31 Full Sun Perennial Flowers That Love Sunlight
Thinking of planting some perennial flowers, but want to make sure that they can tolerate full sun before you do? There are a number of different sun-loving perennials that can brighten up just about any garden space. In this article, we explore our favorite full sun perennials that you can plant in your garden this year!
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Many garden spaces (and landscaped areas) have large areas with no protection from the sun. This makes these areas them perfect for gardens and landscape beds filled with perennials that thrive in the sun. There are many sun-friendly perennials that once planted, can keep coming back to give your garden a pop of color, year after year.
While there are many perennials that thrive in the shade, there’s no shortage of perennials that enjoy full-sun, as well. We all know that some perennial flowers can be annuals in certain hardiness zones. As such, we’ve compiled a list of sun-loving perennials for just about every climate and hardiness zone, which you’ll find below.
Whether you want tall spiky flowers, low-lying color, or vibrant groundcover, you can find many flowering perennials in the following list that will meet your needs based on your hardiness zone. Plenty of flowering perennials that love the sunlight can thrive in dry, wet, or normal soil conditions. This gives you several options to construct a beautiful cutting garden, landscape bed, or natural pollinator garden.
Allium
Scientific name: Allium
- Soil type: Dry to medium
- Plant height: 12 to 24 inches
- Plant width: 6 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
Allium adds a tall, bulbous look in late spring, a unique addition to pollinator gardens and landscape beds. Whether you want a manicured-looking English garden or a casual bed of flowers, the long, thick stem topped with a ball made of tiny lavender florets creates a stunning effect.
This clump-forming perennial features foliage at the base of the plant only, so pairing it with lower-lying flowering perennials in yellows and pinks adds texture and covers fading foliage. Allium will spread, but you can divide it easily in the fall.
Black-Eyed Susan
Scientific name: Rudbeckia hirta
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 12 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 7
This native North American low-maintenance perennial blooms from June to October, adding texture and color to your fall landscape. Flowers feature yellow petals with dark centers and make an attractive food source for birds and bees.
The heat-loving black-eyed Susan thrives in sweltering summers and grows so well that it tends to overtake neighboring plants. You can prevent it from choking out other flowers by regularly dividing them in the fall. In some areas, this yellow flower is considered a weed, so make sure you check to see if it’s considered an invasive species where you live.
Blanket Flower
Scientific name: Gaillardia
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 12 to 18 inches
- Plant width: 9 to 12 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
A magnet for butterflies and bees, the blanket flower grows fast and matures quickly. Resembling the daisy, except that its colors project vibrant rings of red and gold, the blanket flower doesn’t bloom for long, but the spectacular summer color makes growing blanket flower well worth your time. They can tolerate some neglect, and perform well even in hot climates.
These heat-loving, low-lying summer bloomers offer a striking contrast to spiky purple plants, such as speedwell or salvia, and do well planted as borders. This orange perennial flower is quite popular due to their hardy nature, and beautiful blooms.
Blazing Star
Scientific name: Liatris spicata
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 4 feet
- Plant width: 9 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 8
For purple punctuation marks throughout your summer landscape, these native prairie wildflowers produce unique purple blooms that attract butterflies. Blazing stars make a great addition to any landscape with low maintenance and upright growth habit.
Blazing stars can thrive in varied conditions, and their fuzzy blooms, swaying atop lengthy stems, blossom in whites and pinks, but purple makes the most dramatic look both in landscapes and cut-flower bouquets.
Brown-Eyed Susan
Scientific name: Rudbeckia triloba
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
Brown-eyed Susans, an obvious relation to black-eyed Susans, features lengthier stems and a bushier and taller growth habit than black-eyed Susans. Although it blooms later, this rudbeckia variety has a delicate look on sprays covered with weel blooms.
Pinch early buds and plant low-lying perennials in front to cover the fading foliage to avoid a ragged look. Salvia and speedwell make perfect partners. Be careful with rudbeckia, as even though they are beautiful, this yellow perennial flower can be considered somewhat invasive in some areas of the world.
Delphinium
Scientific name: Delphinium elatum
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 5 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 3 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 7
Useful in cutting gardens, cottage gardens, or as a final tier in your landscape, this member of the buttercup family blooms in the summer. Hummingbirds and butterflies frequently stop by delphiniums, and the flowers, which come in shades of pink and purple, look fabulous with low-lying summer bloomers in shades of yellow.
Popular in cut-flower arrangements, delphiniums may honor your landscape with a second bloom. Just cut the stem from the first flowering before it opens completely and use it for fresh, cut-flower arrangements. The tall spiky flowers add a striking contrast to flowing foliage.
