Are you a lazy gardener like me? I love planting flowers in my garden, and I want to spend my time enjoying them not spending most of my free time maintaining my garden. Don’t get me wrong, I love to putter around the garden, deadheading, hand clipping and pulling a few weeds, but beyond that, I want to be able to spend the majority of my free time relaxing on the patio with glass of wine enjoying the beauty in my garden.
Choosing easy care plants that produce loads of blooms, require little maintenance, and look beautiful almost year round are what I seek. A pretty tall order for sure, but not impossible to achieve!
Today I want to share a few of my all time favorite sun loving, easy care plants that you can enjoy in your garden with a minimum amount of effort. Pinkie promise! I live in Zone 9 so if you have similar weather temperatures, all of these plants will also thrive in your garden.
We can’t talk about sun loving perennials without talking about roses! Every sunny garden should have a few roses. Is there a more iconic plant than the rose? Often hated for their thorny nature but beloved for their beautiful blooms, a garden isn’t complete with out at least one or two varieties of roses.
If you love roses but hate the work it takes to keep them looking their best and blooming, then shrub roses might be the perfect solution! In recent years they seem to be popping up everywhere; strip malls, commercial buildings, parks and medians in the middle of the road all seem to have shrub roses planted en mass.
And why wouldn’t you consider adding them to your landscape? They are almost completely maintenance free plants. They are disease resistant, not susceptible to black spot, drought tolerant, and don’t require deadheading or pruning. They thrive in hot sunny locations, and bloom profusely almost all summer long in bright vibrant colors. Sounds like a winner, winner to me!
While not as stately as their tea rose cousins, the masses of blooms these shrub roses produce, for almost no effort makes them well worth planting in your garden!
Trailing African Daisy (Osteospermum fruticosum)
A beautiful ground cover that’s as hardy as nails. It blooms profusely from late spring well into summer. It’s drought tolerant and thrives in hot sunny conditions. It’s practically bulletproof for most gardeners. It requires little attention or care and it’s rarely invaded by pests or diseases. It has a trailing habit so it looks quite lovely planted at the top of a retaining wall or in a decorative container, where it can hang down gracefully.
Rangpur (Citrus × limonia)
The rangpur lime, mandarin lime or lemandarin, is a hybrid between the mandarin orange and the citron. It is a citrus fruit with a very acidic lime taste but has an orange peel and flesh that resembles a tangerine. They can be used in any recipe that calls for limes.
Their juice is wonderful used in margaritas, or use it to make a delicious Fish Taco Sauce. You can find the recipe for my favorite Fish Taco Sauce here.
Need more ideas for what to do with lime juice? Check out a previous blog post here on how to freeze lemon and lime juices the right way for later use in your recipes.
There are so many benefits for planting citrus trees in your garden! They are gorgeous evergreen trees. They are easy to grow. They bloom in the spring and scent the garden with their beautiful aroma that attracts bees and hummingbirds. Then, several weeks later your are gifted with a bounty of delicious fruit. If you live in a mild climate I highly encourage you to plant a few citrus trees in your garden. You won’t regret it!
Gardenia
Is there a sweeter scent in the garden than a gardenia? Beloved for their intoxicating fragrance and attractive, waxy, creamy-white flowers that contrast beautifully with their shiny, leathery, dark green leaves, Gardenias are irresistible heat-loving evergreen shrubs.
Bridal Wreath Spirea (Spiraea prunifolia)
An easy to grow deciduous shrub with graceful, spreading branches, dark green foliage, and an abundance of white flower clusters that provide a truly spectacular show mid- to late spring. A mature plant will grow to about 5-10 feet in height. Use at the back of a garden bed or front and center as a showy spring accent. A stunning, easy to grow shrub.
Candy Tuft (Iberis sempervirens)
Candytuft, is a low-growing, spreading, woody-based, herbaceous perennial. It forms a lovely carpet of bright green foliage and in the spring erupts in masses of white blossoms with a hint of pale pink. Plant this beauty at the front of your garden beds where you can see it up close and personal.
Garden Phlox ‘David’ (Phlox paniculata)
Phlox is not always an easy plant to grow well. Powdery mildew and root rot can be serious problems. Because they grow to be fairly tall, they may require staking. By reputation, ‘David’ has good resistance to powdery mildew. I never have any problems growing this varietal. The tall spires of bright white flower plumes and long bloom time makes it worth growing. It has always been a carefree easy to grow plant for me.
What are your favorite sun loving easy care plants? Are they in my list or have you found a real gem that has become a favorite in your garden? Please share your favorites! I still have a few bare spots in my garden that need a pop of color ☺️
Now get out there and get some dirt under your fingernails!
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