In today’s post, I’m sharing my favorite perennial flowers for an easy summer garden and the essential supporting cast of characters that make all your summer flowers look their best.
In the last few years, I’ve really realized that perennial flowers and certain shrubs are really the plants and flowers that bring me the most joy in my garden and that I enjoy caring for the most. Vegetable gardening is fun and interesting, but easy-to-grow perennial plants really have my heart these days. I think it’s partially that filling a garden with perennials is a little like decorating a timeless home. You’re creating something beautiful to enhance your enjoyment of your everyday life, but you’re also planning for the long-term, keeping in mind that things will change and come together in different ways over time. Perennial gardens also just put on the most amazing show and there seems to be something new to appreciate and be amazed by every day during the growing season. Also, let’s face it, if you choose your perennials wisely, they’re really easy. They give you a big reward and ask for so little in return. The perennials and shrubs that might be considered “essential” are of course different for everyone and every garden, but I thought it would be fun today to share some of my favorites that I don’t ever want to live without. Here are my essential perennials for an easy summer garden here in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
Hostas
Hostas create a great foundation for your perennial summer garden, blocking out weeds and lending a calm rhythm to your garden when you use them in repetition. I find myself almost forgetting that hostas actually have blooms, but they really are one of the best perennial flowers in midsummer. I’m surprised and delighted by how joyful the tall spikes of purple or white flowers actually are every summer after I’ve been enjoying their lush green leaves all spring.
I have strong options about growing hostas and I’m not afraid to share them: Seven Hosta Mistakes That Everyone Keeps Making
Ferns
Always an elegant, timeless choice and one of the best plants for shady areas in planters, porch pots, and directly in the garden. These lush garden plants are always a delight.
For those who have struggled with ferns: How to Actually Keep a Fern Alive
Roses
Technically a shrub not a perennial flower, but such a wonderful addition for bringing movement and personality to any flower garden, both when they’re in bloom and when they’re not.
One of my favorite rose tips: How to Use Epsom Salt for Roses
Solomon’s Seal
These herbaceous perennials adapt so beautifully to any shady growing location. This is one that is truly low maintenance and just seems to come back every year stronger and fuller no matter where you put it. It blooms in late spring then provides beautiful height in your shade garden with graceful arching leaves for the rest of the season. I think every new gardener should grow Solomon’s seal because it just gives you such an instant feeling of success in the garden.
Read next: How to Grow Solomon’s Seal.
Peonies
A late spring/early summer favorite and arguably the most-loved cut-flower bloom around, but they take the form of a beautiful, dark, leafy shrub for the rest of the summer, which is just as welcome in my garden. An absolute necessity if a cottage garden is your preferred planting style.
Learn how to make more peonies from your one plant: How to Successfully Divide and Transplant Peonies
Catmint
A drought-tolerant sun lover that blooms from mid-spring right through until autumn. Just like the name suggests, cat really are drawn to catmint, especially if you tear off a few leaves to release the aromatic oils from within the foliage.
Read: Growing Catmint – Delightful and Well-Behaved
Hydrangeas
Another companion plant that’s technically a shrub, but so necessary as a focal point and to provide shape and structure in my foundation gardens. These panicle hydrangeas are very tolerant of sun exposure, but are perfect as well if your shaded flower bed needs something a little larger as a focal point. Is it really summer without hydrangeas?
Start your first hydrangea garden: How to Plant Panicle Hydrangeas
Creeping Jenny
This one is often sold in garden centers as an annual for use in containers, but it makes the most beautiful bright chartreuse ground cover for shady or partly sunny areas. Creeping Jenny can change its shade of green pretty dramatically based on how much sunlight it receives at different times of the year and it’s just so interesting to watch. It can spread quickly, but you can easily just pull it out with your hands to control where it ventures in your garden. I love when creeping Jenny turns a deep rusty red in autumn as well.
Make your garden stand out: How to Grow Creeping Jenny as a Perennial
Boxwoods
Another shrub, but an absolutely essential element to so many different perennial garden situations to provide structure and greenery throughout the year, and they don’t need full sun, which comes in very handy. This evergreen shrub needs a little care to get established, but after the first year or two, they’re pretty much maintenance-free and will continue to be an essential element in your garden for decades. I would go so far as to say that they’re quite drought-tolerant once they’re well established.
If you’ve had trouble with growing boxwoods before: How to Grow Healthy Boxwoods
Lavender
For many people, nothing says “summer” quite like lavender. If you can’t visit a beautiful lavender field for the full experience, you can grow a few plants in your garden. I love lavender’s fragrant summer blooms, but I also prize it for the year-round interest and shape it brings to my garden and the frosty green new leaves in the spring.
Learn how to grow it: Everything You Need to Know About Lavender Plant Care
Sunflowers
While these annual flowers aren’t technically perennials, they self-seed so readily that they might as well be. If you have a patch of garden dedicated to sunflowers, you can just let them drop their seeds at the end of the summer and have them come up again the next year for the ultimate low-maintenance/high impact flower display.
Get the tutorial: How to Plant Sunflower Seeds
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.