Low-maintenance plants are ideal for small-scale garden gardens that need little attention. Your garden will be stunning all year long with easy-to-grow shrubs, flowers, perennials, and ground cover plants. Evergreen shrubs, long-blooming decorative bushes, and perennial plants all have easy care options that offer a lot of interest.
Low-maintenance plants can tolerate a variety of drought, sunlight, shade, and soil conditions. These versatile landscaping plants can be used for flower beds, front of house plantings, borders, and privacy hedges.
The primary benefit of low-maintenance landscaping plants is to cut down on the time it takes to maintain a garden. Evergreen ground cover plants, for example, help to prevent weeds by covering bare soil. There are no autumn leaves to collect because of the evergreen bushes.
From spring until fall, planting ornamental perennial shrubs produces colorful flowers. Easy care plants and shrubs that flourish in most garden settings are the subject of this article. You’ll get advice on where to grow low-maintenance plants in your front or rear yard, in addition to the greatest low-maintenance shrubs.
What are Low-Maintenance Landscaping Plants?
Landscaping plants that require little care are usually self-sustaining. Drought-tolerant perennials that don’t need much pruning or feeding are the best easy-care plants. Low-maintenance plants may include many deciduous shrubs and evergreen bushes, which need little care. Low-maintenance plants brighten gardens by providing ground cover, edging plants, foundation plantings, and landscaping shrubs.
When selecting the finest low-maintenance outdoor plants for your yard, there are a few things to consider. The first consideration is the need of sunlight. Look for plants that grow well in full sun or partial shade. Plants for shade, on the other hand, flourish best in areas with little direct sunlight if you have a shaded garden. The height of the plant is another factor to consider. Choose shrubs that don’t grow taller than 3 or 6 feet (1 or 2 meters) tall to minimize pruning and care.
Ultimately, find landscaping plants that don’t create a mess. The leaves of several deciduous garden shrubs are small and easily cleaned in the autumn. You never have to worry about a garden clean-up with evergreen landscaping bushes.
Low-Maintenance Flowering Shrubs With Pictures For Easy Identification
For front of house plantings, borders, or mixed flower beds, let’s take a closer look at the greatest easy-care flowering shrubs.
Mohave Pyracantha (Pyracantha x ‘Mohave’)
The Mohave pyracantha is a fast-growing, low-maintenance flowering shrub with lush evergreen foliage and bunches of white blossom clusters in the spring. It is ideal for both the front and back yards. Mohave pyracantha berries, also known as firethorn berries, ripen in the fall and are crimson or orange.
The leaves on this low-maintenance shrub don’t drop in the autumn. When planted as an evergreen hedge or privacy screen, Mohave pyracantha is a low-maintenance plant that thrives. When it becomes a security hedge, the prickly branches also aid to keep trespassers out of your property.
The firethorn shrub is also a good foundation plant for the front of the house because of its upright growth and bushy look.
USDA zones: 6 – 9
Height and spread: 6 to 12 ft. (1.8 – 3.2 m) tall and wide
Light exposure: Full sun to partial shade
Korean Barberry (Berberis koreana)
The Korean barberry is a low maintenance hardy deciduous flowering shrub with lovely golden yellow flowers and red berries that is ideal for year-round appeal. The low-maintenance, fast-growing blooming shrub requires little trimming and is drought tolerant.
Korean barberry bushes produce clusters of multiple stems with thick leaves that are oval in shape. Korean barberry are low-maintenance shrubs that may be used as a foundation planting or an informal privacy screen, thorny privacy screen, or hedge. As an easy care specimen plant or massed along borders, you can also grow the Korean barberry shrub.
USDA zones: 3 – 7
Height and spread: 4 to 6 ft. (1.2 – 1.8 m) tall and wide
Light exposure: Full sun to partial shade
Japanese Skimmia (Skimmia Japonica)
Skimmia Japonica is a low-maintenance little flowering evergreen shrub that thrives in the shade. It requires minimal care. Conical clusters of pinkish-red fragrant blooms, leathery lance-shaped leaves, and bright red berries distinguish this low-maintenance flowering shrub.
Japanese Skimmia is a striking, easy-to-raise plant that draws attention year after year in the front or back yard. Skimmia grows best along shrub borders, in front of the house, or as a flowering evergreen hedge plant. If the soil is kept wet, this shade-loving low-maintenance plant can tolerate full sun.
USDA zones: 6 – 8
Height and spread: 3 to 4 ft. (1 – 1.2 m) tall and 4 to 5 ft. (1.2 – 1.5 m) wide
Light exposure: Partial shade to full shade
Small Hydrangea Shrubs (Hydrangea macrophylla)
Dwarf hydrangeas are a low-maintenance deciduous shrub that makes a low-maintenance house flowering plant. The rounded growth, lush green leaves, and huge flower heads of these flowering shrubs make them attractive. Beautiful pastel colors of blue, pink, white, and lavender bloom on small hydrangea shrubs.
