For many of us, summer is a time of relaxation. Though our plants need frequent watering when the temperatures get hot, we don’t want to spend those long summer days toiling away in our garden just to keep things looking great. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of our staff’s favourite lower-maintenance plants, with a focus on those that bloom constantly throughout the summer.

Bernice’s Pick: Dark Reiter Cranesbill

Cranesbill is a perennial type of geranium that produces five-petalled flowers during the summer. Dark Reiter is a mounding variety of cranesbill that produces bright purple flowers atop contrasting dark burgundy, deeply lobed foliage. Cranesbill blooms sporadically throughout the summer and even into the fall. Once established, they are remarkably pest-resistant and drought tolerant. They have a low, mounding habit, maturing to one foot tall and two feet wide.

Brenda’s Pick: Celebration of Angels Daylily

Daylilies have always been known as a low-maintenance plant; they are drought-tolerant once established, require minimal deadheading, and are highly adaptable to a variety of soil types. This daylily has a stunning, sophisticated flower — each petal is a peachy-cream colour on the outside, a deep blackberry-purple further in, and lime green in the centre! The edge of each petal is dark purple and slightly frilled. The flower heads are slightly fragrant and are on the large side for a daylily, averaging around five inches in size.

Devin’s Pick: Limelight Hydrangea

The Limelight Hydrangea turned 15 earlier this year, and it’s safe to say it is still one of the best panicled hydrangea cultivars available in the nursery trade. Huge chartreuse and white flowers appear on the plant in early summer, and often remain well into the fall when the flower heads turn pink. In fact, in a sheltered location the dried flower heads will remain on the shrub throughout the winter! The only maintenance required is consistent watering – hydrangeas do not like to dry out. The Limelight is remarkably hardy, and can easily be grown in Ontario as far north as Thunder Bay.

Irène’s Pick: Pink Double Knockout Rose

Most of us rarely use the phrase ‘low-maintenance’ and ‘rose’ in the same sentence, but this is what makes the Knockout Rose series so spectacular. These shrub roses produce an abundance of flowers from early summer to the fall, and unlike other roses do not need to be deadheaded – they will re-bloom without any help! They grow to a mature size of three feet tall and wide, a very manageable size for a rose. Combine this with superior resistance to black spot and powdery mildew, and this rose is truly deserving of the low-maintenance title.

Jenn’s Pick: Big Bang Cosmic Eye Coreopsis

Coreopsis (also known as tickseed) is another all-summer flowering perennial, and this cultivar produces a multitude of deep red flowers edged with bright yellow. Cosmic Eye has a compact habit, usually topping out around two feet tall and wide. It is a butterfly magnet and once established can tolerate drought conditions with relative ease (though supplemental watering is crucial in the first few seasons!).

Paul’s Pick: Hot Papaya Coneflower

These double-flowering plants serve as yet another summer butterfly magnet, producing orange-red fragrant flowers that last well into the fall. Coneflowers can adapt to a variety of soil conditions, and like just about every other plant on this list, are very hardy and low-maintenance. Hot Papaya tolerates hot, sunny areas without difficulty. It also makes an excellent cut flower.

Saraa’s Pick: Goldsturm Black-Eyed Susan

Arguably one of the best perennials for mass planting, Goldsturm begins blooming around midsummer and will re-flower throughout the fall. It attracts butterflies, birds, and bees and is tolerant of drought once it establishes. This plant is exceedingly hardy. The golden-yellow flowers of this plant are ubiquitous in the Canadian gardening landscape — no cottage garden should be without it.

Trying to find the perfect perennial for a spot in your yard? Peruse our products page to see what types we normally carry!