Maintaining a pristine outdoor space means doing a lot of spring and summer weeding, watering, fertilizing, and pruning. Thankfully, it is possible to maintain a stunning landscape while reducing your gardening load, just plant easy to grow perennials, trees, and shrubs that flourish with minimal effort on your part.

Perennial plants help create a worry-free landscape, allowing you to enjoy your garden space more by spending less time tending the garden. In today's post, we are listing down some of our favorite landscape shrubs, trees, and perennials that are a cinch to grow:

Canna Lily

Canna lily is known for its vividly hued blossoms, its deep green, glossy foliage, and its resilient nature. It's a lovely plant to decorate your outdoor landscape with because it adds energy, excitement, and a pop of color to your outdoor space. Ideally, canna lily should be planted early in the spring season, just as the threat of frost has passed.

Once established and matured, this plant will yield beautiful blossoms that'll define your landscape. Canna lily is best planted in moist soil. It's a relatively thirsty plant although it’s surprisingly drought resistant too. Water only as needed to keep its flowers blooming and its foliage glossy and beautiful. Canna lily will thrive in a pot that gets the full sun as well as partially shady areas of the garden.

Coneflower

If you are looking for a fabulous landscape plant that would thrive in poor soil, look no further: the coneflower makes the perfect accent plant in any garden because of its resilience. This flowering plant is known for its striking purple flowers that attract friendly garden insects, particularly pollinators and birds. Also, coneflower helps repel deer and other nibbling critters.

Coneflower's blooms remain robust and colorful from summer to fall season so longevity is not an issue. It will thrive in a variety of growing conditions and it suits any type of outdoor setting. This North American perennial does not require much watering and it grows like weeds when the growing conditions are right.

Wild Lilac

Wild lilac, also known as Texas Ranger or Heavenly Cloud, is a type of evergreen shrub that features dense, gray-green foliage and beautiful lavender, magenta, or deep purple blossoms. Wild lilac makes the perfect accent for your outdoor space because of its striking, thick blooms that add splashes of color to the garden, particularly in pathways and walkways.

Wild Lilac is a repeat bloomer; it will yield purple blooms that will last for several weeks. It’s so low maintenance too! This purple flowering shrub only requires the full sun and regular watering during the summer season. Wild lilac is drought resistant so it will thrive even in the driest growing environments.

Candy Oh! Rose

Roses aren't exactly known for being low maintenance but this particular variety doesn't require much coddling unlike other rose varieties. Candy Oh! rose bush goes by many names, including Vivid Red and OSO Happy. It’s a great rose variety to grow if you want to add pops of colors to your landscape.

This deciduous flowering shrub is a type of hybrid plant that's grown specifically as a "landscape rose." It produces clusters of bright red or hot pink flowers that stay blooming throughout the summer season and into fall. Candy Oh! is not as fragrant as some rose varieties but it's incredibly low maintenance. It doesn't grow too big, although it will require regular pruning to maintain its shape. It's worth noting that Candy Oh! Rose is disease and deer resistant!

Gold Mound Spirea

If you are looking for a bushy plant that adds a nice color to your outdoor space, consider adding gold mound spirea to your landscape. This eye-catching shrub is known for its fabulous foliage and light pink blooms. Most spirea varieties (and there are many!) are easy to grow.

This particular variety will wrap your landscape in a blanket of dainty, frothy blooms, almost acting as a hedge thanks to its dense foliage. Caring for gold mound spirea is a breeze; it requires the full sun, good drainage, and well-draining soil. Don’t worry if your landscape has lots of shady spots, gold mound spirea could also tolerate shady growing environments.

Creeping Thyme

If you are the kind of gardener who has little time maintaining your outdoor space then creeping thyme should be on top of your list of must-have plants to grow. This plant could work as an accent plant or a groundcover. It is often used as a lawn substitute for pavers or stepping-stones. When used as a landscape plant, creeping thyme will spread and cover a large expanse of space with tiny flowers. The best part? It attracts a variety of garden-friendly critters including bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Creeping thyme is so easy to grow. It is incredibly drought resistant so there is no need to water it every day. It is also extremely hardy so it will thrive in poor growing conditions. This plant is also edible and is often used as an aromatic herb.  

Beauty Berry

Beauty Berry is a type of shrub that produces pretty pink or white blossoms all summer season long. This statement-making plant is easily recognizable for yielding bright purple berries during the fall season, hence its name Beauty Berry. Beauty Berry often works as an accent or backdrop to a garden during the summer season. At the end of the summer season, it produces an explosion of purple, which adds a lovely contrast to any outdoor space setting.

Caring for Beauty Berry is almost effortless. It loves well-drained soils but it can tolerate clay soils too. Beautyberries do not require fertilization to promote better foliage growth. In fact, adding too much fertilizer could lead to reduced foliage and fruit growth. The berries that the plant produces are effective in attracting a variety of birds!

Hosta

Want to add texture to your outdoor setting? You cannot go wrong with hosta. This low maintenance plant is a type of leafy perennial that could work as a ground cover or as a backdrop to the garden. The leaves are quite striking thanks to their stunning green-gold hue.

Occasionally, hosta will yield small blossoms although the flowers are not the showiest. However, the flowers emit a lovely scent similar to gardenia or jasmine! Hosta is drought-resistant but keep the moisture in the soil constant for the plant to thrive. This plant loves well-draining soil and it can handle the full sun and/or shady environments. We recommend growing hostas if your garden is prone to soil erosion.

Meadow Sage

Want to attract garden-friendly insects and birds to your garden? Salvia, aka Meadow Sage, is a perennial plant that comes in a wide array of colors. This plant comes in many varieties so some could grow fast while others are tall or slow growing! You are never out of options when it comes to the kind of Meadow Sage to grow!

Salvias are best known for producing nectar that attracts pollinators of all kinds including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. When it comes to caring for salvias, this plant is as hardy as they come. Once established, salvias could tolerate harsh weather conditions, especially if the soil is well draining. This plant loves the full sun otherwise, the blossoms could turn floppy.

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