Succession planting usually refers to a vegetable gardening technique used to maximize yield and ensure a continuous harvest throughout the season by reseeding or planting crops in sequence.

This rewarding gardening practice can also be applied to herbaceous perennial flower and shade gardens. 

Herbaceous refers to plants that lack a woody stem and die back after flowering. This includes many flowers and ferns, but not shrubs or trees. Perennial means plants that live longer than one season.

In gardening, perennials typically refer to herbaceous plants that emerge in spring, grow, develop a flower, die back in the winter, and commonly re-emerge the following spring to begin the same cycle. 

Great, right? Plant once and get flowers year after year after year? Well, there is a caveat to that.

Annual flowers bloom continuously all-season before completing their life cycle and cannot be reused after one season (commonly the ones we see in hanging baskets, planters, and windowsill boxes). Perennials go through an entire growth and reproduction cycle in one gardening season. As a result, their bloom time is often limited, averaging two to six weeks, depending on the variety and location.

If you plant your flower bed with beautiful tulips, lupines and arctic iris, you will have a bare space by the end of July. 

The solution is simple — don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, mix multiple varieties with staggered flowering times to enjoy a full season of color and gain an entire season of pollinators.

For example, once your beautiful globeflowers fade, allium varieties are coming on, followed by aconitum (also known as monkshood), and eventually rudbeckia will decorate your flower bed until the first frost.

Here is a little cheat sheet I created to help guide your planning. Undoubtedly, I forgot a flower type or two.

Keep in mind we all have unique microclimates in our gardens; therefore, some varieties may vary in bloom times in your garden beds. So, use this as a flexible guide — cut it out, scribble on it, stick it to the fridge, bring it with you to a plant sale, or simply use it now to dream about all the fun flowers yet to come this season.

Lastly, the easiest way to extend our gardening season is with a little effort in October. Plant fall bulbs into the ground for lush colors the following spring. Crocus and scilla often peek through the melting snow just when our eyes need some inspiration after too much white.

Happy gardening!