The large glossy leaves, long-blooming periods, and minimal care requirements of easy-care hydrangea bushes have made them popular. For the front of house or grouped together to create a flowering hedgerow, hyrangea shrubs are simple to maintain landscaping plants. Hydrangea bushes’ cut blooms stay fresh in floral displays for a long period of time, which is another benefit.
USDA zones: 5 – 9
Height and spread: 4 to 5 ft. (1.2 – 1.5 m) tall and wide.
Light exposure: Partial shade to full shade
Azalea (Rhododendron)
Azalea plants, sometimes known as rhododendrons, are deciduous shrubs with gorgeous colorful blooms. The showy colorful flowers of azalea bushes, which may reach 6″ (15 cm) broad, are well-known. Rhododendron plants flourish in most soil types and bloom during late spring and early summer.
Azaleas can withstand temperatures as low as -25°F (-32°C) and are among the cold-hardiest shrubs. Azalea (rhododendron) plants are suited for background plantings because they are large decorative shrubs. In mixed borders, shade gardens, and a dense flowering hedgerow, you may also grow trouble-free Azalea shrubs.
USDA zones: 4 – 8, and some cold-hardy azaleas thrive in zone 3
Height and spread: 2 to 6 ft. (0.6 – 1.8 m) tall and wide, depending on the cultivar
Light exposure: Dappled sunlight
Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica)
Virginia Sweetspire is a semi-evergreen or deciduous shrub with bottlebrush-like leaves and lovely fragrant white flowers. It is a low-growing, easy care plant that works well in small areas. The weeping appearance of Virginia sweetspire is due to its arching branches.
White conical flower clusters cover the thick foliage when it blooms in the spring. Because it thrives in full sun or full shade, the Virginia sweetspire is an excellent low maintenance plant for front of house landscaping. The shrub can handle wet or damp soils and has average water requirements. This landscape bush thrives beside ponds or as a hedge or flowery ground cover.
USDA zones: 5 – 9
Height and spread: 3 – 10 ft. (1 – 3 m)
Light exposure: Full sun to complete shade
Dwarf Blooming Lilac (Syringa)
When grown to around 4-5 ft. (1.2-1.5 m) tall, Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ is a dwarf Korean lilac shrub for tiny gardens. This compact, low-maintenance tiny shrub has a rounded development habit, showy flower clusters, and little, attractive leaves. It’s also known as Bloomerang lilac. Watered once a week and deadheaded the flowers to encourage abundant blooming, the only care dwarf lilac shrubs need is minimal.
Blooming lilac bushes are disease-resistant and flourish in full sun as a low-maintenance garden shrub. Dwarf lilac plants prefer to reside in perennial shrub borders, foundation plants, or as a patio plant.
USDA zones: 3 – 7
Height and spread: 4 – 5 ft. (1.2 – 1.5 m)
Light exposure: Full sun
Low-Maintenance Evergreen Shrubs With Pictures For Easy Identification
To keep color in your garden year-round, choose evergreen shrubs as landscaping plants. Some hedging plants never bloom, while others give off small blossoms that are difficult to see. Some of the highest-maintenance evergreen bushes are shown below.
Boxwood Plants (Buxus)
Boxwood is a genus of low-maintenance, slow-growing evergreen landscaping shrubs that may be pruned into ornamental forms. Little glossy green flowers and thick leaves distinguish the easy care plants. Boxwood is a landscaping plant with rounded or upright, columnar growth depending on the cultivar.
During the winter, your garden stays lush thanks to tough, hardy, and easy-to-grow boxwood plants. Since it is drought tolerant, thrives in the sun or shade, and grows in most soils, boxwood is regarded as an easy-care landscaping plant. In mixed beds or as a stunning hedgerow in formal gardens, this versatile shrub may be grown along borders. At the corner of a home or foundation planting, you can also grow columnar boxwood plants.
USDA zones: 5 – 8
Height and spread: 3 to 4 ft. (1 – 1.2 m) tall and wide. Columnar boxwood shrubs grow between 5 and 15 ft. (1.5 – 4.5 m) tall.
Light exposure: Full sun, partial shade, or full shade
Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei)
Little evergreen Euonymus trees have colorful leaves that add beauty to any landscape. Wintercreeper is a low-growing, maintenance-free ground cover plant that may be found (left to right): ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold,’ ‘Emerald Gaiety,’ and ‘Moonshadow.’ Wintercreeper’s lovely variegated yellow and green or white and green ovate leaves make it a great plant for front yard landscaping.
