11 Easy Plants for Every Garden – And a Few to Avoid

This list of easy plants for your garden focuses on the ones that actually grow well, need less attention, and keep your garden looking good without constant effort. Just as important, it also highlights a few popular plants you may want to skip because they spread aggressively or struggle to thrive. These reliable picks help you spend less time fixing problems and more time enjoying what you’ve grown.

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Do you need plant recommendations for your garden that are actually real? Not just some list that’s been reworked from a magazine or garden website, but a tried-and-true list of easy plants to grow in your garden that you can trust are the lowest maintenance, longest living, and provide a long bloom or garden structure?

I thought so – me, too! So I took a long, hard look at our cottage garden, updated for our farmhouse garden, and am sharing the list I came up with based on what I think is the ultimate plant criteria:

What would I always plant again – and what would I avoid?

Of course, under that are a few other must-have criteria like:

• Easy care (does it need a lot of cutting back, spraying, training, does it become weedy, etc.)
• Long bloom time or seasonal interest
• Beauty (even after blooming)
• Lives a long time (so there are no annuals on this list)

I came up with eleven bulbs, shrubs, and perennials that fit almost all of these requirements for a list of the best plants I’d always try to have in my garden beds.

Another thing I think you’ll appreciate about this list is that these 11 perennials and shrubs provide all-season interest. Meaning, if you planted only the plants on this list, your garden would have something blooming from February through October (maybe even November in milder climates) and even have some evergreens to provide winter interest!

This is different from my previous favorite easy plant lists (my favorite six blooming plants for garden beds and no-fail perennials that I compared with my experience to a generic BHG article), and time has sharpened my view of good-vs-bad plants, which is why I’m also adding a few plants to the end of this list that I will NEVER plant again. Live and learn, right?

Let’s start with the best plants – but don’t forget to scroll all the way to the plants to avoid (updated with more questionable plants from the comments!).

11 Easy Plants for Every Garden

Listed in order of bloom time in my Pacific Northwest garden, zone 8b:

1. Spring Bulbs: Daffodils (February-March), Grape Hyacinth* (March-April), and Tulips (April-May)

I will never have a garden, even the smallest bed, that doesn’t include these bulbs. The only- and I mean only- hard part of planting bulbs is to remember to plant them in the fall. They are truly one of the only “plant and forget it” flower, coming back every year (well, some varieties of tulips don’t, but you don’t have to plant those…) with no further care other than cutting back the leaves after they’ve turned brown.

New Garden Update: Since moving to the farmhouse, I’ve learned that tulips are like catnip to deer, so I can’t grow them except in the fenced vegetable garden. They sometimes eat the grape hyacinth, too, but I still keep growing those. They will not bother daffodils, so I have a LOT and I have discovered that they will not bother Japanese iris which bloom about the time of early tulips so these bulbs have taken their place.

Best Varieties: Any daffodils and grape hyacinths, but for reliable yearly tulip blooms look for Darwin Hybrid Tulips. They are larger and come in a lot of colors (the pink tulip above is a Darwin) and never have to be replanted – a true perennial tulip.

*NOTE: a reader let me know that in their area grape hyacinth are weeds that can be hard to get rid of – even in lawns. This has not been my experience in my zone 8b PNW garden, but you should ask around in your area to be sure.

2. Bunnera or False Forget-Me-Not  (March-May)

This pick is no surprise to those who’ve read my gardening content – I like to champion this little workhorse plant since it is so pretty, both when it’s blooming and when it’s not since it’s almost evergreen in our garden.

The most wonderful thing about this, though, is that it grows happily in dry shade, one of the hardest-to-grow areas of any garden. It does need supplemental water in the driest months, but that’s it for maintenance, basically.

Best Variety: ‘Jack Frost’ Brunnera, pictured above has glowing variegated leaves – and most importantly, doesn’t reseed everywhere like the common green brunnera does.

