10 Tall Plants
for an Interesting Landscape
Popular for their tropical vibe, canna hybrids virtually vibrate with color thanks to their bright blooms and often striped or variegated leaves.
Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
Though their 3-inch purple blooms are smaller than those of artichokes, cardoons actually can grow taller (about 8 feet) than artichokes do, with rosettes of showy, spiny leaves.
Given lots of sun and rich soil, the castor oil plant can shoot up to 15 feet tall over the course of one summer, and grow lobed leaves 3 feet across.
Although rudbeckias usually don’t attain exceptional heights, lacinata cultivars such as the perennial double-flowered Hortensia, or Golden Glow, can reach heights of 10 feet.
Delphinium (Delphinium elatum strains)
When planted in rich soil in cool-summer climes, they can grow up to 8 feet tall. Delphiniums aren’t as picky about light and thrive in both sun and partial shade.
With stalks of beauty-spotted flowers shaped as if to cup fingertips, these biennials can grow to 6 feet and add svelte glamour to a well-drained shade garden.
Growing up to 8 feet tall with flowers the size of dinner plates, perennial hibiscuses aren’t wallflowers or shrinking violets.
Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
These charming old-fashioned biennial cousins to hibiscus can reach 9 feet in height in USDA zones 4 through 10, stacking 3 to 6-inch single or double flowers into towers of blooms.
Cylindrical spikes composed of tubular flowers, this plant’s pokers look as if they have been thrust into smoldering embers. They “poke” up from grassy foliage, with some species reaching a height of 6 feet.
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Like castor bean plants, the tallest sunflower cultivars are capable of growing to 15 feet in one summer with flowerheads that are up to 1 foot across.