English Lavender
Scientific name: Lavandula angustifolia
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 4 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
Fragrant and beautiful, the delicate-looking lavender can take the heat. Capable of withstanding the hot summer sun and dry conditions, lavender sends up its purple flowers atop gray-green foliage all summer long. A versatile plant, lavender can dress up the landscape or be cut for dried use and fresh use in bouquets.
Lavender requires little maintenance in terms of pruning. The plant can look scraggly if left to its own devices, so proper pruning keeps it looking tailored and healthy. Cut off spent blooms to enjoy new ones throughout the growing season.
Feverfew
Scientific name: Tanacetum parthenium
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 1 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 12 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
With tiny, daisy-like flowers about 1-inch in diameter, feverfew blooms throughout summer atop stems covered in parsley-like foliage. When planted in masses, feverfew works beautifully in cottage gardens or as edging around landscape beds.
Bushy and slightly aromatic, feverfew can spread quickly if allowed to self-seed. Pruning blooms as they fade not only clean up the plants but help to control the spread.
Garden Mum
Scientific name: Chrysanthemum morifolium
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 12 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
You can find these fall favorites in a variety of colors. Mums come in white, pink, purple, red, yellow, and orange shades and vary in flower types, including single, spider, and pompom blooms. They provide a mounded look with loads of color to usher in the fall.
Always choose hardy mums so that you don’t purchase an annual that won’t come back the following year. You can plant mums in the spring or summer and enjoy an injection of color throughout the fall, and you can reward yourself with bigger blooms if you pinch the spring buds.
Goldenrod
Scientific name: Solidago drummondii
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 18 to 36 inches
- Plant width: 18 to 36 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
The arching stems of goldenrod bloom with abundant tiny yellow flowers in the fall. Great for pollinator gardens, this native to cliffs and bluffs attracts butterflies looking for a necessary food source in the fall.
Although some believe goldenrod causes hay fever, ragweed pollen remains the real culprit, so feel free to plant goldenrod with abandon for a flowy fall display that provides a food source for several pollen-gathering insects.
Ice Plant
Scientific name: Delosperma cooperi
- Soil type: Sharply-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 6 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 6 to 10
A succulent perennial, the ice plant provides groundcover with an explosion of color for dry areas in your landscape. Bursting with vibrant colors, this perennial blooms in pink, purple, yellow, and white, this plant shows off its tiny flowers atop deep-green stems.
You can enjoy the ice plant’s evergreen foliage in the winter if you keep the soil dry. The ice plant requires sharply drained soil to keep the soil dry even in winter. Damp soil causes the foliage to die back, and dirt that remains too wet will kill its chances for survival.
Lamb’s Ear
Scientific name: Stachys byzantina
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 9 to 18 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
With fuzzy grey foliage in the shape of a lamb’s ear, gardeners enjoy growing this low-lying perennial for the soft texture it adds to the landscape. During the summer, the lamb’s ear blooms with long spikes of flowers in shades of pink to purple.
Lamb’s ear makes an attractive edging around flower beds or borders for walkways, and it looks great paired with vibrant, showier plants, especially ones that flower in hues of blue and purple.
Lupine
Scientific name: Lupinus
- Soil type: Slightly acidic, well-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 4 feet
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
Lupines bloom profusely in spring with myriad colors in purples, blues, pinks, and yellows. The tall, showy spires sometimes need staking for support, but lupines offer a beautiful border perennial for the edge of landscape beds and look equally at home in a cottage garden.
Useful in fresh-cut flower arrangements, lupines don’t like to be moved and provide a natural host for many endangered species of butterflies. These popular purple flowers do best in zones 4 through 8, and will thive in sunny areas of your yard or garden.
Marjoram
Scientific name: Origanum majorana
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 9 to 18 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
If you need a perennial that can withstand sandy soils and dry areas, marjoram thrives in such conditions and offers pink flowers with green bracts throughout the summer. Useful in rock gardens, you can also cut and dry the flowers for use in everlasting bouquets.
For an excellent border plant along walkways, marjoram offers a unique look, and you can encourage bushier growth by pinching early buds. This hardy plant can make a great addition to any yard or garden space looking for a softer shade of pink.
Maximillian Sunflower
Scientific name: Helianthus maximiliani
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 10 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 4 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 9
This vining sunflower provides all the fun of an annual sunflower but with the added benefit of its yearly return. Although the flowers are smaller than a traditional sunflower, reaching about 5 inches in diameter, this vining perennial puts on a prolific display of blooms.
A native prairie sunflower, Maximillian requires little maintenance and will bloom in the fall, providing a welcome food source for birds in late fall and early winter. Not all sunflowers are vining, which means this plant will give your garden a little bit of extra flexibility in where it’s grown.
