8 inch leafless stems. One of the longest blooming times of all perennials, May – October! Great for the xeric garden!
‘01 Plant Select Intensely fragrant clustered flowers change from white to deep rose (the opposite of fading!) while blooming from spring to frost (with dead heading). This selection is perennial and so much more graceful than a sweet William because the flower clusters are not in tight stiff helmets. 15-18 inches height allows cut flower use while the 12 inch wide clump forming basal foliage is pleasing in the winter garden. Casper Mountain tested!
Plant Select® 2004 Lovely trailing herb 18-24 inches wide by 10-15 inches tall. Lavender and chartreuse bi-color lantern-shaped bracts form throughout the summer months drying to brown in fall. Best suited to raised beds, rock gardens or containers. Plant in well-drained garden loam, clay or sandy soil. This is an eye catcher for all who see it! Oh, and the smell of oregano! Attracts bees to help pollinate your garden. Avoid too much reflected heat.
Plant Select 1999! Raspberry-rose flowers in early summer are carried over a trim mat of furry leaves. This cousin of the familiar foxglove is perennial, hails from Spain and is adaptable to various soil types.
Echinacea: The Coneflowers Echinacea—Developed from Tall Grass Prairie and Mixed Grass Prairie native species, the Coneflowers grow best in Sun in Semi-dry to Semi-moist but never soggy soil. With their background in prairie settings, mulch on the root zone or the soil-shading effect of other plants like grass does in a meadow will provide the right conditions for them to thrive. The genus Edhinacea was named 2003 GreatPlants Perennial of the Year! Turn to the coneflowers for more color, form and bloom time than you could ever hope to get from a Shasta daisy. All have cut flower potential, butterfly attraction and winter food for small songbirds if you leave flower stalks with seed heads standing in the winter garden. Full Sun to Part Sun Shape: Upright clustered stems
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun
This is a prolific bloomer of huge, 5 inch very fragrant bicolor flowers of light orange with a rose halo around an orange cone on 48” tall stalks in 18-24”wide clusters of stems.
Sturdy, basal branching plants produce a profusion of flower stems, each of which carries a large, bright lemon-yellow 3-4 inch fragrant, drooping petaled bloom.
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun early to late summer 30 inches 18 inches 4 Full Sun to Part Sun
Twilight Echinacea
2002 Great Plants Perennial of the Year! Bowl-shaped, magenta flowers cover the plants in late spring and early summer, shearing may reward you with a later rebloom. Deeply cut foliage is mounding in habit turning blood red in autumn. This hardy perennial reminds us of mountain meadows and woodland edge gardens.
Tequila Sunrise Coreopsis (Coreopsis ‘Tequila Sunrise’) Coreopsis, the Golden Darlings of the Summer Garden! 18-24 inch tall golden-yellow classic coreopsis daisy-like blooms are carried above 12-15 inch width clumps of Dark olive-green foliage variegated with cream and yellow. If you think that is striking wait until fall when the foliage turns deep rich mahogany to really accent a Full Sun garden. Deadhead to encourage reblooming.
First Love Dianthus (Dianthus ‘First Love’) Plant Select® 2001 Intensely fragrant rounded cluster flowers change from white to deep rose rather than starting dark and fading and attract butterflies, hummingbirds and gardeners with floral shears (great cut flower!). Flower stalks are 15-18” tall above 12” diameter clumps of moderately fine foliage. The overall effect is akin to Sweet Williams but perennial, and much more graceful, even maintaining a nice mounded foliar presence in winter. Full sun. Average flower garden watering.
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun Summer 15 to 18 inches 12 inch clumps 3 Full Sun
Joe Pye Weed has a striking cousin in this creamy white cluster-flowered late summer-early fall bloomer. The bronze-purple foliage looks like chocolate in Part Sun-Part Shade and grows to 3-4 inch height, (shorter when grown dry) by 2-3feet width. Ruth’s personal backyard garden includes a cluster of dry grown Chocolate Mist Flower.
