Ten Easy to Grow Full Sun Perennials

If you're anything at all like me, the first warm sunny spring day is a powerful cue to hop in your car, head straight for the nearest garden center or nursery, buy lots of beautiful blooming flowers and shrubs, then bring them home and kill them.

Ah, nature!

After many years of working for and around garden centers, reading about perennial plants and flowering landscape shrubs, memorizing their Latin names, and imagining gardens I can't really afford while selling roses to rich strangers, I have developed a certain working knowledge of which plants fight back and which keel over before I get my car all the way up the driveway. This is useful knowledge, so I thought I'd share it here at Hub Pages.

Believe it or not, some perennial plants are so tough even I can't kill them.

That means you probably can't kill them either.

So before you head off to Happy Acres with a bulging wallet and a heart full of gardening hopes that will shortly be dashed against the rocky shoals where gardening fantasy meets gardening reality, take a look at the following list.

I'll confine my suggestions today to full sun perennials; tolerant, hardy plants that come back again and again, year after year no matter what, and almost seem to thrive on neglect and abuse, just like that old boyfriend you can't seem to shake.

Unlike an old boyfriend however, these happy campers won't follow you into the supermarket, leave notes on your car, or call you sobbing and drunk and 3:00 AM. (Garden centers have a lot of trouble selling plants that do that.)

No, these just bloom and grow, with or without your assistance.

Black-Eyed Susans [A.K.A. Rudbeckia hirta] are sometimes called 'yellow cone flowers', and are so indestructible they could star in their own horror movie. You know the one: You plant a single Rudbeckia out by your mailbox in May and by October you're locking your windows and keeping a flamethrower handy to keep new ones from sprouting in the dust behind your bookshelves.

Rudbeckia like full sun, dry or even arid conditions, and soil that is not overly rich. They will grow and spread rapidly almost anywhere you plant them, and won't complain about anything except for, maybe, waterlogged soil or deep woodland shade. (I've seen them growing even under those adverse conditions though, so be careful.)

If you have a sunny spot where nothing but weeds seems to thrive, try planting some Black-Eyed Susans. Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is the variety you are most likely to encounter at garden centers and big box stores, but Rudbeckia hirta 'augustifolia' with it's orangy center ring is quite popular too. All of them are tough and lovely and make great cut flowers.

Don't waste your money on gallon containers or, God forbid, three gallon plants. Buy the cheaper quarts instead and water them in the first couple of weeks with high phosphorus root stimulator to help their root systems take hold. Then, stand back and watch them take over.

In the late fall, when the petals drop, leave them standing. Goldfinches love to feast on the dried seeds and will do so up until the first big snow.

All daylilies spread like wildfire in full sun and dry well-drained soil, and they aren't fussy about soil type or consistency, but the variety 'Stella D'Oro' [A.K.A. Hemerocallis 'Stella D'Oro] is especially coveted in the home landscape because of its neat, compact shape and its everblooming sunny nature.

Stellas are semi-dwarf daylilies, reaching a maximum height of a foot or so, sometimes a foot and a half max. Each plant is an attractive circular mound of spikey deep green foilage that is covered in rich, buttery yellow trumpet-shaped blooms from May through October. Once you know what they are, you'll recognize waves of Stellas in formal landscape beds, happily perking up the thristy July shrubbery, unfazed by searing heat or humidity, framed by shredded cedar mulch and flitting butterflies.

Stella D'Oro daylilies make sorry cut flowers because, like all daylilies, the blooms only last a single day, but they are so prolific and so tough that every perennial gardener swears by them. Stick a half dozen Stellas along a driveway, in a landscape bed with shrubbery, or near the front of a mixed border for all-season color and cheer.

Stellas are tidy plants, and very appealing to gardeners who fear the chaos of perennial gardening (nothing turns out like you plan it with perennials), so if that kind of describes you, you'll love this little daylily as much as everyone else does.

Purple Coneflowers [Echinacea purpurea] are not as invasive as the Rudbeckia they resemble, but they're every bit as tough. A cultivar of the wild prairie flower used in the popular cold and flu remedy (the medicinal Echinacea plant has more modest, less showy blossoms), purple coneflowers are a must-have for any full sun perennial bed.

Coneflowers do spread once established, so you can let them do their thing and take over where they are happy, or you can dig them up and give some away every year, or transplant them to other parts of your landscape when you get too many or when they start to crowd out other plants.

Purple coneflowers look great in mixed summer bouquets and like Black-Eyed Susans, are a favorite of both birds and butterflies. Leave the plants standing when the petals fall and birds will come and sit on the seed heads and snack. Why waste money on a bird feeder when you can just leave the remnants of your perennial garden poking up through the snow? When spring comes, just pull off the dead stems and leaves to make room for the new growth.

