If you’re looking to add some long-lasting flowering perennials like asters, daylilies, salvia, goldenrod, bleeding Heart, peonies, and other colorful yellow and orange flowers, coral bells, and Russian sage with ornamental grasses to your Wisconsin landscape, they will be attractive to hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators for nectar.
These resilient plants return year after year, offering vibrant colors, diverse textures, and a low-maintenance gardening solution. From the cold-hardy varieties that withstand the state’s harsh winters to the sun-loving blooms that thrive in the summer heat, perennials are perfect for creating a garden that flourishes across the seasons.
In this guide, we’ll explore some of the best perennials for Wisconsin gardens, ensuring your outdoor space for plants remains stunning with individual blooms and flower heads throughout the year.
Best Perennials for Wisconsin
1. Sedum
Most sedum genus species varieties are very hardy and can withstand the harsh winters.
Sedum (or ‘stone crop flower’) does best in full to part sun. While taller hybrids need full sun to flower their best, creeping types will grow fine in part shade. Soil: Sedums like very well-drained soil with a neutral to slightly alkaline pH. Wet, heavy clay can lead to root and stem rot. During the hot summers, plan to water every 7-10 days.
Sedum telephium L. is a medicinal plant used in antiquity to cure many types of inflammatory skin diseases. The leaves (without the external cuticle) are used to promote healing and reduce skin inflammation and pain and contain various components.
2. Catmint
Essential oil can be made from catmint for its pleasant scent. Honeybees, sweat bees, bumblebees, leafcutter bees, mason bees, various wasps, and butterflies are attracted to their spikes of purple flowers in the Wisconsin gardens.
Although it prefers full sun, catmint will thrive with some afternoon shade. Keep new plants or transplants watered until they can fend for themselves. After that, established plantings are drought and heat tolerant.
Catmint has a long history of use as a household herbal remedy, being employed especially in treating disorders of the digestive system and, as it stimulates sweating, it is useful in reducing fevers. The herbs pleasant taste and gentle action makes it suitable for treating colds, flu and fevers in children.
3. Purple Coneflower
Pale Purple Coneflower is a beautiful Wisconsin native perennial that will handle many soil types and moisture levels. Typically found in prairies, they are tough and can handle rocky, clay, and dry soil. Their taproot makes them drought tolerant.
It requires full sun or partial shade; the soil type is best well-drained with a neutral to acidic soil pH. Pruning your coneflowers is always helpful but not necessary, although deadheading the blooms will keep them in bloom all summer long. Regular watering of about an inch per week.
The petals are edible. It is an herbal medicine that has been used for centuries, customarily as a treatment for the common cold, coughs, bronchitis, upper respiratory infections, and some inflammatory conditions.
4. Creeping Phlox
The evergreen foliage is lush and deep green with petite, slender leaves as ground cover. Creeping phlox or moss phlox (Phlox subulata) is a dwarf plant that forms low-growing cushions or mats of slender evergreen leaves and turns into a blaze of color in late spring and early summer.
Grow creeping phlox in fertile, free-draining soil in sun or light shade and keep watered until established. Trim after flowering if required. Grow creeping phlox in full sun or in dappled, partial shade in warmer regions with bright sunlight.
Creeping phlox is low-growing and spreading, growing 10-15cm high and up to 30-45cm across, making it ideal for a range of situations including rockeries, raised beds, border edges, troughs, and pots.
Creeping Phlox is an effective ground cover for slopes and banks where it can help prevent soil erosion while providing a colorful display. It also requires less maintenance in these hard-to-reach areas.
5. Astilbe
Astilbe japonica typically blooms in late spring through early summer, while Astilbe chinensis cultivars flower from mid-to-late summer.
Astilbe grows best in part shade. It can thrive in full sun but will need shade in the afternoon in hot summer climates. Flowering will be reduced in full shade. Soil: Astilbe thrives in moist, well-drained soil with a slightly acidic pH (6.0). It needs to be watered deeply every week, especially during periods of dry summer weather.
In traditional medicine the plant has been used for the treatment of ulcer, bleeding during child birth, inflammation, body ache, diarrhea, and dysentery.
6. Black-eyed Susan
Black-eyed Susan is a native flower of Wisconsin that grows 1′-3′ tall. Black-eyed Susan prefers full to partial sun and moderate moisture to wet prairies, meadows, and roadsides.
Plant black-eyed Susan in full sun for the best flowers. Black-eyed Susan plants prefer moist to dry, well-draining soils and are equally at home in loam, clay, and sandy soils—any soil that isn’t consistently soggy. These plants are good choices for butterfly gardens, beds, borders, mass plantings, and containers. Water well whenever the top inch of soil around the plants is dry.
An infusion of the black eyed susan roots have been used to treatcold, dropsy, and worms in children.
7. Clematis
Clematis is an herb. Sweet Summer Love is an easy-to-grow and maintain clematis with great hardiness for upper Midwest and Wisconsin climates.
Clematis blooms best in full sun. Some varieties, such as ‘Nelly Moser’, can bloom in part shade, but the amount of flowering will be reduced. Clematis will benefit from afternoon shade in hot summer areas. Soil: Clematis prefers a moist, well-drained soil with a neutral to slightly alkaline pH.
Clematis medicine is used orally to treat syphilis, gout, rheumatism, bone disorders, and chronic skin conditions and as a diuretic.
Conclusion
Shrubs and perennials have a broad range, spread aggressively as a groundcover around trees, and add color with pink and white flowers, asters, goldenrods, ornamental grasses, and cinquefoils with green foliage in gardens and are attractive for nectar in pollinators and birds, offering year-round beauty; they are resistant in fall, and low-maintenance in care. Their ability to thrive in the state’s diverse climate, from cold winters to warm summers, makes them a reliable choice for any experienced gardener of all skill levels.
With a vast array of colors, shapes, and sizes, perennials can create stunning displays that evolve with the seasons, ensuring a vibrant and dynamic garden landscape. By selecting the right perennials and providing appropriate care of plants, such as removing deadheaded plants, prolonging the flowering season, and taking care of the soil to prevent it from turning yellow, The gardeners can create lush green-covered foliage and enduring colorful gardens with last year’s saved seed heads that will bring joy and satisfaction year after year in your Wisconsin garden landscape.