3. Hardy Geranium (April and even into fall, depending on variety)

There are so many varieties of this popular hardy geraniums, a perennial in shades from white all the way to deep purple, blooming a month to all summer long, that you’ll easily find in garden centers. I’ve grown a couple varieties and they are a pretty perfect low-growing plant.

Farmhouse update: Sadly I’ve found our deer love these as well, so I can’t grow them in open beds at the farmhouse.

Best Varieties (highly subjective, as most are great!): purple ‘Rozanne’ (June-Sept.), white-pale pink ‘Kashmir White’ (May-July), and pink ‘Tiny Monster’ (pictured above April-July, with sporadic blooms after shearing into October). Note on ‘Tiny Monster’- it really does get huge, so the price for the longer bloom is that there’s more maintenance to keep it in check with shearing – I actually would use a hedge trimmer for this plant!

4. Daylilies (1-2 months bloom, most May-June, some all summer)

I’ve grown a lot of daylilies over the years and my favorites are the pinkish varieties like I show here, just because they’re different from the normal orange or yellow.

I do, however have the small Stella d’Oro yellow daylilies, since they bloom all summer long and the grass-like leaves just look great in a bed with other plants. I’ve had to deadhead and pull off brown leaves, but that’s about it for maintenance – and when they’re blooming, they’re stunning.

The deer love these blossoms, so I’m now growing them in the fenced garden.

Best Varieties: Stella d’Oro (May-Sept), Pink variety like this one (late May-July)

5. Spirea Japonica (shrub pictured blooms June-August)

There are quite a few spirea shrubs, many of which bloom in spring like Bridal Wreath (which I’ve grown as well but it needs a lot of space), but I’ve loved the pink blooming shrub pictured above the most. It’s about 4′ tall and wide, it blooms June-July and then will bloom again if sheared back. And although they’re listed as full sun, I have 4 that are in partial to almost full shade and still bloom. Love. (And they’re mostly deer resistant! The deer snack on them here and there but I get a lot of blooms from them.)

Best Varieties: Unfortunately, I can’t find the name of the spirea pictured above, but there are a lot of similar varieties like ‘Little Princess‘ (3 ft. tall) and red ‘Double Play Doozie‘ as well as ‘Limemound‘ with pink blooms and yellowish leaves.

6. Hydrangeas (June until frost)

Hydrangeas hold a special place in my heart, as I know they do for many others. Blooms that start out blue, white, pink, and green will change colors as they age to purples and mauves. They provide so.much.beauty for so little little time investment.

As far as maintenance, you cut them back in the winter and that’s it other than basic soil improvement like papering & mulching. If you have no other blooming plant, this one will give you enough for cut flowers all summer long.

Farmhouse update: The deer in our area love these shrubs, so I have two growing in our fenced garden area to use as cut blooms.

Best Varieties: There are SO many wonderful varieties now! My favorites continue to be ‘Little Lime‘ (pictured above, front), ‘Pee-Gee‘ (pictured above in back, trained as a standard), and Endless Summer (the classic reblooming shrub with blue blossoms that mature to purple and green).

7. Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia (July-September)

Black-eyed Susans are so cheery and provide color at a typically dry and low-bloom time in the garden, July & August. I would always have a stand of them in any garden for that reason alone. They also spread nicely – not enough to overtake anything, but just enough to fill in borders, like in my garden above (pictured with roses, which I love but cannot really make it on a low-maintenance list, lol).

Farmhouse update: I do grow perennial black-eyed susan’s and while the deer occasionally eat the leaves in spring, they mostly leave them alone and don’t bother the flowers! I love the cheery yellow blooms when not much else is blooming.

Best Varieties: ‘Goldstrum‘ and ‘Indian Summer.’

8. Sedum Spectabile or Stonecrop (July [green buds] through October)

Not the cacti-type sedums, the perennial sedums like Autumn Joy are soft with fleshy leaves and long-blooming flower umbels that start out green and slowly change colors through pink to dark copper. They fill a great spot in the late summer-autumn garden and make good cut flowers, too.

