How to make your garden bloom

The West's best flowers for borders, beds, bouquets, and containers

20 favorite perennial flowers

These unfussy, long-lived plants pump out beautiful foliage and flowers year after year. Plant in fall or spring when cooler temperatures help them get a healthy start

Story by Kathleen Brenzel

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Gaura (G. lindheimeri)

White flowers cluster like butterflies atop tall spikes on these airy 2½- to 4-foot-tall plants. Selected forms include 'Siskiyou Pink' (to 2 feet tall), with rose-pink flowers and 'Whirling Butterflies' (to 3 feet tall), with white flowers.

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