Milkweed
Scientific name: Asclepias syriaca
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 9 to 12 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 9
Milkweed comes in many varieties, but this species produces beautiful lavender blooms in a spherical shape like allium. Enjoy watching monarch caterpillars live out their life cycles on this natural host plant, which the caterpillars won’t harm. The caterpillars will only eat around the leaves and not kill the plant. So milkweed fits in well with pollinator gardens and naturalized landscapes.
Although milkweed blooms throughout the summer, don’t cut it back too soon. You can enjoy the fall interest milkweed provides with its long, brown seed pods that replace flower heads. The seed pods open to reveal cottony strings with seeds. Seed pods can be collected and dried for planting.
Mountain Bluet
Scientific name: Centaurea montana
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 12 to 24 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 8
Mountain bluet attracts butterflies, providing an important food source in the late spring. So you can liberally plant mountain bluet in a pollinator garden or around the landscape and enjoy the flowers as well as butterflies around your home.
You can find this easy-to-grow perennial in a range of colors, including white, pink, and blue, and if you deadhead spent flowers, you can enjoy a second bloom in the early fall. A natural choice for cottage gardens, mountain bluet performs in borders where it can form clumps as it spreads.
New England Aster
Scientific name: Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 6 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 3 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
The flowers on the New England aster resemble those of the mum, but its height makes it stand out in the landscape and differentiate it from the mum. Expect the New England aster to bloom in late summer through fall with shades of pink and purple.
Its height makes it a striking backdrop with other fall bloomers, including mums. Encourage a bushier growth habit by pinching blooms in the early summer. Asters can be a great option for any garden. Asters are easy to grow, and just as easy to care for.
Perennial Flax
Scientific name: Linum perenne
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 1 to 2 feet
- Plant width: 9 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
Perennial flax offers profuse amounts of delicate sky-blue flowers in late spring. Although blooms open and fade the same day, perennial flax continues blooming for up to eight weeks.
Perennial flax grows wild in fields and on hillsides. You can create a stunning spring display by planting these flowers in large masses. The greenery will stay looking fresh until fall, providing spring forage for wildlife, and the plants will help prevent soil erosion.
Pincushion Flower
Scientific name: Scabiosa caucasica
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 18 to 24 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 7
From late spring to early summer, a delicate-looking bloomer, the deep blue petals with white centers of the pincushion flower look great lining edges or creating borders. These intricate flowers might look dainty, but they will continue blooming if you cut back faded blooms.
Looking lovely against brighter colored perennials, use pincushion flowers to edge taller perennials or paired with ornamental grasses. Their softer purple perennial flowers also make them a good choice as a muted color layer against more vibrantly colored blooms.
Russian Sage
Scientific name: Perovskia atriplicifolia
- Soil type: Dry to medium
- Plant height: 18 to 24 inches
- Plant width: 18 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
Russian sage is a hardy, vigorous grower. Russian sage offers a delicate cloud of lavender blooms atop gray-green stems. With a lovely fragrance and delicate-looking bloom, Russian sage packs a punch when planted in masses or against ornamental grasses.
Blooming from June to fall, Russian sage tolerates drought and pairs well with other pollinator-friendly plants such as bee balm, coneflower, and milkweed. Russian sage is a beautiful plant, and it will usually only return where it’s planted, making it great for gardens looking to avoid invasive plants.
Salvia
Scientific name: Salvia nemorosa
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 18 to 36 inches
- Plant width: 18 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
Reasonably low in maintenance, evenly water salvia to enjoy reblooming of these beautiful, deep purple spikes. A welcome addition to butterfly gardens, salvia also looks gorgeous in borders and lining garden paths. Most salvia species are perennial, depending on your hardiness zone. But some of the more popular varieties are planted as annuals.
Perfect for naturalized landscapes, salvia helps attract various wildlife. Its vibrant purple color makes it an ideal complement to yellow and orange summer perennials such as coreopsis and blanket flower.
Sea Holly
Scientific name: Eryngium planum
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 1 to 2 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
Sea holly offers an interesting alternative to more common flowers for a unique perennial that adds interest for more than one season. Easily grown from seed and established in the landscape, sea holly blooms in the summer with steel-blue flowers on tall stems with barely any foliage.
This satisfying perennial drops its petals and displays interesting seed heads that remind you of the ones produced by coneflower. Wildlife enjoys munching on the seed heads, and this hardy grower won’t mind it a bit. Easy to grow in rock gardens or on display in flower beds.
Shasta Daisy
Scientific name: Leucanthemum
- Soil type: Average
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 18 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
The cheery white perennial flower makes a definite mark for summer. Its white flowers with yellow centers bloom profusely from late spring to fall. Encourage consistent reblooming by deadheading spent blooms and pinching the earliest buds down to 6 inches encourages a bushier and more prolific growth habit.
