I have plans to start working on improving the curb appeal of our 1888 Victorian with some low-maintenance perennials to help make landscaping as easy as possible.

Perennial plants that return each year are the backbone of a beautiful low maintenance landscape. If you want foliage, flowers, and form that creates long-lasting curb appeal, these low-maintenance plants will be ideal for you.

I personally am attracted to low-maintenance outdoor plants that grow back each season because then our flowerbeds, prairie area, and lawn privacy borders become fuller each year.

Landscaping Tip! You’ll want to avoid any that are labeled “invasive.” Invasive plants are often non-native species that show a tendency to spread out of control and kill off the plants you actually want in your yard.

6 Best Low Maintenance Perennials for Easy Landscaping

These 6 plants will fill in your flower beds and or borders for years to come with minimal attention.

1) Day Lily:

Attractive, arching foliage sends up scapes in summer on which beautiful flowers bloom. Day Liles are some of the easiest perennial plants to care for. Day Lilies’ blossoms only last for a day (hence the name), but you can be sure there will be more waiting to bloom the next day. I love that they come in a wide range of colors. Be sure to include these flowers in your full sun or part-sun covered areas. Bonus! If you grow them from bulbs, these plants will double each year.

2) Stonecrop Sedum

Both creeping and upright types grow from this variety. It includes many colorful and spreading ground-covers with tiny, attractive blooms. Dragon’s Blood is my favorite because it is lime-colored. In the sunny spots of your yard where nothing else seems to grow is the perfect spot for these plants. They are great around pavers on a garden path or sidewalk and should hold up well to foot traffic.

3) Crepe Myrtle

Grow this as a small tree or as part of a shrub border. Pruning keeps it in line with other shrubs for height and width. Exfoliating bark provides interest in winter when blooms have fallen. More than 50 types are available, with dense, crepe paper-like blooms. Most are disease-resistant and easy outdoor plants to grow. Plant a single tree as a focal point in a sunny spot in your yard. Water well until established (first season). If you want something more unusual, take a look at the Black Crepe Myrtle Tree with Red Blooms, “Black Diamond.”

4) Solomon’s Seal

For those shady or part-shade areas that beg for color, interest, and perhaps fragrance, consider a type of Solomon’s Seal. Regular, Variegated, and False cultivars are available and add a quick landscaping appeal to gardens in the shade. Bell-shaped blooms dangle from arching stems, later becoming bluish, black,  or red berries. Foliage appears after the blooms, with interesting and colorful changes in autumn. Solomon’s seal is an interesting herb, useful for treating and enhancing some conditions.

5) Coneflower

Easy and inexpensive when you grow from seed, planting from seed provides the best selection. Flower colors include pink, purple, green, and red, yellow, orange, or white. The therapeutic effects of Echinacea are well-known. Flowers return and expand regularly. If you choose to transplant, don’t move this flower until the root system is three years old. Take advantage of the herbal properties of this plant instead of buying pricy supplements.

6) Lilac Bush

We have a Lilac bush that flowers (and smells incredible) every Spring just outside of our sun porch door. Ours is white, but Lilac Flowers can range in color from pink to purple to white to cream/yellow. Lilacs are one of the easiest of all shrubs to take care of. Their needs are simple: plenty of sunlight, good drainage, and annual pruning. They are great for privacy and can grow anywhere from 8 feet to 30 feet tall. Read more at Gardening Know How: Lilac Care  Growing And Planting Lilac Bush Plants.

If you’re interested in more landscaping posts or tips for landscaping design, I will try my hardest to keep up with any exterior projects we do this summer! Does anyone have additional landscaping suggestions or ideas for easy to care for greenery? I’d love to hear them!