Almost everyone wants a beautiful, care-free garden. As you think about and select plants to buy for that garden you may be hoping for the same thing. As a horticultural consultant, I am frequently told, “I want a low maintenance garden with plants that are easy to grow and easy to maintain.” While there is really no such thing as a maintenance free garden there are some colorful plants you can use that will help your summer be more care-free…that is less time working in the garden and more time enjoying it!
One of my favorite care-free perennial shrubs for blooms from April to November in many areas is the Knock-out Rose. It grows about four feet high and wide and when planted in a sunny location, it will smile with color without the use of pesticides or cutting the stems. It appreciates a light haircut yearly, a feeding of slow-release fertilizer and a drink of water when dry, but other than that it will leave you alone. I think the red and pink varieties are the best.
Topping my list for annual non-stop blooms until a hard freeze is Black and Blue Salvia. It grows almost three feet high, requires no maintenance except for water and an initial slow-release fertilization and attracts bees, butterflies and/or birds and is fragrant. I plant it around my mailbox each year and always get rave reviews.
One of the best work-horse perennials for sunny blooms all season is ‘Early Sunrise’ coreopsis or tickseed. It prefers poor, drier soils, benefitting from a single early season, mild, slow release fertilization. It is a bee-attractant and great for cutting and making bouquets.
New this year to the plant world is a hybrid self-cleaning petunia called Picasso. So far its pink trumpet blooms edged in lime green are performing great in hanging baskets and I think you will welcome this easy annual into your garden. The self-cleaning petunias like the surfinias, waves, plush and supertunia series all provide easy care color from early spring until a hard freeze.
A few others on my suggestion list of low-maintenance sun perennials for long season color are: Rozanne geraniums, plumbago, repeat blooming daylilies such as Happy Returns, gaura, and lavender.
Some annuals you may want to include for sun are calibrachoa (trailing petunias), portulaca, Angelonia, lantana, wax leaf begonias and zonal geraniums (if you don’t mind snipping their dead heads off occasionally).
Hope you have a summer filled with color and time enough to enjoy it and meditate on the wonder of God the Father and the beauty of His creation.
thedailylily.com 
You will find many plants to purchase for your gardens at the Monroe Technology Center’s annual Spring Sale in Leesburg, Virginia where I teach environmental plant science. They will be selling trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, vegetable plants, small fruits, over five hundred hanging baskets, herbs, aquatic plants and fish. Proceeds go toward scholarships for students in the Agriculture program. The sale dates are April 28 and 29 from 10 am until 8pm and April 30 from 10 am until 6 pm. Hope to see you there!
I am excited to attend the wonderful Monroe Tech Center’s Spring plant and flower sale. My front door is still ablaze with brilliant, chubby pansies that I purchased last Fall which have weathered almost two weeks of 18 inches of snow and are now showing off their glory. My violets from previous plant sales at MTC are hearty and muscular and are… as Debi wrote in a song….” forever’.
Debi does a superlative job in acquiring and tending to special plants and flowers, especially chosen for her plant sales.
Can’t wait to see the offerings at the plant sale this week.
Blessings on this sale. It is nice to know that the proceeds will go to help a student go to college.