9 Tall Plants With Red Flowers for a Vibrant Pop of Color - Plant America (2024)

Tall plants with red flowers grow to brighten any space once you’ve set up the right conditions. Plants such as cardinal flowers, bee balm flowers and Texas sage are top choices.

Our gardening experts researched on your behalf and came up with 9 unique plants with bright red flowers that you can grow.

A List of Tall Plants With Red Blooms That Will Impress Anyone

1. Cardinal Flower

Known for its bright bloody red flowers, the cardinal flower grows from a clump-shaped perennial with lance-shaped leaves.

– Growing Season

In late summer, the plant grows tall stalks that carry scarlet red flowers. However, some cultivars have pink and white flowers, but these are less common. This is a fast-growing plant that matures in its first year. Despite being a short-lived plant, this species self-seeds easily.

– Growth Requirements

This plant loves rich, moist, or even wet soil and can tolerate some shade, especially in hotter climates.

In addition, it’s pretty hardy and resistant to most pests and diseases.

– Toxicity

The Lobelia cardinalis plant contains seriously toxic alkaloids, so it’s highly poisonous to pets and humans.

– Climate

It’s naturally found in wet areas, so it can survive seasonal flooding, which other plants won’t tolerate. Allowing this plant to self-seed will guarantee its prolonged existence in your garden. It won’t grow in arid climates, as it needs relatively high humidity levels to survive.

2. Bee Balm

This plant is characterized by its vibrant red blooms, but the flowers can also be hot pink, white, or purple, depending on the cultivar. When it comes to red flowering plants, perennials such as the bee balm are quite popular.

– Types

Also known as wild bergamot, this plant comes in two types, standard and dwarf. The standard variety can be four feet tall, which means it’s a good choice for a hedge or border.

– Growth Requirements

Plants that grow in too much shade can become leggy, although some shade from the afternoon sun is needed, especially in hotter climates.

This plant thrives in well-draining, nutrient-rich soil and requires regular watering. This plant can be planted in fall or spring and survive in various climates.

– Pollination

The plant is an exciting choice for your pollinator garden because the nectar-rich flowers attract bees and butterflies. Even after the flowers fade, the plant develops bright berries that attract birds. It grows quickly, and the foliage can be used for culinary and medicinal purposes.

3. Red Hot Poker

This herbaceous perennial is prized for its astonishing flowers. Most plants can stand at four feet tall, thanks to their long flower stalks, but some hybrids are shorter.

– Characteristics

This plant is also known as the African flame flower or torch lily, although it isn’t a true lily. The flowers are usually red but can also be yellow or orange. Their elongated shape makes them a good match for round flowers like the Gerbera daisy.

– Benefits

This plant is a good choice for your butterfly gardens, attracting different pollinators, but it’s resistant to deer. This is why it can be a good choice for your hedge or border.

The perennial flowers start fading from the bottom up, and deadheading will encourage more blooming.

– Care Requirements

This tough perennial thrives in well-draining soil and blooms better when exposed to enough sunlight. However, you need to make sure that it doesn’t receive too much water, especially in winter, as this plant is prone to root rot. In colder climates, you should winterize this plant by covering the crowns with mulch to protect them. Without proper care, this plant can become invasive in your garden. Also, you should deadhead the red hot poker plant as soon as possible.

4. Coral Bells

There are actually hundreds of varieties of this plant, with new hybrids introduced each year to make your garden more vibrant.

– Characteristics

It grows from a woody crown that carries tall stems. The tiny bell-shaped red blooms are rich in nectar and appear in early spring to attract pollinators to your butterfly garden. Some varieties can also be planted in spring to bloom in late summer.

– Planting Options

These attractive flowers are a popular choice for cut flower arrangements. Some varieties have gold, lime green, purple, rose, or even red foliage, so they’ll be an attractive addition to your garden throughout the year.

You can grow this versatile plant in your rock garden or woodland garden. It can also grow as a container plant, a border plant, or a ground cover.

– Growing Conditions

This plant needs more water when grown in full sun, as it’s best grown in partial shade. Yet, too much shade can make this plant prone to fungal diseases. It’s pretty easy to grow as long as the soil is rich in nutrients and well-draining. Cutting the flowers will allow the plant to focus its energy on producing attractive colorful foliage.

5. Texas Sage

Also known as scarlet sage and blood sage, this plant grows to be about 3 feet tall in warmer climates.

