20 Easy-Care Plants for Spectacular Summer Gardens
Be honest: how often do you sit and relax in your garden? Do you start with good intentions, settling into a lounge chair with a book and cold beverage—only to pop up after five minutes, unable to relax due to a droopy plant or bed filled with weeds?
You’re not alone.
It’s hard to unwind when plants need tending. Naturally, planting and pampering are part of growing a garden. But the garden is also meant for relaxing, savoring the efforts of your hard work. Whether you want to enjoy the lazy days of summer with a nap by the pool or prefer entertaining friends with backyard BBQs, creating a gorgeous, low-maintenance, easy-care garden encourages a vacation from outdoor chores during sweltering summer days.
But how do you create a gorgeous garden that looks lovely all summer long—without constant upkeep? The secret is to choose the perfect plants that shine when the temperatures rise.
From beautiful flowering annuals and perennials to spectacular shrubs and delicious edibles, here are 20 Easy-Care Plants for a Beautiful, Stress-Free Summer Garden:
Annuals
Whether you add them to the landscape or plant them in patio pots, summer annuals add a bright burst of color to your garden.
Choose low-maintenance varieties that thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, like:
Sunfinity Yellow-Red Bicolor Sunflower
This sunflower produces more than 100 blooms on a single plant, providing up to 12 weeks of color. No deadheading or pruning is required. These sunflowers grow 3-4′ tall and 2-3′ wide in the landscape or in patio containers.
This standout French marigold produces vivid bicolor blooms—each semi-double flower combines primrose yellow petals with bold red flames. Nonstop color in beds, borders, containers, and pollinator plantings.
Zinnia Profusion Red Yellow Bi-Color
This gorgeous, long-lasting zinnia magically morphs from bright red and yellow to warm shades of pink and apricot. Adds beautiful, low-maintenance interest to summer landscapes and containers.
Produces clusters of fluffy, lavender flowers that are held on sturdy stems. This deceptively delicate-looking plant is low maintenance and heat/drought tolerant, flowering during the often hot and dry period.
The perfect drought-tolerant, freestanding, upright thriller full of pinwheel-shaped blooms. Bright coral pink, it’s great on its own in planters and beds or stunning as a focal point in a summer mixed container.
Perennials
Planting perennials makes good sense: plant once and watch them return year after year, filling in garden spaces as they mature. But some perennials require deadheading and constant watering to look their best, which is not how you want to spend 90-degree summer days.
For a few options that make your garden glow all summer without constant tending, consider:
A unique evergreen grass that provides a striking display. This deep-rooted plant is particularly well-suited for drought-prone areas or xeriscapes. A gorgeous, low-maintenance addition to landscapes and containers that grows in the sun or shade. USDA Zones 3-8.
Evolution™ Colorific™ Coneflower
An enchanting green cone at the center of every bloom is framed by dense petals in a lovely palette of pink hues. Easy to grow, the compact form looks lovely in beds or containers. The pretty blooms attract pollinators and birds. USDA Zones 4-9.
With excellent winter hardiness and heat tolerance, this salvia will be a new favorite in your perennial, pollinator, cutting, and container gardens. Bursting with bright blue blossoms from late spring into fall. Deer and rabbits dislike it. USDA Zones 4-9.
These bold beauties thrive in beds and borders with minimal effort. Simply plant them, and they’ll return year after year to brighten your garden. This drought and heat-tolerant plant attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, but deer and rabbits dislike it. USDA Zones 5-9.
Enjoy beautiful blooms from early spring to late summer. The flowers make excellent, long-lasting bouquets and attract pollinators to the garden. The low-maintenance plants are virtually disease-free and deer, rabbit, dry soil, and drought-tolerant. USDA Zones 5-9.
Even if a plant is labeled “drought-tolerant,” it will still need a little TLC the first year in the garden.
Make sure to water regularly to allow the plant to establish a healthy root system, and then you can enjoy years of low-maintenance beauty from your drought-tolerant plant.
Shrubs
For great garden structure, nothing beats gorgeous shrubs. Whether you prefer billowy blooms of hydrangeas of the wispy flowers of smokebush, well-chosen shrubs not only define your garden space, but they add great color and texture, too. And while all shrubs need a little extra watering and TLC during the first year, these beauties will grow into glorious low-maintenance treasures you’ll enjoy all summer.
