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Are you looking for ways to add a touch of happiness and compassion to your garden? Look no further than pink flowers! Pink blooms come in a wide variety of shades, from soft and calming to bright and bold. This article explores 20 beautiful pink flowering plants to add a pop of color to your garden.
Why We Love Pink Flowers in the Garden
Pink flowers are a beloved addition to any garden, offering a delightful combination of beauty and versatility. Their charm goes beyond just aesthetics, though. Here are some considerations to make with using pink flowers in the landscaping and design.
Pinks can be warm or cool, and they may battle each other, so it is important to check the color’s “temperature” before planting. A pink that has extra red or yellow in it will be on the hot side while one that is heavy with blue or green will be cooler.
Pink is also influenced by the colors around it. White makes it seem darker, with gray it will look brighter, and green makes it appear redder. Silver-leaved plants or those with purple foliage show off pink well.
Pink and blue or pink and purple are classic color combos. You can strike the visual equivalent of a musical chord by using three colors that are equidistant on the color wheel, such as blue, yellow, and pink.
20 Pretty Pink Flowers for Your Garden
Brighten up your happy place with some of these pink flowering plants:
Hyacinths will bring welcome beauty and fragrance to your spring garden. Plant bulbs this fall to enjoy for years to come.
6-12 inches tall
Full sun
Zones 3-9
Blossoms in early to mid-spring
2. Oriental Lily
Celebrate the Year of the Lily by growing a ‘Stargazer.’ The large blossoms have dark pink petals edged in white and are 6 inches or more across. Extremely fragrant as a cut flower, it only takes one to perfume the whole house! Plant the bulbs in spring or fall.
The stunning China Aster is an outstanding cut flower. It is available not only in pink but also in blues, purples, and white as well. A packet of mixed seeds will give you a pleasing range of colors that blend perfectly together. There are lots to choose from … We like ‘Sea Star,’ ‘Giants of California,’ and ‘Tiger Paws’ for their 4-inch wide, fully double, shaggy petals.
Cosmos ‘Sensation’ is a summertime staple in the cut flower garden. Easily grown from seed, it responds to cutting by producing even more blossoms.
For something different, check out ‘Cupcakes Blush,’ which has petals that look like pink paper cupcake liners.
3-4 feet tall
Full sun
Blooms summer to early fall
Transplant or direct seed
5. Gomphrena
Gomphrena, also known as globe amaranth, comes in many shades of pink, ranging from hot fuchsia to soft pink. If you can’t decide on just one, ‘Raspberry Cream’ blends various pink hues with creamy white in each blossom. Gomphrena is one of our favorite flowers to grow from seed!
Gomphrena flowers are long-lasting in the garden or a vase, and they can be dried for winter arrangements.
18-28 inches tall
Full sun
Summer bloom
Transplant when the danger of frost has passed
6. Impatiens
Impatiens are the perfect plant to brighten up a shady spot and make excellent container plants. There are lots of colors to choose from, including many shades of pink, ranging from pale apple blossom to bright bubblegum. If downy mildew is a problem in your area, look for resistant varieties.
6-12 inches tall
Part to full shade
Blooms all summer until frost
Pinch back leggy plants to keep them bushy
7. Begonias
Wax begonias are one of the easiest bedding plants to grow. Excellent for containers or in the garden, they are always flowering, living up to their Latin name Begonia semperflorens. You can choose hot or pale pink with glossy green or bronze foliage, and they will not disappoint!
Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is a major hummingbird magnet, so be sure to plant it where you can enjoy their aerobatic maneuvers. They can’t resist its clusters of hot pink tubular-shaped blossoms!
Perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius) is a surprisingly rugged vine that grows 6-9 feet tall in a single season, bearing bright pink blossoms all summer long. Its tendrils grasp onto any form of support they can easily wrap around, such as a wire fence or trellis. It dies back to the ground each winter and regrows vigorously the next season.
6-9 foot vines
Full sun to part shade
Blossoms early summer through fall
Zones 5-9
Perennials That Produce Pink Flowers
10. Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea is often called purple coneflower, but the color of its petals is closer to pink. A native perennial, it is a rich source of nectar for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Let its seedheads stand in the fall for the goldfinches to enjoy!
Rose milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is a native perennial that draws a multitude of pollinators to its nectar and is a host plant for monarch and queen butterfly larvae. Also known as swamp milkweed, it prefers moist soil, making it a perfect addition to your rain garden.
Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is another native worthy of planting in your landscape. Bees and butterflies love its vanilla scent, and so will you! It has a long bloom time, adding rosy pink flowers to the fall colors around it.
Dianthus are called pinks not for their color but for the fringed edges of their petals that look like they have been trimmed with pinking shears. They come in many colors, not just pink, but we love cheddar pinks. They bear 1-inch single flowers atop blue-green grass-like foliage and have a sweet clove scent. Read more about the many kinds of dianthus.
9-12 inches tall
Full sun
Late spring to early summer bloom
Zones 3-9
14. Bleeding Hearts
Fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) has pink, heart-shaped blossoms that will light up your shade garden. This native’s blue-green, ferny foliage does not die back in summer as the old-fashioned bleeding hearts do, and it is in bloom for a longer period.
Japanese anemones bloom in late summer into fall when other plants are winding down. We love their 3-inch-wide, broad-petaled pink flowers that dance on tall, wiry stems.
The plants are spread by underground rhizomes and by seed, so they can quickly fill an empty space in your landscape. We grow (A. tomentosa) ‘Robustissima’ and a hybrid called ‘September Charm’ for cutting and pick them while they are still in bud.
‘Autumn Joy’ is a favorite fall flower for nectar-seeking butterflies and other pollinators who are drawn to its clusters of tiny pink flowers. Its succulent gray-green leaves hold moisture, making the plant drought-resistant. Let the flowers dry on the plant for winter interest.
2 feet tall
Full sun
Blossoms in late summer to fall
Zones 3-9
17. Primrose
Showy evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) is a native perennial with 2-3 inch wide, 4-petaled, satiny pink flowers.
Drought tolerant, it grows in poor soil and spreads by underground runners to form large colonies. Let them naturalize in your wildflower garden. We saw fields of these in Texas this spring along with the bluebonnets.
‘Black Lace’ (Sambucus nigra) has deep purple, finely cut foliage that shows off the large pink flower clusters. If another elderberry is planted nearby for pollination, it will produce berries.
Native azaleas put on quite a floral display each year. In the rhododendron family, pinxterbloom (R. periclymenoides) is the first to flower, blossoming in April before its leaves appear. Swamp azalea (R. viscosum) produces its pink, fragrant flowers in the summer after its leaves open.
6 feet tall
Part sun to shade
Spring to early summer blooms
Zones 4-9
20. Weigela
Weigela Florida has several varieties with dark purple foliage to complement its pink flowers, such as ‘Wine and Roses’ or ‘Midnight Wine.’ For variegated cream and green leaves, look for ‘My Monet.’ There are many sizes to choose from, making it a good fit for any sunny garden.
As you can see, the colors range from pale pink and dusty rose to fushia and magenta. Have fun painting your garden with broad strokes and highlights of pink!