Resplendent double layers of ruffled deep red petals showcase irregular yellow-splashed margins on slender stems above a tidy trailing herbaceous foundation. Maintaining their opulent coloration, the saucy long-blooming flowers are loosely clustered and tempered by palmate strawberry-style deep green leaves that tumble over walls, down steps or edge a border.

Blooms June–August

Size: 12" – 18" high x 12" – 18" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

Hailing from the lower slopes of the Himalayas, this strong perennial is named for its vibrant saucer-shaped blood red flowers borne on widely branching leafy stems. The neatly toothed long-petioled silver-gray foliage sports silky hairs on the upper surface and a white tomentose below. Well-suited for a front or midborder location, Potentilla atrosanguinea’s good-looking bearing performs best in cool summer areas and tolerates dry conditions once established.

Blooms June–August

Size: 18" – 2' 0" high x 12" – 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

While the somewhat sprawling species traipses throughout Nepal's Himalayan Mountains, this vivacious nonshrubby cultivar makes a compact well-groomed perennial for your garden. A handsome low mound of hairy coarse-toothed strawberry-like foliage presents 1 in. wide rosy carmine flowers, each defined by a dark crimson eye and 5 heart-shaped lipstick-pretty petals on wiry branched stems. Venerating a former plant curator at the Royal Botanic Garden in Scotland, 'Ron McBeath' makes a flashy long blooming mate for Knautia 'Mars Midget' and Geranium sanguineum 'Album'.

Blooms May–August.

Size: 8" – 12" high x 15" – 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

Don’t be surprised if you too fall under the spell of this undemanding, hearty perennial named for its sumptuously colored flowers and powerful presence. Lobed, strawberry-like, dark green foliage shapes a tidy clump beneath deep raspberry-red blooms with rich-as-velvet, ruby-black centers and bright white stamens.

Said to be useful in medicine and magic, the sun-loving Cinquefoil likes well drained soil and partial shade in hotter climates, obliges both cold and drought, and can be nestled into the rockery or atop a garden wall alongside Erysimum ‘Wenlock Beauty’.

Blooms June–August.

Size: 18" high x 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

Dramatically etched by deep red eyes, soft apricot-colored flowers roost above handsome evergreen clumps of lobed greenery. This long-blooming charmer stays low to the ground as it scrambles between steps, spills over a border’s edge or cavorts with Helianthemum ‘St. Mary’s’.

Blooms June–September

Size: 6" high x 12" – 15" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

Delicate parchment-like 5-petaled flowers awash in hushed apricot-pink hues coupled with dainty tightly woven dark green leaves set this compact easily grown shrub apart. Promoting fine textured appeal, an attractive flourish of small narrowly divided foliage garbs the versatile twiggy habit that makes an excellent hardy choice for low hedges, foundations or mixed borders. ‘Apricot Whisper’ can handle sandy or gravel-strewn soil, but dislikes hot humid areas, and enjoys a midsummer trimming.

Blooms June–September

Size: 2' 0" – 3' 0" high x 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 3.

The sparkling flood of star-shaped creamy-white blooms amid a well-branched bushy habit earned this must-have Potentilla its epithet plus a coveted AGM. Winsome pinnate green leaves forge a close-knit deciduous foundation for the long-lasting lucent flowers, each hosting 5 rounded overlapping petals, which gradually deepen to canary-yellow at their bases. Undeterred by cold winters, poor soil and most insects, ‘Limelight’ adds a lively summer-long aspect to the rockery, cottage garden or the front of a mixed border.

Blooms June–September

Size: 2' 0" – 3' 0" high x 2' 0" – 3' 0" wide.

Zone 2/3.

Hailing from Wisconsin’s McKay Nursery, this rounded upright shrub debuts delicate 5-petaled, creamy white blooms from early summer ’til autumn upon an attractive, fine-textured green foil of narrow elliptical leaflets. The long-lasting pearlescent flowers coupled with close-knit deciduous foliage impart a composed classic aspect that can embellish foundations, mixed borders or en masse plantings. Undaunted by deer, cold weather, varied soil types and dry conditions, easy-care ‘Mckay’s White’ dazzles pollinators, adopts yellow and cocoa hues for fall plus appreciates a hard, late winter cutback.

Blooms June–September

Size: 2' 0" – 3' 0" high x 2' 0" – 3' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 2.

Hats off to the University of Manitoba for this tailored AGM recipient and its floriferous clear-pink display. Conjuring wild roses, the adorable pastel-hued blooms present sprightly yellow eyes encompassed by whitish centers amid small pinnate medium green leaves. ‘Pink Beauty’s mounding bushy habit emphasizes natty fine-textured accents, which can be juxtaposed against broad-leafed shrubs and perennials in courtyards, seashore plantings, cottage gardens or herbaceous borders.

Blooms June–September

Size: 2' 0" – 3' 0" high x 2' 0" – 3' 0" wide.

Zone 2/3.

A friend to bees, butterflies and gardeners alike, ‘Sunset’s dazzling galaxy of lucent rose-like brunt-orange blooms with fiery-red streaks and yellow highlights blazes through summer. Small trim deciduous green leaves plus closely woven branches distinguish this plucky fine textured shrub that’s tailor-made for mixed borders, low hedges or cottage gardens. Relishing occasional trimming, the long-lived habit conquers deer, cold winters and periodic drought.

Blooms June–September

Size: 2' 0" – 3' 0" high x 2' 0" – 3' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 3.