The spreading evergreen plant quickly covers bare ground and has a spreading habit. Wintercreeper thrives in most soil types and is a low-maintenance landscaping plant. Edging, trailing ground cover, and low-growing hedges are all possible applications for this versatile spreading plant. To conceal unsightly garden features, you may also train the vigorous plant to climb walls.
USDA zones: 5 – 9
Height and spread: 1 – 2 ft. (0.3 – 0.6 m) tall and up to 4 ft. (1.2 m wide)
Light exposure: Full sun to full shade
Low-Maintenance Perennial Plants With Pictures For Easy Identification
Easy-care perennials are ideal for most front and backyards, and they can help you fill your garden landscape with stunning colors. Some of the least maintenance perennial plants are listed below.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
In the rear of flower beds or borders, black-eyed susans are hardy blooming perennial plants that may be sown. The unforgettable yellow daisy-like blooms 3 inches (7 cm) broad are Black-eyed Susan’s identifying feature. The gorgeous blooms appear on top of tall, narrow stems.
Large Lanceolate leaves grow at the base of this stem, making it a simple landscaping plant. Mixed borders, at the rear of flower beds, or cottage gardens are ideal habitats for black-eyed Susan.
USDA zones: 3 – 7
Height and spread: 2 to 3 ft. (0.6 – 1 m) tall and 1 ft. (0.3 m) wide
Light exposure: Full sun
Perennial Coneflowers (Echinacea)
Coneflower is a hardy perennial that thrives in most settings and has flowers that attract pollinators. Daisy-like ray flowers with drooping pink petals characterize coneflowers. Coneflowers are low-maintenance blooming plants that are drought tolerant, heat resistant, and resistant to most pests and illnesses.
From spring through the first frost, coneflowers bloom for a long time. Mass plantings, mixed beds, and perennial borders are all ideal applications for these tall herbaceous perennials.
USDA zones: 3 – 10
Height and spread: 1 to 4 ft. (0.3 – 1.2 m) tall and up to 2 ft. (0.6) wide
Light exposure: Full sun or partial shade
Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)
Blazing star is a low-maintenance, easy-care summer plant with stunning bottlebrush purple flowers. It has tremendous ornamental value as a low-maintenance, low-maintenance plant. The blazing star has leafy stems with purple flower spikes as a tall ornamental plant, and its leaves are green. Summer gardens are enhanced with the tufted flower heads, which add purple hues.
This easy-care perennial is also known as gayfeather and thrives in most landscapes. Blazing star, a low-maintenance blooming plant that grows in all climates including heat, cold, drought, and poor soils. Borders, cottage gardens, and patio pots are all places to grow the flowering perennial.
USDA zones: 3 – 9
Height and spread: 3 to 4 ft. (1 – 1.2 m)
Light exposure: Full sun
Plantain Lily (Hosta)
Plantain lily (Hosta) is a low-growing, easy-care perennial plant with huge broadly ovate or nearly round leaves that is commonly grown in the shade. The tremendous foliage of Hosta is a distinguishing characteristic. Variegated leaves may be white and green or yellow and green on the most appealing plantain lily plants.
Hostas are grown for their dramatic foliage, despite the fact that it is a flowering plant. One of the greatest full-shade ground cover plants is plantain lily. It thrives on little care and requires almost no attention once planted.
USDA zones: 3 – 8
Height and spread: 1 – 2 ft. (0.3 – 0.6 m) tall and 5 to 6 ft. (1.5 – 1.8) ft. wide
Light exposure: Partial to full shade
Coral Bells (Heuchera)
Many cultivars of Heuchera have vivid foliage and need minimal care. The lovely vivid leaves of the coral bells plant (Heuchera) are well-known. Coral bells produce blossoms, but it is the leaves that make this evergreen plant so attractive. Silvery-blue, yellow, black, orange, neon green, and fiery red are just a few of the leaf colors available.
Easy-care ground cover, clumping foliage plant thrives in full sun or partial shade depending on the species. In rock gardens, in pots, around borders, or to enhance diversified beds with colorful foliage, grow coral bells.
USDA zones: 4 – 9
Height and spread: 0.5 to 1 ft. (17 – 30 cm) tall and 2 ft. (0.6 m) wide
Light exposure: Full sun, partial shade, or full shade—depending on the cultivar
Low-Maintenance Ground Cover Plants to Prevent Weeds (With Pictures)
Planting easy-care ground cover plants that prevent weeds from growing is a fantastic way to make gardening more manageable.
Creeping Phlox (Phlox Subulata)
Creeping phlox is a vigorous, creeping ground cover evergreen perennial plant with star-shaped flowers and glossy, dark green leaves. It is low maintenance and easy to grow in sunny areas. To keep weeds at bay, creeping phlox can be easily spread across the land.
The spreading mat-forming plant produces pink, purple, white, and red blooms when it is in bloom in the spring. Rock gardens, along paths, at border fronts, and among other flowering plants like daffodils and tulips are where creeping phlox thrives best. For full-sun ground cover, this Phlox species is ideal.
