Are you a gardening enthusiast who loves the beauty of plants and flowers but, somehow, dreads their upkeep? Say hello to low-maintenance perennials—your new best friends in the garden! These hardy plants return year after year with minimal effort. They are, therefore, perfect for the laid-back or time-strapped gardener. Whether one is a beginner or an expert gardener, one needs some plants and flowers that make their gardening chores easier.
No matter how much you love being out in the garden, it is nice to not spend all your time on tasks like deadheading, staking, and dividing. Growing even just a few low-maintenance perennials will help cut back on the work you do. Simply put, these are some of the easiest, most resilient perennials that will keep your garden vibrant without demanding constant attention.
Add Beauty to Your Garden Hassle-Free
Even if the gardening tasks are enjoyable, odds are you don’t want a garden full of prima donnas that require constant care to perform well. No matter how much you like to fiddle with your plants, it is, sometimes, good to have at least a few in your beds and borders that are nearly self-sufficient. Beautiful and reliable plants don't have to be a gamble. These low-maintenance perennials will save you money on watering while adding beauty to your garden.
1. Yarrow
Yarrow—botanically known as Achillea millefolium—grows to be a couple of feet tall with fern-like foliage. The summer blooms (June to September) can be white, yellow, pink, and red. Yarrow is tolerant to drought, so you’ll have gorgeous flowers even during dry summers (or when you’ve forgotten to water). However, they do have a tendency to flop in windy conditions or when planted in shady locations, and wet soils can cause the yarrow to develop various root rots and leaf spots. The right location is key to a carefree yarrow plant.
2. Sedum
You rarely have to worry about whether this low maintenance will come back each year. One of the most reliable growers around, it offers delightful color well into fall. The star-shaped blooms are a treat for butterflies, and fall-blooming varieties offer fuel to monarchs and other late fliers on their journey south. It’s one of the first low-maintenance perennials to emerge in spring, and then it offers interesting foliage until it begins blooming from late summer through the end of fall.
3. Turtlehead (Chelone)
Unlike other perennials, turtlehead, or Chelone, doesn’t need to be divided frequently in order to keep blooming. Plant a small clump and let it slowly spread to form a colony. If this perennial runs too far, just use a spade to dig out the edges. Keep the soil around the turtlehead moist. This is a good perennial for a rain garden or low spot where water collects.
4. Agastache
This drought-tolerant perennial often gets forgotten, but it’s the perfect addition to any wildlife habitat, with flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies all summer long. Late in the season, the seed heads provide food for birds. You can choose just about any flower color you want, with cultivars offering orange, pink, red, purple, and blue blooms.
5. Astilbe
These late spring to early summer blooms feature muted pinks and reds. Growing from 1 to 4 feet tall, astilbes are a good fit in a shady space. Add them for delicate blooms and beautiful colors with little to no maintenance required. Traditionally a shade plant, newer astilbe hybrids will now tolerate more sun.
6. Coreopsis
Though this bloom is also an easy annual to grow from seed, make sure you pick up the perennial version too. It loves the sun and thrives in dry conditions, so to keep it happy, plant it in a sunny spot, and water it until it is established. New varieties offer pretty alternatives to the traditional yellow blooms, and the orange, pink, and bright red varieties add a color twist to this favorite. This hardy perennial can easily brighten up your garden with very little effort.
8. Canadian Wild Ginger (Asarum Canadense)
The wild ginger plant, or Asarum canadense, grows at higher altitudes and stays green. They grow from six to ten inches tall. This low plant makes a dense ground cover for moist, shaded spots. It’ll even tolerate clay, or periodic standing water, such as in a rain garden. Plant small clumps a foot or so apart. In a few years, it’ll grow together into a mass so thick weeds won’t be able to come up through it. Each plant has just two satiny, heart-shaped leaves.
9. False Indigo (Baptisia)
Another great flower among the low-maintenance perennials is False Indigo, also known as Baptisia. For a refined flower with the look and maintenance level of a wildflower, use false indigo to fill spaces in the garden. Whites, yellows, blues, and purples on tall, 2- to 4-foot spikes bring lots of colors. Plant in full sun to light shade for early spring blooms.
10. Russian Sage (Salvia Yangii)
With its gray-green foliage and beautiful purple flowers, Russian sage, or Salvia yangii, is a favorite among the full-sun perennials available. These low-maintenance perennials are perfect in that they are deer-resistant and drought-tolerant, and what's more is that they attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It also requires absolutely no maintenance. It doesn’t need fertilizing, deadheading, or dividing.
11. Amsonia
You don’t like to stake your plants? Then, you’ll never have to support the stiff stems of Amsonia. In fact, it almost looks more like a small woody shrub than a perennial. Clusters of steel-blue flowers start opening in early June in most areas and continue for a month or more. For the rest of the summer, Amsonia is covered with attractive glossy green leaves that are rarely bothered by insects, diseases, or critters, such as deer or rabbits. By fall, the leaves begin to change to yellow. While a clump is slow to mature, this is one of the best perennials for fall color. It continues to get brighter gold until it’s stopped by several hard touches of frost. Just about the only maintenance you need to do is cut the spent stems down sometime before new ones sprout next spring.
Let These Beauties Do Their Own Heavy Lifting
For the gardeners who crave the beauty of flowers and nature around, without the required backache, low-maintenance perennials prove to be the ultimate bargain. They offer years of beauty in exchange for occasional attention. Flourishing even in neglect and with minimal coaxing, these resilient plants thrive where fussier varieties falter. And, their secret? Evolution fine-tuned them for survival, translating to less watering, fertilizing, and pruning for you.
Now think of a garden where 'lazy' is not a compromise but a strategy—where these self-sufficient plants reward even the most hands-off approach with seasonal beauty. Regardless of whether you are a time-strapped novice or a seasoned gardener seeking simplicity, these perennials often transform effort into enjoyment. So toss the guilt—and the extra fertilizer—and let nature’s toughest beauties do the heavy lifting. Your garden—and your inner couch potato nature—will definitely thank you later!
Feature image by @national_garden_bureau, header image by @littlegreenhouse_photography.