Purple coneflowers will take a lot of neglect and outright abuse, but it helps to water them in well the first couple of weeks after planting with a high-phosphorus root stimulator to help them get established. Fertilome makes a great root-stimulating liquid product that is safe, mild, and can be purchased by the gallon and kept on hand for any new planting, including trees and shrubbery. Root stimulator smells a lot like B vitamins, and that's a good way to think of it: It's like a shot of vitamins for your plants.

'Nearly Wild' is a short broad shrub rose with single pink petals and a cheery yellow center surrounded by a little eye of white. I personally love single petal roses, but even if you prefer the long stemmed beauties, this little rose will grow as close to your heart as your fence in short order. It's nearly indestructible, and it only grows about two feet tall by three feet wide.

Roses are greedy, persnickety little creatures. Not that that's a bad thing, but for someone with a black thumb it can be enormously frustrating. 'Nearly Wild' is, like its name suggests, a cultivar of a very hardy wild woodland rose, so it is much, much tougher than those wimpy Hybrid Teas you haul home from K-Mart every year so Japanese beetles can devour them before you even get a single whiff. The big pink blossoms come in waves all summer long, and if you pinch back the spent blooms you'll get even more flowers.

Make sure you give your 'Nearly Wild' rose plenty of water, and cut off any deadwood each and every spring. Other than that, an occasional shot of fertilizer and a sunny spot are all 'Nearly Wild' requires to thrive. Your friends will think you are a gardening genius. Go ahead and admit that you are.

Salvia comes in perennnial varieties that return year after year and spread slowly wherever they are happy, and in annual varieties that have to be replaced every spring. 'May Night' Salvia is a tall perennial variety that reach heights of about two to two and a half feet and produces tall spires of deep bluish-purple blooms for most of the summer.

Salvia likes full sun but will tolerate a bit of shade in the morning or late afternoon, and once it is established it's quite reliable year after year.'May Night' is especially dramatic, and it's dark sexy spires contrast nicely with the bright yellows and pinks of so many other sun-loving perennials. The flowers make long-lasting attractive cut flowers. Butterflies adore Salvia spires, so if you love butterflies, you'll love Salvia too. The plants have a compact round habit, so that when new ones appear, they appear as separate circles of new Salvia.

Don't be afraid to experiment with other varieties of Salvia. Perennial Salvia is available in shades of pink, lavender, cream, white, and light blue, and dwarf varieties that stop at about twelve inches are also popular. Salvia is a versatile perennial standby that goes well with so many other flowers and tolerates such a wide range of conditions that it is always in demand. Plant some close to a 'Nearly Wild' rose, a few 'Stella D'Oro' daylilies, and some wormwood or iberis for a white accent and you've got yourself an instant minigarden. Stick a birdbath next to it and you're good to go.

Maiden grass [Miscanthus sinensis], sometimes called 'Japanese Silver Grass', is the showest of the ornamental grasses and a hardy full sun perennial that people often don't think of using. Full grown Maiden Grass hits 7 feet in height, and can form a circle three feet around or more depending on maturity.

Maiden grass is native to hot dry sunny prairie conditions, so once it gets established it's hard to kill. It doesn't like to sit in water, and it doesn't need a lot of plant food or fuss. Plant it the first year in a place where it has room to reach its full size, but don't expect to see much of anything happen the year you plant. The second year after planting you'll see some growth, and in the third year your Maiden grass will mushroom to epic proportions and do that year after year after year.

Maiden grass sends up showy seed heads that look a bit like feathers or Egyptian fans late in summer. Birds adore these seeds and will feed on them all winter if you let the grass stand. Each spring, cut the entire clump back to six or eight inches. After the plant is established, you can dig it up and divide the roots when you cut it back each spring, thereby creating more plants. Give them to your friends or plant in other parts of your landscape.

It's hard to kill an established clump of maiden grass, and few plants are more dramatic. Plant it in the back of a sunny bed or as part of a landscape border with mixed shrubs.

Perennial Sedums all belong to an odd little group of succulents botanically labeled Crassulaceae. Unlike cacti and desert succulents, perennials sedums are native to Europe and were transported to the Americas back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Over 600 known species of sedum exist, with new cultivars appearing every year. Whole societies have formed around the love of this odd little genus.

Sometimes called 'Stonecrop', sedums come in such a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and habits that it is amazing to consider they all belong to the same family. If sedums were human beings, they would have big dramatic drunken brawls every Christmas and one or two of them would storm out of the room before dinner while the rest of them chose up sides. Since they are plants, they get along fine. You could create an entire rock garden out of assorted sedum varieties alone.

Sedums store water in their plump, cactus like leaves, and some varieties were once actually commonly eaten in salads and as pot herbs. They will tolerate extremely dry, hot, full sun conditions and are not picky about soil, but they don't like to stand in water. Garden center sedums fall into two general groups: groundcover sedums, and blooming perennial sedums. Any of them will grow just fine for almost any one, and after a few years you can divide up the happiest clumps of them and share start with your friends or move them around.