USDA zones: 2 – 9
Height and spread: 4” to 6” (10 – 15 cm) tall and up to 2 ft. (60 cm) wide
Light exposure: Full sun
Speedwell (Veronica umbrosa)
Speedwell is a non-invasive, low maintenance ground cover plant that thrives in sunny areas with well-drained soil. Speedwell plants create a low-maintenance ground cover in full sun that creates a dense, lush green mat of foliage. Low-growing speedwells have tiny blue flowers that bloom in early spring, which is one of their most distinguishing features.
For ground cover along boundaries, under-planting shrubs, pots, or colorful edging, Speedwell is an ideal easy care plant.
USDA zones: 4 – 9
Height and spread: up to 6” (15 cm) high and 18 – 24″ wide (45 – 60 cm)
Light exposure: Full sun
Low-Maintenance Ground Cover Plants for Full Sun – With Pictures For Easy Identification
Ideal for covering bare ground and tolerating drought and heat, easy care, low-growing creeping plants are perfect for full sun.
Creeping Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
This creeping flowering evergreen thrives in full sun with minimal care and is drought tolerant. Creeping thyme has pink, white, magenta, or purple blossoms when it is in bloom. Creeping thyme requires little care other than light pruning to survive as a low-maintenance ground cover plant. In sunny gardens with well-draining ground, creeping thyme grows best as a ground cover plant.
USDA zones: 4 – 9
Height and spread: 1” to 2” (2.5 – 5 cm) and up to 2 ft. (60 cm) wide
Light exposure: Full sun
Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina)
Lamb’s ears is a lovely evergreen perennial plant with fuzzy silvery-gray leaves that resemble a lamb’s ear. It is a decorative ground cover plant with textured leaves and flower spikes. Throughout the year, the tongue-shaped hairy leaves are a source of fascination.
In addition, to brighten up a garden landscape, purple flower spikes bloom in the spring and summer. Lamb’s ears is a low-maintenance plant that can withstand drought and doesn’t need much water. For full sun or to highlight borders or edging, this plant thrives as a groundcover.
USDA zones: 4 – 10
Height and spread: 0.5 to 2 ft. (15 cm – 60 cm) tall and 3 ft. (1 m) wide
Light exposure: Full sun
Low-Maintenance Ground Cover Plants for Shade – With Pictures For Easy Identification
You may need to install simple ground cover plants for shade if you have a shaded garden or many trees and shrubs in your landscape.
Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
Sweet woodruff is a flowering perennial that blooms in the shade and forms a loose mat of light green foliage and white flowers. It has scented leaves and grows quickly as a ground cover. In the spring, vanilla-scented white blooms emerge to create a white floral carpet in shady locations.
Sweet woodruff’s fragrant lance-shaped leaves, which have a fresh hay scent, are another characteristic. Since it grows quickly to cover the ground, sweet woodruff requires little attention. It thrives best as a groundcover in shaded gardens, beneath perennial shrubs, or along pathways.
USDA zones: 4 – 8
Height and spread: 6” (15 cm) tall and up to 12” (30 cm) wide
Light exposure: Shade
Bishop’s Weed (Aegopodium podagraria)
Bishop’s Weed is a fast spreading ground cover that thrives in partial to full shade. It is a popular ground cover plant. Bishop’s weed spreads readily due to its fast growth. This characteristic, on the other hand, makes it invasive in some areas. The ground cover of bishop’s weed is made up of carrot-scented leaves and little white blooms, which form a thick layer.
Bishop’s weed is an ideal perennial ground cover plant for shady gardens. Bishop’s weed can be a high-maintenance plant if you don’t want it in your garden or if it overruns. It’s worth remembering that.
USDA zones: 3 – 10
Height and spread: 6” – 3 ft. (15 – 90 cm) tall and up to 2 ft. (60 cm) wide
Light exposure: Partial to full shade
Low-Maintenance Annual Flowers With Pictures For Easy Identification
Sweet Alyssum, Zinnia, Marigold, and Petunia are just a few of the lovely colorful low-maintenance yearly blooms that bloom clockwise from top left. Annual flowers that are easy to care for are shown here. Annual flowers that require minimal care are listed below:
Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)—Little white or pink-purple blooms in clusters make this a popular easy-care edging plant. This self-sowing variety develops and blooms year after year.
Zinnia—Annual plants with large, lovely blooms in hues ranging from orange to deep pink to red to white and yellow are easy to grow.
Petunias—Petunias are popular for their ability to produce gorgeous blooms on trailing stems. From spring through autumn, expect petunia cultivars to bloom.
Marigold (Tagetes)—In most situations, flowering easy-to-grow annual plants with gorgeous yellow or orange blooms on top of long stems.