A few options include:
Incrediball Storm Proof™ Hydrangea
With an incredibly dense habit filled with strong, thick stems and puffy white blooms, this hydrangea makes the perfect, pretty addition to your garden. Its easy-care nature and incredible flower-power withstands even strong rains USDA Zones 3-8.
In spring, round leaves emerge rich purple, but in summer’s heat, they turn a deep, near-black, lightening up in fall to reds and oranges. In early summer, large, soft panicles appear that become the misty “smoke” that makes this such a popular landscape plant. USDA Zones 4-8.
Chateau® de Chantilly Rose of Sharon
Large, exquisite white flowers cover the stems from top to bottom, each featuring a deep red-violet center and prominent stamina. This easy-care shrub attracts hummingbirds and pollinators with its showstopping blooms. USDA Zones 5-9.
This petite, sturdy garden star gives your yard or patio a bouquet of creamy lime blooms each summer and fall—with no effort. You’ll enjoy the show without lifting a finger to make these beauties look good all season. USDA Zones 3-8.
Incredibly disease and pest-resistant, these hardy shrubs provide the beauty of tea roses—without the fuss. Double blooms of creamy yellow centers surrounded by delicate pink look lovely all summer. USDA Zones 4-9.
When looking for plants, you may run across the terms “native,” “cultivar,” and “nativar,” which can be a little confusing.
Here’s a quick reference:
NATIVE: Plant is found in a local or regional ecosystem without human intervention. Only plants found in the U.S. before European settlement are considered native. Tags should reference geographic qualifiers, such as “Native to New England.”
CULTIVAR: Plants that naturally mutate and are selected by humans, or plants intentionally bred for specific traits.
NATIVAR: Cultivated variety of a native plant, with the same drought-tolerance and local adaptations as straight natives, but with improved forms or other desirable traits.
Edibles
Ah, summer…the best time to savor the delicious flavors of homegrown goodies. But there’s also nothing as disappointing as growing a great veggie garden—and then losing your highly anticipated treats to disease. Instead, choose low-maintenance, disease-resistant edibles that let you spend summer days savoring bruschetta or BLTs.
A few varieties to consider include:
This new variety offers unprecedented protection against Septoria Leaf Spot, Early Blight, and Late Blight, ensuring your plants stay healthy all season long. You’ll enjoy early-season tomatoes with outstanding flavor, boasting juicy, crack-resistant 2-inch bright red fruits.
Dragonfly pepper plants produce beautiful purple peppers that have thick, sweet walls. This pepper transforms itself from a green pepper into a purple fruit that is as delicious at the green stage of maturity as it is when fully purple and mature.
An outstanding choice for any kitchen garden, boasting a tight, compact, and highly branched habit. You’ll love its vigor, heat tolerance, notably slow-to-flower nature—as well as its resistance to downy and powdery mildew.
This everbearing strawberry produces tasty red berries that ripen continuously throughout the season. Use these large, firm berries in syrups, preserves, jams, and your favorite desserts, or enjoy them fresh off the plant. USDA Zones 4-9.
Rubybor delivers all-season beauty right to your plate! Its rich, deep purple foliage and uniform, compact habit make it a standout ornamental edible in any garden or container. This plant maintains its excellent color and tidy appearance, making it ideal for smaller spaces and Southern heat.
Are you ready to relax and enjoy your beautiful, easy-care summer garden?
Pour a glass of icy lemonade or mix your favorite cooling cocktail, grab a good book, and enjoy the pleasure of an easy-care garden.
Do you know that National Garden Bureau members include the most innovative breeders and distributors of plants and products for an easy-care summer garden?
If you want to create a gorgeous, low-maintenance garden that shines all summer, check out the plants and products available from National Garden Bureau members.
About National Garden Bureau
Founded more than 100 years ago, the National Garden Bureau educates, inspires, and motivates people to grow home gardens. National Garden Bureau members are horticultural experts, and the information shared with you comes directly from these experts to ensure your gardening success.
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