Stunning red perennial flowers to make your garden stand out
Red flowers are great for adding interest and color to your garden.
If you love red, there are lots of different perennials you can plant in your garden for a beautiful display of red flowers.
In this article I’ve put together a list of the most popular red perennials that are easy to grow in the garden or containers.
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Red is one of my favorite colors and I love having pops of red in my flower garden.
Red flowers look great on their own or combined with other colors.
I like to plant red perennials alongside other brightly colored flowers for a spectacular display.
15 RED PERENNIAL FLOWERS
1. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Yarrow
The tightly-packed flower heads can be red, yellow, pink or white.
Yarrow is frost tolerant, pest resistant and great for attracting bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects to the garden.
Yarrow will do well in a full sun position with soil that isn’t too rich.
2. Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis)
Bleeding Hearts
Their beautiful heart shaped flowers can be pink, red or white.
Flowering time for Bleeding Hearts is from summer to fall but they can take a couple of seasons to start blooming.
Bleeding Hearts range in height from 1.5 feet (45 cm) to 3 feet (90 cm).
RELATED: How To Grow Bleeding Heart Flowers
3. Peony
Peonies
They grow best in places with a cool winter climate because cold temperatures help the flower bud to develop.
Peonies grow best in a position with full sun but partial shade is best for areas with hot summer temperatures.
4. Coneflower
Coneflowers
They come in a number of different colors including red, pink, orange and yellow.
Coneflowers need at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day.
5. Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.)
Daylilies
The flowers only open for one day and then die off but each flower stem has about a dozen flower buds, so you’ll have lots of blooms.
Daylilies grow best in a position with full sun, but in hot climates they may need some afternoon shade.
6. Astilbe
Astilbe
Some varieties are compact, only growing one foot (30 cm) high, while other varieties can grow 3 to 4 feet (90 to 120 cm) tall.
Astilbe is a great plant for shady spots but they do best with some dappled sun in the mornings.
7. Poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Perennial Poppies
They come in a variety of colors including yellow, red, orange and pink and they’re great for brightening up the garden.
Poppies grow best in a position with full sun.
8. Azalea
Azaleas
They grow best in a spot with partial shade and they can also be grown in containers.
Azaleas can be cut back after flowering to keep the plant tidy and encourage bushier growth.
9. Tulip
There are more than 3000 varieties of tulips in just about every color of the rainbow, including some beautiful red varieties.
Tulip bulbs
The best time to plant tulips is in early fall for spring flowers.
RELATED: 10 Best Flower Bulbs For Containers
10. Rose
Roses are one of the most popular red flowers but you can find roses in just about every color imaginable and various shapes and sizes.
Red climbing roses
Bare root roses can be planted in the garden in late winter or early spring, which will give the plant time to become established before summer.
11. Hibiscus
Perennial Hibiscus
Hibiscus thrives in tropical, humid areas and grows best in full sun.
After each lot of flowers, cut them back and another lot of blooms should appear.
12. Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Cardinal flowers
They’re classified as short-lived perennials because they usually live for only 3 to 4 years but they re-seed easily so you’ll have plenty of new plants popping up.
Cardinal flowers usually grow 3 – 4 feet (90 – 120 cm) high.
They’re deer resistant and grow well in partial shade or full sun.
13. Clematis
Clematis
Small varieties of Clematis grow to about 3 feet (90cm) tall, while others can reach as high as 20 feet (6 m). [1]
Clematis grows best in cool areas and can be trained to grow along a trellis, archway or pergola. They can also be grown as a ground cover.
14. Salvia (Salvia splendens)
Salvias
The flowers can be red, pink, violet, blue or white.
They grow well in hot, dry climates and flower from summer to fall.
Salvia should be cut back to ground level after flowering and divided every couple of years.
15. Weigela
The last red perennial on this list is Weigela
As well as red, it also comes in pink, white and yellow.
Weigela plants with brightly colored flowers will do best in full sun, but plants with variegated foliage will need some afternoon shade in hot areas. [2]
So there’s my list of the most beautiful red perennial flowers to grow in your garden.
These red flowers will definitely add some interest to your garden.
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Which of these red perennials is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below.
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I’ve had many of these flowers in my yard throughout the years and still love hibiscus and think they are my favorite. They just remind me so much of the tropics and of summer. Also a big fan of peony’s. I wish I lived somewhere that I could enjoy these flowers year round.
All of these red perennials are SO beautiful! When living in California, I use to see bleeding hearts all over my neighborhood. They would literally stop me in my tracks, as I was mesmerized by them.
Peonies are my absolute favorite flowers! In June, when they start to bloom in my garden it makes me so happy to check on their progress everyday. I just wish they had a longer blooming period.
These will be a great and wonderful addition to our flower garden especially the Tulip.
The bleeding hearts are gorgeous! I’d love to eventually plant a garden with an assortment of flowers to help attract more butterflies.
This is an informative post. Even though I don’t know much about gardening, one of my dreams involves a small cottage with a big garden, where I could be planting some of the flowers presented in your post.
I like these flowers so much. There are all so beautiful, but I have to admit that my favorite ones have always been tulips. I didn’t know they had to be exposed to cold temperatures, thank you for the information!
Maybe I can plant some tulips one day, but unfortunately I live in a small flat and the only place I can plant flowers is on the balcony. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, specially if I want to plant tulips, because we are I live is very warm.
Perhaps another flower is better for warm temperatures.
Flowers are always beautiful and always make us smile. Thanks for sharing it, I am absolutely clueless about the flowers other than they look pretty.
Wow! So many beautiful flowers! Many that I didn’t even know of! What would you say is the easiest to plant and take care of out of all of them? Would like to start gardening 🙂
Beautiful. I love flowers of all colors and variety but red is absolutely my favorite. In fact till couple of years back I had the privilege of staying in a rented accommodation with a garden space where I passionately growing flowers of all seasons. What a refreshing post.
I love all flowers, but a red flower will always be my favorite. All of these flowers are just so beautiful. They can bring so much life to such a simple garden. We currently have LOTS of red rose bushes in our backyard and when they bloom we are all taken back by the beauty.
We get a lot of hot afternoon sun in my front yard, and yarrow and salvia have worked out well for me! One of my neighbours has poppies and they look fabulous – I’d love to try those sometime too. Sadly a climbing rose did not last in our front yard. I want to plant bleeding hearts somewhere too as I love this plant, but I have to figure out a spot in my backyard for it first.
This is a great list! Every time I come to your blog, my idea for my garden changes! I am very new to gardening and I don’t know where to start from. I am spending some good amount of time on this blog now!