Plant Select® 2001 A real eye catcher! It’s vivid green foliage is topped with glowing orange-scarlet flowers from July to frost! Hummingbirds will be drawn to tubular flowers. It is cascading in growth habit,so place it to the front of the garden bed and watch the show. A bit of afternoon shade makes this plant thrive and bloom the most. Natively found on the far west side of Wyoming.
Bloom Time Height Width Zone Watering Sun
Size Cost
Perennial Plant Association Plant of 2008! Very large violet blue, white centered flowers from early summer to frost top mounds of slightly marbled deep green foliage. This Blooms of Bressingham selection is special because the flowers are larger, the blue deeper and the plant more heat tolerant than similar varieties. More added perks: reddish-brown fall foliage color, rejuvenation by shearing to 3 inches and butterfly attraction. Add compost to the soil for best performance.
Wichita Mountains Goldenrod (Solidago ‘Wichita Mountains’) Great Plants ’05 This outstanding, long standing specimen with tall rods of bright gold blooming in late summer will cheer you every time you look at their blooms in your prairie planting. Butterflies will stay in your late summer garden and the bees that we need to pollinate our garden crops will have a good source of pollen for winter food in the hive.
Agastaches Agastaches are native to the Southwest's high deserts. They want to stay dry and in full sun. After establishment one to two times a month irrigation is all that is needed. Agastaches are aromatic with hints of licorice and root beer. Because of their tubular flowers they are a real hit with hummingbirds and butterflies, while deer will avoid them! The literature reports them to be zone 5 but most are zone 4 in our experience. They seem to do best in a rock mulch vs. a wood mulch. We’ve trialed many of them in Casper, some have been superior hits and some have been disappointments. Nonetheless, they are worthy of being trialed in your landscape because of their beauty and long bloom time, summer into autumn.
Plant Select 2001! Helmets of yellow stained with orange flowers from mid July to autumn.
Neat, soft silver foliage on a compact mounded plant. Excellent as a border plant or the rock garden.
New! 2000 GreatPlants! This Great Plains native forms a ground hugging mound 3’ wide. This one produces sparkling white wine cup blooms. A great contrast to prairie wine cups!
Plant Select 2010 and GreatPlants 2007! Fans of the Wyoming Plant Company can attest we’ve been recommending this beautiful xeric perennial for years. This is a plant that loves baking hot conditions with its butter yellow cup shaped flowers that come on in the heat of summer and continues into autumn. Tolerates a wide condition of soils so long as you keep it on the dry side. Ideal for rock gardens and xeric gardens.
New! Plant Select 2009, stunning iridescent, lavender flowers with dark eyes on trim green foliage mats that turn purplish in winter. A great plant for ground covers, rock gardens, and perennial beds.
Golden Storksbill (Erodium chyrsanthum)
New! Plant Select 2011, fragrant soft yellow flowers over silvery mounds of evergreen foliage make this a lovely contrast plant for the border of perennial beds or in the rock garden. The biggest show of flowers is late spring with some reblooming thereafter.
This is an exciting addition for the sunny garden! This compact free flowering variety boasts 3 - 4 inch blooms each with a ring of distinctive, trumpet shaped, deep yellow to orange to russet petals from late spring to autumn.
Plant Select 1998. Glossy mounds of deep green strap shaped leaves are spangled with 3 inch shiny yellow flowers all season. Unlike other ganzania, this one is a hardy perennial perfect for the xeric, rock and sunny perennial gardens. Does well in amended as well as lean soils.
New! Plant Select 2010! Drop dead gorgeous blue-green foliage is garden worthy in its own right, but by late summer the clump is crowned with glowing crimson, golden and ivory torches that create a focal point in the xeric garden. Needs well drained soil. Zone 5 in the literature but zone 4 in our experience.
Plant Select 1999 and still a champion of the xeric garden. A native of the southern Great Plains, it has silvery-blue leaves complimented by huge, clear yellow flowers from June – thru autumn. Handles clay soil so long as its kept on the dry side.
Perennial Plant Association plant of the year 1999. This oldie is still a goodie for the perennial bed – a consistent easy to grow perennial with large deep yellow flowers with a bronzy-black cone center. Very tolerant of our conditions. Blooms all summer.
