Pay attention to bloom times before you make your final choices :-) In my area, astilbe are in bloom right now, as are oriental lilies. Astrantia has finished blooming for the season. Agastache blooms mid to late season and can continue to bloom well into early fall but would NOT be happy under the same growing conditions as astilbe.

Very few perennials bloom all summer......most have a somewhat limited bloom season of around 4-6 weeks max., some even less.

hi. thank you for your response! I'm in zone 6 and a few astilbes I have finished blooming about the end of June! so I guess I'm looking for something that will bloom mid June into July. maybe mix a few things in. I am not sure. astrantia moulin rouge looks so cool to me and I thought it bloomed all summer but I guess not. I'm very limited as to my knowledge and what my options are. I'm working on this spot right now and can confirm it only gets full sun till about 1 oclock in the afternoon. so it's partial sun I guess. I'm at a loss as what I could put in here to make a statement. this particular spot lacks color come the end of summer so I was really hoping to pump it up a bit !

Where in New Jersey are you? I'm in Morris county.

I currently only have one astilbe ('Fanal'), I'll probably plant some more next year. Here's a photo of the area, maybe it will give you some ideas:

{{gwi:254615}}

The astilbe is in the upper right corner. Also in the picture is Huechera 'Midnight Rose', Huechera 'Fire Chief', Echinacea 'Magnus' (in bud), Dianthus deltoides 'Arctic Fire', Heuchera 'Raspberry Ice'. The echinacea pretty much starts to bloom when the astilbe is finished.

Here's another picture, a close up of the astilbe and surrounding plants:

{{gwi:260927}}

Grouping includes Aquilegia vulgaris 'Clementine Red' (one final flower can be seen), Astilbe x arendsii 'Fanal', Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'.

Hi a2zmom,

Beautiful pictures. Thank you very much. I'm in Warren county not to far from you. The echinacea is very enticing, I currently have two varieties and if I can find one that can tolerate partial sun and not under perform then I may go with it. How much sun does your spot get? Thinking for yesterday I was throwing the idea around of using annuals there. Maybe some coleus and something else. I have a few coleus around and they are pretty awesome, colorful, tall enough, so who knows.
One last question, do you know of any nursery's that have a selection of clematis? Or any other nursery's in your area that has a nice selection? I'm also interested new places, and I don't have many around me that have any new or interesting things, besides Well Sweep of course.

All of those plants you see get partial sun. There is a large birch tree behind everything and the branches overhang the garden at that point. In fact, I find the echinacea has better color if it doesn't get full sun.

As far as clematis, since it's a spring bloomer, it's not really in stock in most nurseries at the moment.

Nurseries! I know lots. Do you visit Donaldson's? That's in Hackettstown and they often have some unusual stock. Plus they have "perennial fest" every year. Have you ever gone to that? Lots of good speakers. At the moment though, they are pretty cleaned out.

Near me is Morris County Farms which is a huge wholesale/retail operation. Love going there. Further afield, near where I work (I work in Florham Park), there is the Farm at Green Village and also Great Swamp Nursery. Also Plant Detectives, which is probably a bit closer for you, often has some interesting plants, although I find them very over priced.

Of course Well Sweep is in a class by itself.

I also do a lot of mail order, especially if I'm looking for a particular cultivar.