Tough Perennials
So without further ado - here are the really tough plants that are going to be hard to kill and will handle darn near any condition you can toss at them.
Hemerocallis or daylily. are the all-time winner in the tough perennials department.
You’ll see the old orange garden escapee growing on thin soil above rocks, clinging to life on cliffs, and hanging out in ditches everywhere.
Modern hybrids bloom several times over the summer and they’ll live in sun or medium shade. These tough perennials are not fussy about soil although they do tend to rot out if you put them in a bog.
You'll have to water these plant for the first month or two until they get established but after that, they will bloom quite nicely all by thenselves with no more work or attention.
Easily available and modern plants come in a wide variety of colours and flower shapes.
Perennial geraniums are another of the tough perennials for full sun or medium shade. Again, plant it – water it for the first few months and then walk away. The taller varieties will give you a great show of bloom while the lower more ground cover varieties will simply keep expanding. Shear them back after the first bloom to promote a second bloom later in the early fall.
Geranium psilostemon
Beebalm or Monarda is another of the tough perennials that sun nor part shade, clay, nor open soil is going to deter.
Dry soils might slow down this tough perennials spread but assuming it isn’t straight beach sand, this plant will live and flower in mid-summer from its 36-inch tall stalks. Do look for the more modern hybrids as they are powdery mildew resistant and flower in a wide range of colours.
Coreopsis verticillata is an old friend that I've grown in a wide range of garden soils and that simply keeps on growing once established. The threadleaf coreopsis doesn't like a lot of shade but this only makes it more useful in a hot, sunny, clay garden. Once you get hooked on this long-blooming yellow daisy, you’ll be quite pleased that it is a survivor.
Interestingly enough, many of the herbaceous Anemone plants are tough perennials that will take sun and part shade as well as a full range of garden soil extremes.
In good soils, this plant quickly becomes a spreading nuisance but in really rotten soils, they behave (almost) as a great garden perennial. Use the taller varieties as they’ll be the hardest to kill. Note that the bulbous anemone are not tough plants.
Shade Lovers
Astilbe. will thrive in soils ranging from clay to sand in the shade. If you insist on growing it in the sunshine, it wants a damper soil as sandier soils will not encourage blooms. Damp clay in the sunshine though is not a problem.
You also get a wide variety of plant heights and flower colours to pick from so feel free to go nuts on the plant shop aisles this spring.
Hosta is a survivor. You can grow them in full hot sun or deep shade. You can grow them in light soils (sand is pushing the envelope) or clay soils and you’ll still get a great show of leaves.
The leaf colours will be different in the sun versus the shade, as those plants grown in the sun tend to be more washed-out looking than those in the friendlier shade.
It is a plant for shade rather than sun but you can abuse it if you want to and it will still come back year after year. Look for the fall blooming Hosta as they have flowers that are delightfully fragrant.
The "Shovel Breaker"
Aruncus. This old plant was about 3 feet across and wanted to stay in her spot out in a sandy, full sun garden. I wanted to move it and broke my best shovel in the process.
It eventually moved but those big tough roots proved once again why this plant will grow anywhere. Sun or shade, sand or clay, this plant will grow and throw huge flower spikes in early summer.
It resembles an Astilbe on steroids and will grow as big as a medium sized shrub. It takes approximately three years for this plant to reach its three-foot tall leafy maturity (it dies to the ground in the fall) but once it does mature, it will be the star of the early summer garden with its white flower spikes.
Aruncus for a tough shade perennial
Campanula Finally, my list of tough perennials is going to include any member of this family. While some bluebells send rhizomes streaking across the garden, others self sow and produce tons of babies but they all bloom heavily and the better ones in blue and violet shades (you can find some pinks and white flowers) to give a super show.
They too bloom in sun or part shade. They have also been grown in heavy clay soils although the plants that do the best in clay tend to be the taller varieties and ones that spread by rhizomes.
Campanula never met a garden it didn't like
There are other tough perennials as well but these are the cream of the crop in almost every garden across North America.
Got a plant to add to a list
If you have a suggestion for the tough plant list - this is the place to do it.
If adding a plant - please tell us where you're growing it and what makes it a tough plant in your opinion.
If you want to suggest some tough perennial flowers I've missed please do it here
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