– Characteristics

It’s native to the US and is an excellent choice for your pollinator garden, as the bright blooms attract bees and butterflies. Texas sage is a good choice for a beginner gardener because it’s easy to care for and maintain.

– Flowering Season

Just like most Sage plants, Texas sage can survive in less-than-ideal conditions, giving you excellent value for money with too little care.

The flowers stay in bloom from summer to fall and thrive even in shade gardens where bright flowers are likely to fade.

– Care Requirements

This plant survives in any soil type except wet boggy soil. Unlike most flowering herbs, it can also tolerate all light conditions, including shade. This is why it’s common in many landscape designs, as you can literally grow it anywhere in your garden. It needs moderate watering and can withstand periods of drought.

6. Blanket Flower

Gaillardia is a showy yet short-lived perennial flowering plant with daisy-like blooms. This plant gets its famous name from its tendency to quickly cover an area, forming a colorful blanket.

– Characteristics

The flowers are usually red with dark centers, but some varieties are yellow, orange, or peach, with faded colors towards the ends of petals.

– Growth Requirements

It repeatedly blooms during the warm season and can survive in various types of soil, especially poor soil. This plant pairs well with other heat and sun-loving plants, as the shade can affect flowering and make the plant floppy.

It requires deep watering, especially during the first growth stage. The flowers are perfect for cut flower arrangements.

– Toxicity

This plant is slightly toxic to humans, so you want to ensure that your kids won’t be able to come near it if you grow it as a hedge or border plant.

– Propagation and Diseases

Since most varieties are hybrids, you should expect some variation from the parent plant when it self-seeds. This plant is prone to aster yellows disease, which causes the blooms to turn green.

7. Bleeding Heart

This plant is named after its heart-shaped red-pink flowers that bloom in spring. The blooms dangle from arched stems, each containing a white drop-like petal.

– Growing Season

Unfortunately, this plant doesn’t withstand high temperatures, so it disappears throughout summer, reappearing one more time when the temperature drops in fall or spring.

– Growth Requirements

You can grow this plant in partial shade, but it can tolerate full sun in colder climates. Yet, too much sun will cut its blooming period.

The plant doesn’t tolerate soggy soil, but you shouldn’t allow the roots to dry out, even during summer. It thrives in well-draining soil with lots of organic matter.

– Special Features

Every plant will grow about twenty blooms on a single stem, but these flowers are extremely delicate and need protection from strong winds. As a result, this plant won’t work as a screen or hedge. However, it’s an excellent choice for your cottage garden and woodland garden and is pretty easy to take care of once established.

8. Red Alert

This Calla lily variety is characterized by its gorgeously beautiful red petals and deep green foliage. These plants come in various varieties, with pink, orange, yellow, maroon, burgundy, and even black flowers.

– Growing Season

They should be planted in spring and usually grow fast, blooming in mid-summer. However, most varieties stay in bloom until fall. These plants grow as annuals in colder climates and indoors as houseplants.

– Growth Requirements

However, they thrive in warm environments where they can receive a lot of sun exposure and should grow in well-draining, moist soil.

You should water them more than once a week if you live in a hot climate.

– Special Care

Despite their name, these plants aren’t true lilies. They’re easy to care for and grow from rhizomes. Unfortunately, they can quickly get out of control and become invasive in your garden if you’re not paying attention. Too much moisture in the soil can lead to root rot, so you should allow the soil to dry out. These plants are toxic to humans and pets.

9. Hardy Hibiscus

Known for their show-stopping flowers, these Hibiscus plants can easily grow in USDA zones 4 to 9 when planted after the last frost.

– Features

By summer, they will fill your garden with magenta-red dinner plate-sized flowers that can also come in shades of pink, white, and blue. The flowers have tissue-thin ruffled petals, and some varieties have dark centers.

– Climate and Light Requirements

Despite having tropical-like blooms, this plant is cold-hardy. The stems die in winter but emerge again in spring.

This plant needs at least six hours of full sun for better blooming, but partial shade is recommended if you live in a hot climate.

– Characteristics

Although the flowers last for one day, this plant continues to flower throughout the whole season. It matures fast and can tolerate temperatures that other red flowering plants won’t withstand. After the flowers fade, the woody shrubs still represent a point of attraction in your garden. The plant can also grow as a potted indoor plant.