Place daisies anywhere in your landscape, cottage garden, or pollinator paradise, and you will not be disappointed. Daisies can easily be maintained in full sun and make your landscape beam bright color.
Stonecrop
Scientific name: Sedum
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 6 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 8
A succulent with staying power, sedum thrives in dry soil conditions, allowing it to grow in soils that can’t support other perennials. A fall bloomer, sedum produces thick stems with blooming flowers in shades of pinks and purple.
Sedum has a habit of spreading out, but it can be easily divided, if necessary. A hearty grower and a favorite for bees, sedum makes an excellent addition to pollinator gardens borders and even makes a thriving addition to cut-flower bouquets.
Swamp Rose Mallow
Scientific name: Hibiscus moscheutos
- Soil type: Medium to wet
- Plant height: 3 to 7 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 4 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 5 to 9
While the word “swamp” might not sound appealing, use the swamp rose mallow for a flowery summer show in wet portions of your landscape in which most perennials won’t thrive.
Reminiscent of the tropical hibiscus flower, you can add a bit of an exotic look with the swamp rose mallow, whose flowers range from pink to white. Tall and picturesque, you can encourage a bushier plant by pinching the growing tips at 8 inches and again at 12. Proper pruning in late fall promotes healthy new growth.
Thrift
Scientific name: Armeria maritima
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 6 to 12 inches
- Plant width: 6 to 12 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
Thrift looks dainty but offers a mighty pop of color on its small, wiry stems. The round flowers bloom in late spring to early summer and come in color ranges, including pinks, purples, and whites.
Thrift makes an attractive border along walkways and around landscape beds, and you can count on continuous blooms by deadheading old flowers. If you like using cut flowers inside the home, grow some thrift in your garden and cut long stems near the base to use fresh or dried.
Tickseed
Scientific name: Coreopsis
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 18 to 30 inches
- Plant width: 12 to 18 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 8
Tickseed fills in bare spaces around beds and comes in numerous varieties and flower types, from double petals to daisy-like flowers. Yellow dominates the color range of coreopsis, and you can find plant colors ranging from creamy yellow to nearly orange.
Tickseed lends an informal look to the landscape and looks best in cottage gardens and natural spaces where pollinators can find easy access. Best planted in masses, this low-maintenance perennial comes in handy when you need color in the heat of summer after other plants have fizzled out.
Western Sunflower
Scientific name: Helianthus occidentalis
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 4 feet
- Plant width: 18 to 24 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
The Western sunflower provides an excellent addition to naturalized spaces and pollinator gardens. Its long, wiry stems masquerade like coreopsis but provide two-inch-wide blooms containing yellow petals with yellow centers shaped like sunflowers. Unlike regular sunflowers which are annuals, the western sunflower is a showy perennial that has beautiful yellow blooms.
Another native wildflower, the Western sunflower, establishes quickly, and with little maintenance you can enjoy profuse blooming from midsummer through early fall. Beautiful as a casual border, you can also use this for a natural look in landscapes or hilly spaces needing a bit of erosion control.
Whitlow Grass
Scientific name: Draba rigida
- Soil type: Sharply-drained
- Plant height: 3 to 6 inches
- Plant width: 3 to 6 inches
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 4 to 8
This drought-tolerant flowering perennial can be found where no other perennial can thrive. Despite its name, whitlow grass falls into the wildflower category as part of the mustard family, not grass, and the perennial thrives in soils where most plants cannot.
These plants can be found in the very early spring, usually clustered with white, or more commonly, bright, four-petaled yellow flowers. While whitlow grass can be white, pink, and purple, yellow dominates the field.
Yarrow
Scientific name: Achillea millefolium
- Soil type: Well-drained
- Plant height: 2 to 3 feet
- Plant width: 2 to 3 feet
- Sun exposure: Full sun
- USDA zones: 3 to 9
Yarrow adds a brilliant pop of color as a second level in landscape designs. With its compact and clump-forming habit, yarrow looks nice in formal spaces since its thick, straight stems look good in rows. You can also use it in less formal areas since yarrow’s colorful perennial flower heads and fern-like foliage add an airy look.
Blooming in shades of yellow, pink, purple, and white, yarrow can give you consistent blooms throughout the summer if you deadhead faded flowers. You can also encourage more blooming by cutting fresh stems to bring inside cut-flower bouquets.
Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve read through your options, you’re probably anxious to begin laying out your landscape plans. Since you have so many choices for flowering perennials that love the sunlight, be sure to plan for specific height levels and account for soil conditions to be sure you create a landscape you can love.
For more details on caring for perennials, you can call your local extension service or find master gardeners in your area with helpful information for growing in your zone and may have plants for sale.