It never fails. Every year, I tell myself that next year I am going to add flowers that will provide color in the garden from late summer into the fall. Every year, I forget to do it, so we have lovely spring through early to mid-summer color that begins to fade in August. The Echinacea and Rudbeckia continue to bloom, of course, and the gaura are pretty as they wave in the breeze, but the garden looks too green when it should be a riot of summer reds and yellows, tempered by cool blues and purples. Right now, the only blue flowers blooming are Russian sage (Salvia yangii, formerly Perovskia atriplicifolia) and my Old Faithful, any one of a variety of catmint hybrids (Nepeta x faassenii). Both species are looking ragged and shopworn in the unceasing heat. Next year will be different. I have been looking through gardening books and searching online. I prefer native plants and old-fashioned perennials and tend to use them almost exclusively in the garden. Once established, a perennial pl...