Low-maintenance Perennials

Seasonal Garden Tasks

• Trim foliage on grape vines to allow more sun to reach the fruit and ripen the grapes.
• Divide and replant bearded iris if blooms were sparse this year or plants are more than four years old; mix bone meal into the soil and plant rhizomes just beneath the soil surface.
• Reduce watering of lilac bushes now to improve blooming next spring.
• Keep apples picked up from under trees to help control the spread of coddling moths, which cause wormy apples.
• Cover newly planted vegetable starts to protect them from birds.
• Spray cabbage and broccoli plants with BT to control cabbage worms, which create holes in the leaves.

Low-Maintenance Perennials

Perennials provide some of the best flowers in the garden, returning year after year and growing larger with each season. While many require frequent dead-heading, the following varieties need minimal care—simply cut them down after flowering.

• Sedum Autumn Joy: A well-known favorite that attracts butterflies. Leaves grow close to the ground, sending up shoots topped with soft pink flowers that turn rusty red as days shorten.
• Moonbeam Coreopsis: Produces star-like pale yellow blossoms with finely textured foliage. Blooms from July through October and spreads 18–24 inches wide.
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’): Grows into a large clump with 3-foot-tall golden, black-centered daisies blooming from August to October. Seed heads attract birds in fall and winter.
• Stella D’oro Daylily: Features bright golden-yellow flowers blooming all summer above compact, 16-inch-tall green foliage. Ideal for containers and borders.
• Purple Dome New England Aster: A compact aster with dark green foliage and profuse dark purple daisy flowers covering the plant in September and October.
• Santa Barbara Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus): A low-growing perennial covered in small white daisies all summer. Drought-tolerant once established; suitable for borders or hanging over walls.
• Peonies: Easy to grow with magnificent pink, white, or red flowers in May–June. Live for many years, growing into larger clumps with more blooms annually.

Shade-Loving Perennials

• Hostas: Ideal for shady areas with colorful foliage in blue, green, white, and yellow combinations. Produce showy lavender to white lily-like flowers in summer.
• Heucheras (Coral Bells): Versatile shade perennials with round leaves in bright green, purples, or near black. Send up delicate spikes of white or coral flowers in summer; great as groundcover or interspersed with other plants.
• Helleborus: Deer-proof and drought-tolerant once established. Blooms in late winter with cup-like greenish-white or pinkish flowers; broad leaves remain attractive year-round.
• Dicentra (Bleeding Heart): Easy-to-grow shade perennial with pink heart-shaped flowers in spring. Foliage dies back after blooming; clean up and wait for next year.

Planting Tips

Fall is an excellent time to plant perennials. They will establish roots over winter and bloom beautifully the following year.