This is the winner of the Fleuroselect Quality Mark Award! This clump forming yarrow has masses of attractive, intense deep red flowers throughout most of summer going into autumn. Great for the perennial bed or xeric garden. Flowers can be used in cut flower arrangements.
New! The succulent leaves of this sedum is a standout all by itself with a color blend of purplish-blue gray. In September it blooms with intense pink-red flowers. This is a must for the rock garden, raised and perennial bed.
New! This is a new lamb’s ear with lilac-plum flowers on 10 inch stems above short to the ground silvery-green, wooly low foliage, excellent cushion forming ground cover. For those of you not familiar with lamb’s ear – this is a plant you’ll love to pick just to feel the softness of its leaves brushed across your cheek! Great kid’s plant, rock garden and ground cover.
New! This is so new it doesn’t even have a trade name except to be called “rock clematis”, a 2006 GreatPlants release. Not every clematis was meant to grow on a trellis. Small, umbrella – shaped flowers of violet and pale blue against rich green foliage is striking! A native of the Rocky Mountains. Excellent in rock gardens or other well drained beds.
Large, deep yellow flowers cover sprawling mounds of glossy, dark green foliage from summer to frost. This prairie native is easily grown on watered soil with drainage or on drier clay.
The best gardens seem to have an element of serendipity and the happiest Wyoming gardeners allow themselves to be pleasantly surprised by chance pairings: a fuchsia blossom beside a plant with chartreuse foliage, volunteer groundcover helping a new bed to get established. Given our intense sun, wind, and alkaline soil it is easier to be successful at English Cottage, Mediterranean, and Western Prairie Styles than it is with more formal French or Italianate Gardens. Gravel mulched rock gardens are also a good choice. Create garden windbreaks with shrubs, fences, durable perennials, and grasses so that your "Sunny Garden" perennials can thrive through the intensity of summer. Many are tall grass prairie derived and are accustomed to natural shelter from the brunt of wind and continual beating of summer sun. Just match plants by water need and sun level. That is the way to long life and vigor in the garden. Plan the basics now and if need be tweak it next year. Perennials are forgiving!
Rain Gauge Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:
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Six Hills Giant Catmint
Red Rocks Penstemon (P. x mexicale ‘Red Rocks’)
Pikes Peak Purple
Penstemon (P. x mexicale ‘Pikes Peak Purple’)
Shadow Mountain Penstemon (P. x mexicale ‘Shadow Mountain’)
Prairie Jewel Penstemon
‘First Love’ Dianthus (Dianthus ‘First Love’)
Spanish Peaks Foxglove (Digitalis thapsi)
Mexican Hat Coneflower
Summer Sky Coneflower
Bloody Crane’s Bill
(Geranium sanguineum)
Chocolate Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’) 
Orange
Carpet Hummingbird Trumpet (Zauschneria garretti ‘Orange Carpet’)
LaVeta Lace Geranium 
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Coronado Agastache (Agastache ‘Coronodo’)
Silver Mound (Artemisia shmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’) 
Logan Calhoun Wine Cups (Callirhoe alcaeoides ‘Logan Calhoun’) 
Dwarf Sundrops ‘Prairie Lode’ (Calylophus serrulatis ‘Prairie Lode’) 
"Lavender Ice" Ice Plant ( Delmosperma x ‘Lavender Ice’)
Fanfare Gaillardia (Gaillardia ‘Fanfare’) 
Colorado Gold Gazania ( Gazania linearis ‘Colorado Gold’)
Regal Torchlily (Kniphofia caulescens) 
Silver Blade Evening Primrose (Oneothera macrocarpa var. incana) 
Goldstrum Daisy (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldstrum’)
Cassis Yarrow (Achillea millefolium ‘Cassis’) 
Lidakense Sedum (Sedum cauticola ‘Lidakense’)
Silky Fleece Lambs Ear (Stachys byzantina ‘Silky Fleece’) 
Rock Clematis
Missouri Evening Primrose
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