The 7 Most Dependable Plants For Your Garden

The 7 Most Dependable Plants For Your Garden
By Cheryl D. Jones

Hardy, dependable plants are those that once established can withstand the many factors that happen with gardening. While they may not be completely drought tolerant, they can tolerate certain levels of no supplemental watering and hot, humid summer temperatures. They are shrub and perennial plants that can come through winters with some damage and regain their composure with a good pruning. Dependable plants are those that are very forgiving when we fail to fertilize them properly and most thrilled to be mulched with good organic matter.

Here are 7 of the most dependable plants for your garden.

Viburnum: It is a group of flowering shrubs with white variation color blooms, which can have a height up to 20 feet tall. There are evergreen and deciduous viburnum shrubs that have pink blooms turning white flowers later on. The evergreen viburnum Pragense is a good choice for a medium height privacy hedge still providing blooms in late spring to early summer. The taller growing Old Fashion Snowball viburnum makes a showy deciduous hedge blooming heavily with ball shaped blooms.

Boxwood: This is one of the most popular evergreen shrubs and have rounded, leathery and opposite shaped leaves. Amazingly the wood of this plant is also used in making the chess pieces. Boxwoods are generally used as border plants. Some of the newer boxwood cultivars are small growing and excellent for bordering and sectioning off garden areas.

Succulents: This plant variety is often confused with cactus. All the succulents are not species of cacti though some of them are. Succulent plants are also called fat plants because its leaves are thickened and fleshy as compared to other plants. The gel present inside the thicker leaves of this plant stores the water thus decreasing the requirement of supplemental water.

Sedum: There are five letters in the word Sedum and so is the number of petals in its flower. They are attractive, hard and have a wonderful appearance. Many sedum offer beautifully green colored leaves and striking colorful flowers that make great garden combinations. It is also used as roof covering in the green roofs where they replace grasses. There are different sedum plant variations. Some sedums are low growing creeping ground cover plants while other sedum varieties are taller growing garden plants.

Peony: Peonies are beautiful perennial plants that produce large brilliantly colored set against lobed large leaves. Peonies are available as red, white, pink and yellow bloomers. Peony cultivars are generally planted as bulbs in the fall to emerge in late spring. However, they can be planted in spring through the summer when available as container grown plants. Once they have completed their bloom cycle, the plant may remain in leaf for a period before beginning to die back to the ground.

Rose: The newer rose cultivars, such as the Knockout and Drift, are stronger growing roses and certainly more forgiving that the traditional rose plants. Shrub roses can be grown as weapons as well as for their long blooming period. Their harsh thorns make them deterrents as hedges or ground covers. Knockout roses and Drift roses often start producing blooms in mid spring continuing to bloom strongly until the first hard frost.

Daylilies: Daylilies are one of the more versatile plants on our list. They are perennial and die back to the ground after completing their bloom cycle. However, they will grow in sun, in shade, in dry soil, in damp soil and will continue to bloom their bright colorful blooms. There are many different daylily cultivars and many bloom at different stages of the growing season.

Cheryl D. Jones, shares gardening tips and landscape ideas through her blog, newsletters and her nursery's website. Visit http://www.GreenwoodNursery.com/ for a full line of plants including trees, flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses and ground covers. Join the Greenwood Gardeners Club free to receive Greenwood Nursery's weekly newsletter, seasonal promotions and 10% off your first order.

Make these dependable garden plants part of your gardening. Visit Greenwood Nursery for these dependable plants and more.

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