31 Best Low-Maintenance Perennial Flowers for Your Garden
These long-living plants make your landscape look good for years!
A garden flourishes when it has both annual flowers and perennial flowers. Annuals give you a chance to grow plants outside your hardiness zone, to experiment with different plants, and to put in some fast-growing surefire blooms.
But no garden is complete without a combination of shade-loving and sun-loving perennials. Perennials are like the backbone of a well-plotted landscape, creating continuity and marking the changing seasons from year to year with their growth and development.
Related: The Exact Difference Between Annual and Perennial Plants
If your idea of perennial plants is limited to high-maintenance hedges and monotone grasses or ground cover, then we hope this list will inspire you to think otherwise. While perennials don’t always have the bright, showy flowers that annuals boast, there are plenty with lovely vibrant flowers, and plenty of others that offer colors and visual interest in their leaves.
One thing to keep in mind: Perennials can be slow to take off. They usually start to kick into high gear by the third year in the ground, but if you’re worried about a spot looking patchy, you’ll want to plant enough that they don’t have to spread over-far to fill in a spot.
You’ll also want to make sure you read the plant tags and descriptions. Choose plants that will survive winters in your USDA Hardiness Zone. (Find your zone here. Note: The hardiness zones were updated, so be aware your zone may have changed.)
One easy way to do this is to look for varieties that are being sold at your local plant nursery or store. Buying local, from a trustworthy source, generally helps ensure the plants you get will do well in your area.
Finally, make sure to plant your perennial flowers and plants so that they get the right amount of sunlight. Full sun means 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day, while part sun is about half that. Shade means no direct sunlight, or only a little mild morning sunshine.
Hostas
There are good reasons you tend to see these unassuming plants poking up in practically every garden or landscape: They love shade and will happily fill in around a tree or along a fence or wall.
They have lovely variegated leaves, and it’s not difficult to find a variety that’ll grow in most hardiness zones. Plus, they’re pretty unfussy.
The biggest problem is with deer—if you have regular visits from Bambi, they’ll head straight for these plants. But we have some ideas for what to do in our guide!
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9
Get the Guide: How to Keep Hosta Plants Thriving
Hydrangea
For stunningly beautiful flowers that come back year after year, it's hard to beat a lovely hydrangea! These long-blooming plants are incredibly popular and for good reason. They do take some care—specifically deadheading each season, but the small amount of work is well worth it. If you’ve got a sunny spot in your yard that’s just asking for some color, get yourself a plant and reap the rewards.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9
Get the Guide: How to Care for a Hydrangea
Perennial Geranium (Geranium bohemicum)
Perennial geraniums have a spicy scent that keeps deer and rabbits at bay. These low-growing beauties bloom in late spring to early summer. They spread rapidly and do best in part sun.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9
Learn More: 38 Dear-Resistant Plants
Helenium
This is also known by the fun name “sneezeweed,” not because it causes hay fever, but because people used to make the dried petals into snuff.
This pretty orange-flowered perennial is a bright addition to mixed borders. Give it full sun for summer blooms. Pollinators love it!
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 8
Coreopsis
These cheerful blooms float above their grass foliage. It’s a reliable full-sun performer, attracting tons of butterflies and bees.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 10
Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)
Bright blue, pink or white flowers—shaped like balloons before they bloom—are a must-have in the perennial garden.
They prefer full sun but tolerate a little shade.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 8
Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum)
Got shade?
These colorful ferns are no-muss, no-fuss plants. Deer and rabbits also leave them alone!
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Keep Reading: How to Keep Porch Ferns Green and Lush All Season
Aster
Asters are a great native collection of different species. Pollinators such as bees and butterflies rely on them for late-season food. They come in various shades of purple and pink and are long-lived perennials, thriving for a decade or more in full sun.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 8
Related: How to Design a Pollinator Garden That Actually Works
Astilbe
This underrated perennial should be part of any shade garden. The feathery plumes come in many different colors, from pink to white to hot pink.
Butterflies love it!
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile)
Yes, you can make tea from these dried flowers! (You can also make a pretty tasty cocktail.)
Make sure to plant sun-loving Roman chamomile, a low-growing perennial, and not the annual, called German chamomile.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Related: How to Grow Chamomile In Your Garden
Chrysanthemum
Nothing says fall like sun-loving mums! They’re perennial if you get them in the ground early in the season (spring through mid-summer) so that their roots can get established.
If you plant them too late in fall, they may not have enough time to get settled before winter, but you can treat them as annuals.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Salvia
These gorgeous blooms do best at the back of your border in full sun.
They’re drought tolerant once established and bloom mid to late summer for several weeks. Also, deer tend to leave these plants alone.
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 10
Keep Reading: 20 Drought-Resistant Plants
Hellebore (Helleborus orientalis)
Your garden doesn’t have to be colorless all winter long! Plant these exquisite shade lovers, which are also known as Lenten roses because they typically bloom around Lent in mid to late winter.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Columbine
Columbines come in an array of colors and delightful forms. They bloom in spring and provide early season food for pollinators, such as hummingbirds.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 8
Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum)
How can you not smile when you see these cheerful plants? Shasta daisies are tough perennials that are drought tolerant once established.
Give them full sun, and you’ll enjoy their happy blooms for years.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 9
Related: How to Grow Daisies
Masterwort (Astrantia spp)
This cottage garden favorite deserves a space in your garden! Its beautiful flowers bloom for a long time from early summer to early fall. Pollinators adore it, and the flowers are lovely in a cutting garden or dried.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 7
Thrift (Armeria spp)
The grassy foliage of this plant is attractive all season long, but the tiny ball-shaped flowers that pop up in late spring and early summer are the reason to plant this adorable perennial.
Thrift takes full sun in cooler climates but will tolerate part shade in warmer regions.
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 8
Coneflower (Echinacea spp)
Coneflowers come in a staggering array of colors, ranging from pink to salmon to orange and everything in between.
They prefer full sun and range in height from 12 to 36 inches tall, so read the tag so you plant them accordingly in your mixed border.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 8
Iris
With more than 70,000 named varieties, you’ll find an iris that will look smashing in your garden!
Give them full sun and they’ll be happy. Divide them to make new plants when they get overcrowded in a few years (you’ll know it’s time because they will stop blooming as profusely).
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 9
Amsonia
Amsonia is a lesser-known perennial, but it’s definitely worth planting in your garden.
Masses of star-shaped blue flowers appear in late spring to early summer.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9
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