One of the larger sedums commonly found in stores is 'Autumn Joy', a reliable bloomer about one foot tall and wide that looks a bit like a Jade plant and breaks out in rust colored flower clusters in late summer through early fall. One of my favorites is the similarly sized 'Vera Jameson', which has a more drooping habit and a lovely purplish tinge to the foliage. Almost everyone's grandmother had a stand of 'Hen's and Chicks', a popular sedum so named because it sends out runners with tiny baby sedums attached from a central 'mother' plant.

You can't go wrong with these hardy little beasts. Go ahead. Try them all.

Bee balm [Monarda didyma] is great stuff, and way too many people shy away from it because of its shaggy appearance and because it has the word 'bee' in it, which way too many people find to be a terror-inducing word. Listen, if you have a garden, bees are a good thing. You want bees. Actually, even if you don't have a garden you want bees. Bees are disappearing fast, and anything you can do to attract a couple to your yard is money well spent.

Monarda has other great qualities that make it desirable for new gardeners or gardenphobic persons. Hummingbirds love the clusters of tube shaped flowers, and if you don't love hummingbirds, honestly, what's wrong with you? Butterflies love them too. Monardas spread rapidly where they are happy and will tolerate lots of sun and intense heat. They won't put up with the no-water conditions sedums and Rudbeckia thrive on--they'll need some water, sometimes. But they're pretty darn tough. Place them towards the back of a bed (they're tall, two feet or better) in a spot where they will get plenty of air.

All Bee Balm plants are susceptible to powderly mildew and it won't hurt them one whit. It usually hits the bottom-most leaves, so if you keep them toward the back of your garden you won't even see it. You can also make tea out of the flowers and leaves, which isn't for everyone, but in Victorian times it was all the rage. When used as part of an herb garden or as a scent, Bee Balm is commonly referred to as Bergamot.

Monarda plants come in various sizes in shades of pink, purple, red, and even white. Welcome them into your garden. They will bring all kinds or wonderful guests along with them.

Before you freak out, 'Tickseed' isn't so named because of all the lovely ticks it attracts to your garden, but because the bountiful seeds it produces resemble small ticks and stick to everything, which is one of the reasons this cultivar of a hardy prairie flower can survive just about anything. Coreopsis comes in Lanceleaf and Threadleaf varieties, and both are tough and hardy.

Lanceleaf Coreopsis looks like a wild yellow meadow flower and has, as promised, leaves shaped like little lances. It grows to about eighteen inches to two feet depending on the variety, will tolerate drought and extreme heat, loves poor soil and rocky conditions, and spreads like crazy. Threadleaf Coreopsis has delicate fernlike foliage and is not quite as aggressive as its more primitive cousin, but its still quite hardy and will also spread rapidly once it naturalizes in your bed or against your fence or wherever you place it.

Threadleaf Coreopsis comes in yellow or pink and is very popular in mixed borders because of its all-season blooms and its unusual foliage. Lanceleaf Coreopsis is most likely to be found at garden centers labeled simply 'Tickseed.' Again, this is a perennial plant that you can safely buy in quart sizes. Avoid gallon pots and larger containers, since the stuff grows so rapidly and spreads so easily you're basically just shelling out money for extra dirt.

Threadleaf Coreopis looks lovely paired with a 'Nearly Wild' rose.

I can just hear some of you muttering under your breath about now that, sure, this all sounds well and good and nice and easy, but you're a special case. You're unique. None of this can possibly work for you. You've just been hurt too many times to fall for it even once more. You just can't risk this gardening thing again, you can't, it's too painful. Your bad mojo is the worst bad mojo on the planet. No plant can survive your poisonous aura.

Wow, have I got a flower for you.

Stop you whining and get yerself some Lychnis coronaria, also known as Rose Campion, or Bloody William, or mullein pink. Rose Campion is an old fashioned biennial flowering plant, popular in Victorian herb gardens and perennial borders. It grows low to the ground, not much taller than eight inches, and has powdery silver foliage and hot pink single petaled flowers that bloom all season long. Its unusal appearance makes it look like an endearing, delicate little plant, but the truth is, you might have trouble finding Rose Campion in a garden center, and the reason is, it's a little botanical terrorist.

Plant a single Rose Campion in the farthest unfriendliest sunny corner of your sad little yard, and next spring you will have twenty Rose Campion plants there, a few in your lawn, three next to your favorite tree, and one in your hair.

No problem you think. Just divide and share! Heh heh. Have at it. You can rip this stuff out until you're panting and prone, face down in your garden clutching your hand trowel and weeping profusely. And guess what? Next year you'll have more Rose Campion anyway.

Now if you're a sick puppy like me, you're probably thinking, "This sounds great! Where can I find this Rose Campion stuff?!?" The answer is, ask. Ask everyone.

Anyone who has it will gladly give you all you want. Absolutely free. Ain't nature grand?

Enjoy your garden.