10 Low-Maintenance Perennial Flowers to Add to Your Garden

By
Alexandra Jones
Alexandra Jones
Alexandra Jones
Alexandra Jones is an avid urban grower and Master Gardener writing about houseplants, gardening, and sustainability from her home in Philadelphia. She has 10 years of gardening experience and five years of professional writing expertise.
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Published on May 12, 2022
pink, orange, and purple flowers in the sun in an outdoor garden with trees in background

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If you love to garden, you know how fulfilling it can be to get your hands dirty—literally. But it can be hard to find the time to make your outdoor space picture-perfect. The solution? Plant hardy, easy-to-grow flowers that will give you gorgeous blooms year after year, no replanting required.

Meet the Expert

Alexandra Jones is a certified master gardener in Philadelphia. As an indoor and outdoor gardener, Jones is an author in topics like gardening, climate, urban farming, and sustainability.

Whether you're planning a container garden or landscaping your backyard, you can count on these beautiful blooms to add lots of color with minimal fuss. Here are some of our favorite low-maintenance perennial flowers to plant in containers or in your garden.

01 of 10

Purple Coneflower

closeup of pink coneflowers with orange centers in garden against green leaves

Nancybelle Gonzaga Villarroya/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Echinacea purpurea
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun
  • Soil Type: Well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 6.5 - 7.2

There's a lot to love about purple coneflower, also known as echinacea. This hardy flowering perennial is drought resistant and grows well in poor soils. In fact, if the soil is too fertile, you'll get more leaves than flowers, so plant this beauty where needier plants won't do well. Finally, it's beloved by pollinators like bees and butterflies.

02 of 10

Black-Eyed Susans

closeup of bright yellow flowers with dark brown centers with red stems and green leaves

dolah/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Rudbeckia hirta
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
  • Soil Type: Clay to loam soil
  • Soil pH: 6.8 - 7.7

These bright, cheerful blooms will add color to your garden all summer long. In addition to being low-maintenance, they're drought-tolerant and readily reseed themselves, meaning less work in the garden for you. Note that deer and rabbits will sometimes eat black-eyed Susans, so keep this in mind if you've got wildlife in your area.

03 of 10

Yarrow

closeup of tiny red yarrow flowers with yellow centers against green stems and leaves

ChristopherBernard/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Achillea millefolium
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
  • Soil Type: Well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 5.5 - 6.8

Another pollinator-friendly perennial, yarrow comes in shades of white, pink, red, and yellow. While these hardy plants are drought-tolerant, you'll want to water them in weeks when you don't receive at least an inch of rain during the hot summer months. Divide and replant clumps of yarrow every three to five years, removing dead stems in the center to keep them healthy.

04 of 10

Bleeding Heart

closeup of pink and white bleeding heart flowers in garden against tan stems and green leaves

Photos from Japan, Asia and othe of the world/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Lamprocapnos spectabilis
  • Sun Exposure: Part shade
  • Soil Type: Rich, moist soil
  • Soil pH: 6.0 - 7.5

Bleeding heart is one of the prettiest spring-blooming perennials. It's available in with pink or white heart-shaped flowers, which hang like beads from elegantly drooping stems amongst lush green foliage. In warmer areas, choose a site with shade or part shade; in colder climates, they can be planted in part sun or even full sun. Add compost to the soil before planting bleeding hearts, and fertilize when leaves regrow in early spring.

05 of 10

Daylily

closeup of range daylily flowers covered in raindrops with green stems and orange buds

Michael Cummings/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Hemerocallis spp.
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun
  • Soil Type: Moist, well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 6.0 - 6.5

These hardy, easygoing plants—not actually lilies—are the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it perennial flower. There are literally thousands of varieties in shades of red, orange, yellow, white, pink, purple, and even multicolored types. It's ideal to plant them in early spring or early fall, but you can plant them in the summer, too. Divide them every few years to keep plants healthy.

06 of 10

Autumn Joy Sedum

closeup of clumps of tiny pink flowers against green leaves in garden

Grace Cary/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Hylotelephium spectabile 'Autumn Joy'
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun
  • Soil Type: Well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 6.0 - 7.5

Just because summer's over doesn't mean your garden has to lose its color. Fall-blooming perennials like sedums, also called stonecrop, add beauty in the later part of the growing season while providing an important food source for pollinators when fewer plants are in bloom. Thanks to its succulent leaves, Autumn Joy sedums are drought tolerant, so be careful not to overwater.

07 of 10

Lantana

closeup of tiny orange and red lantana flowers against dark green leaves

sakchai vongsasiripat/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Lantana camara
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun
  • Soil Type: Well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 6.5 - 7.5

For double the color in your flower garden, plant lantana, which often features two colors in its cheery clumps of tiny blossoms. Once established, it's drought tolerant and easy to care for. In warmer climates, lantana is a perennial, but in the coldest growing zones, it's best to plant lantana in containers so you can bring it indoors to survive the winter.

08 of 10

Blue Aster

closeup of purple blue aster flowers with yellow centers against green stems, buds, and leaves

Debi Dalio/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Symphyotrichum laeve
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
  • Soil Type: Rich, well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 5.5 - 7.5

Hardy and easygoing, blue asters offer a one-two punch of color, with petals in shades of purple or blue circling bright golden centers. Make sure newly planted blue asters get enough water, but once they're established, they're tough and drought tolerant.

09 of 10

Shasta Daisy

overhead shot of white shasta daisies with big yellow centers against dark green leaves and soil

lillisphotography/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Leucanthemum × superbum
  • Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
  • Soil Type: Rich, well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 5.5 - 5.8

This classic daisy cultivar is big and eye-catching, with pure white petals radiating from big, bright yellow centers. They bloom throughout the growing season. Look for varieties like 'Alaska' and 'Becky' that have strong stems so they don't need to be staked to stay upright.

10 of 10

Blue False Indigo

closeup of tiny purple false indigo flowers along tall green stems with green leaves

stocknshares/Getty Images
  • Botanical Name: Baptisia australis
  • Sun Exposure: Full to part sun
  • Soil Type: Rich, well-drained soil
  • Soil pH: 5.0 - 6.8

This eye-catching native wildflower is known for its tall stems topped with beautiful blue to purple blooms. These plants take a few years to flower, but once they do, they're worth the wait: in addition to being resistant to deer and rabbits, they attract beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies, are drought tolerant and self-fertilizing, and require very little care once mature.

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