Care Free Bloom

No matter how passionate you are about gardening, there comes a moment when you just want to plant your flower bed and forget it, at least forget about having to tend to it constantly; rest assured there are many plants, both annual and perennials, that would take care of themselves without a lot of fuss.

I resisted them, of course, out of a mistaken sense of pride: once you breached the domain of sedums, daylilies, coneflowers and Russian sage, you have become basically unnecessary. Of course I can’t grow the last plant on the list to save my life, but that’s beside the point.

In time I learned to give nature its due and use plants that would thrive whether I’m there to dote on them or not. Fortunately the list includes more than the four plants above, so here are a few suggestions, all more or less care free.

Delphiniums - short lived perennials with spectacular flowers which thrive in hot conditions as long as they have plenty of moisture. The tall Pacific variety makes for stunning specimen plantings - some of them grow over seven foot tall.

Daisies and coreopsis - ok, so they do need deadheading, but not much else.

Goldenrod, bee balms, catmint and leadwort, with the caveat that they are invasive.

Hardy geraniums, which love clay soils and tolerate quite a bit of shade. They have a long blooming season in spring and their beautiful foliage in a treat in the fall, when it turns every warm shade from lemon yellow, to bright copper and deep purple, sometimes on the same leaf.

Veronicas - as seen in the picture.

Asters, obedient plant and wind anemones if you want guaranteed bloom in the fall.

Summer bulbs are usually well behaved and require virtually no maintenance, although they tend to dislike alkaline soils. You can have a garden in bloom the entire summer just by planting bulbs like liatris, lilies, lily of the valley, Canna and Calla lilies, dahlias, gladiolus, tuberoses, wind anemones, freesias and crocosmias.