Farmhouse update: I have read that deer will eat sedum “occasionally severely” which means in my garden now they will always eat it, lol. So I haven’t grown any of this wonderful long blooming plant.

Best Varieties: ‘Autumn Joy,’ or ‘Indian Chief‘

9. Perennial Aster (August-October)

Most people think of autumn flowers as mainly hot colors like orange, red and yellow. Asters, along with anemones, are fall blooming perennials that prove pastels look great in autumn, too. Asters are classic fall plants and come in a number of colors (including red), though the purple is my favorite, and I appreciate the texture from the needle-like foliage in a perennial border.

Best Varieties: ‘New England’ Aster, ‘Smooth Blue‘ (a light lavender)

10. Japanese Anemone (September to frost)

Japanese Anemones steal your heart with their happy blooms swaying in the fall breeze high above their leaves in the fall. Found mostly in pinks and whites, they make wonderful cut flowers.

In all honesty, though, anemones take a bit more maintenance than the others on this list, since they spread pretty rapidly and have to be pulled up consistently to keep in check. But I feel it’s totally worth it since their lovely blooms are not found anywhere else in the fall. I have discovered, though, that moist partially shaded areas are what they like most and in a full-sun border they grow more slowly.

Best Varieties: ‘Pink Saucer’ anemone (light pink), and ‘Honorine Jobert‘ anemone (white).

11. Dwarf Boxwood (year-around interest)

To provide a bit of winter interest when the perennials have died down and the shrubs are sticks, boxwood is my go-to evergreen. I have planted full-sized boxwoods in some places, but they do require regular shearing so they don’t look scraggly or take over an area. Dwarf boxwoods always look great so they are perfect for any size garden bed.

Bonus – the deer leave them alone!

Best Variety: True Dwarf English boxwood, ‘Green Gem,’ ‘Winter Gem‘

4 + Plants to Avoid

1. Lamb’s Ears

This is probably not popular since lamb’s ear are a really fun, soft plant that can edge a bed with a gray-green color that seems to go with everything, but they are SO invasive that I will never plant them again.

I’ve actually had them in my gardens for many years, trying to make them work because I just love the fuzzy leaves and glowing color. I even tried keeping the flower stalks cut down to help them look a bit neater. But I got tired of trying to keep them in check, and the hours it took to pull up roots and refresh them each spring. I’m just saying no to ever planting them ever again.

2. Astilbe

Astilbe is another plant that many may not agree with, but I cannot get these to grow nicely for me no matter where I try them. They were planted in a moist shade area shown above and got regular water during our dry July to September months and they still dried up to brown stubs by the end of July! With no blooms. Their finickiness is not worth it.

3. Quince

Oh, it’s sad for me to write this, because LOVE quince blossoms which are not only pretty, but bloom in February when I’m so ready for their sweet pink flowers.

But this shrub is horrible. It’s full of inch-long thorns that hurt, it suckers like mad – even into the grass and nearby plants – AND it grows out of control when planted where it’s happy. The shrub you see above? I had used a hedge trimmer on the previous summer and hacked it back (and got some nice scratches to go along with it) to a nice 4′ x 4′ size that I thought would last awhile. Um, obviously no.

4. Forget-Me-Not

“But they’re so sweet – look at those little periwinkle blooms!” Just don’t do it, no matter how quaint and old-fashioned they seem. They start out small and sweet and soon take over your garden – and any other garden space their clingy little seeds can find. I’m trying to forget them.

More plants to avoid from reader’s comments (or at least be aware of)

• Rose Campion (In my garden, this would reseed gently and I liked replanting it where I wanted it, but I know in some it can be out of control.)
• Wild Violet (Agree! Here’s my warning about violets.)
• St. John’s Wort
• Lily of The Valley
• Plumbago
• Some types of Euphorbia

What are your thoughts on this list? I hope you’ll chime in with your favorites and those you won’t plant again, too in the comments!

This article has been updated, it was originally published in May of 2016.

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