Perennial plants are the foundation of a garden, returning year after year to fill your landscape with a mixture of beautiful flowers and foliage. Aim to include plants that flower at different times so that there is always something of interest. If you’re looking for proven performers, try these ten plants which are reliable, low-maintenance perennials that are easy to find at greenhouses and garden centres.
1) Purple Coneflower
Purple cornflowers are native plants with large daisy-shaped flowers that are produced from mid to late summer. The petals are pinkish-purple and surround a large orange centre cone. Coneflowers are also popular with the pollinators, attracting bees and butterflies to the garden; If the seedheads are left in place during winter, songbirds will eat the seeds. While the traditional purple coneflower is an exceptional garden plant, don’t be shy about trying introductions like ‘PowWow Wild Berry’, an All-America Selections Winner that grows only about 20-inches tall but is a heavy bloomer with magenta-pink flowers.
2) Perennial Geranium ‘Rozanne’
There are a lot of reasons to love perennial geraniums. Not only are they insect and disease resistant, but they’re also long-blooming, drought tolerant, and easy to grow. ‘Rozanne’ is my favourite cultivar with foliage that forms attractive mounds and bright purple-violet flowers that last for months, not just weeks.
3) Daylily
Daylilies are the carefree bloomers of the summer garden with large, trumpet-shaped flowers in a wide range of colours. When selecting daylilies for your garden, choose a mixture of early, mid-season, and late-bloomers for the longest show of colour. They are quick to establish and thrive in a sunny or partly shaded garden.
4) Catmint
Catmint is my go-to perennial for sunny gardens. I love the grey-green leaves and long-lasting purple flowers which attract bees, butterflies, and moths. Once the first flush of blooms has faded in early summer, you can cut the plants back to promote fresh growth and another heavy bloom from mid to late summer. There are many outstanding varieties of Catmint, but I’m partial to ‘Walker’s Low’ and ‘Dropmore Hybrid’ which make eye-catching border plants.
5) Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
Many perennials offer spring or summer colour, but don’t forget to plan for autumn bloom too. Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is a border type of sedum that grows 18 to 24 inches tall and forms dense clumps of succulent stems which are topped with large pink flat-topped flowers for 6 weeks each September. Bonus: the bees and butterflies adore the nectar-rich flowers and the seedheads can be left in the garden for winter interest.
6) Yarrow
I first planted yarrow because I heard it was deer-resistant (it is!), but soon realized that it’s also drought, insect, and disease-resistant, extremely hardy, and excellent for attracting bees and butterflies. Yellow-flowering cultivars of yarrow are common, but it’s also available with blooms in white, pink, red, and even peach. Make sure to cut back spent flowers to encourage a new flush of blossoms.
7) Black-eyed Susans
Hardy, beautiful, and long-flowering, Black-eyed Susans are no-fuss native perennials for the late summer garden. There are a lot of different cultivars to grow with some being extremely compact and others growing over six-feet tall! ‘Goldstrum’ is perhaps the widest grown variety and has orange-gold petals surrounding deep chocolate centers. Personally, I prefer some of the more unique Black-eyed Susans like Rudbeckia triloba, ‘Little Henry’, and ‘Hortensia’, which are all hardy plants with unique flowers.
8) Hosta
A foundation of the shade garden, Hostas are beloved for their mounding forms and often variegated leaves. There are hundreds of varieties available with varying foliage colours which include all shades of green, as well as gold, white, and bluish-green. I love some of the unique forms like ‘Pineapple Upsidedown Cake’ which has green and gold leaves with an upright, ruffly form, and ‘Curly Fries’, an unusual Hosta that has narrow, wavy, lime green leaves.
9) Liatris
If you love cutting your own bouquets, you’ll want to make room for a clump of Liatris. From mid to late-summer, feathery purple flower spikes emerge from clumps of grassy foliage to the delight of gardeners and butterflies. This mid-sized perennial grows just 18 to 24 inches tall and is unattractive to pests like deer and rabbits. There is also a white variety of this native perennial that pairs well with the purple.
10) Salvia ‘May Night’
Purple is one of the most popular colours in the perennial garden and the deep violet flower spikes of Salvia ‘May Night’ add a pop of purple to the early summer garden. Salvias are known for their drought tolerance, long season of bloom and ease of cultivation.
