Plants with Spikes or Spires of Flowers
These perennials add drama to a flower garden with the vertical accents of their tall flower spikes. A few clumps of vertical flowers scattered through the garden beautifully spice up the globes and clouds of other flowers.
PERENNIALS AND BIENNIALS
SPRING
Ajuga reptans (bugleweed, carpet bugle)
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove)
SUMMER
Alcea rosea (hollyhock)
Asphodeline lutea (Jacob's-rod, king's-spear)
Baptisia australis (blue wild indigo)
Campanula persicifolia (peach-leaf bellflower)
Delphinium x elatum (delphinium)
Hosta spp. and hybrids (hostas)
Kniphofia uvaria (red-hot poker, torchlily)
Lavandula angustifolia (lavender, English lavender)
Liatris spicata (spike gayfeather, blazing star)
Ligularia spp. (golden rays)
Lupinus hybrids (lupine)
Malva alcea (hollyhock mallow)
Penstemon barbatus (beard-tongue)
Polygonum bistorta (knotweed, snakeweed, European bistort)
Salvia x superba (hybrid blue salvia, hybrid sage)
Sidalcea malviflora (checkerbloom, prairie mallow)
Stachys byzantina (lamb's-ears)
Thermopsis caroliniana (southern lupine, Carolina lupine)
Verbascum x hybridum (mullein)
Veronica longifolia (speedwell)
Veronica spicata (spiked speedwell)
Yucca filamentosa (Adam's needle, needle palm)
LATE SUMMER AND FALL
Aconitum spp. (monkshoods)
Astilbe taquetti 'Superba' (fall astilbe)
Cimicifuga spp. (bugbanes)
Hosta spp. and hybrids (hostas)
Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower)
Lobelia siphilitica (big-blue lobelia)
Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage)
Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant, false dragonhead)
Salvia spp. (sages)
ANNUALS
Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon)
Campanula medium (Canterbury bells)
Celosia cristata (cockscomb)
Consolida ambigua (rocket larkspur)
Lavatera trimestris (tree mallow, annual mallow)
Lupinus texensis (Texas blue-bonnet)
Matthiola incana (stock)
Moluccella laevis (bells-of-Ireland)
Nicotiana alata (flowering tobacco)
Nicotiana sylvestris (great-flowering tobacco)
Nicotiania langsdorfii (green-flowered tobacco)
Salvia farinacea (mealy-cup sage)
Salvia splendens (red salvia, scarlet sage)
Salvia viridis (painted sage)
BULBS
SPRING
Camassia leichtlinii (Camas)
Hyacinthus orientalis (Dutch hyacinth)
Muscari spp. (grape hyacinths)
SUMMER
Canna x generalis (canna lily)
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora (montbretia)
Gladiolus hybrids (gladiolus)
Polianthes tuberosa (tuberose)
LATE SUMMER AND FALL
Canna x generalis (canna lily)
