The Toughest Plants Around

In my previous post, I mentioned that I was going to write on plants in my garden that made it through three and a half years of complete neglect.  If you recall, I had my third child three years ago and from the time I became pregnant in 2013 until 2017, I just could not tend my garden.  While pregnant, it was the outdoor smells that would make me sick and then toward the end, it was sheer exhaustion.  Once baby #3 came in to this world, it was the lack of time and still sheer exhaustion.  Now he is old enough to play in the garden while I work away.  So which plants survived without watering, pruning, top dressing, Liquid Fence and fussing that all gardeners do?  Well, here is my list of the toughest plants around. Plants with an asterisk denote my all time favorites due to longevity of bloom time, interesting year round foliage or just, well, because!


Bearded Iris

*Peonies

*Catmint

Torch Lily

Sun Drops

Speedwell

Daylilies

*Shasta Daisy 'Becky'

Croscima

Green headed coneflower

 Bee Balm ('Jacob Cline' did not make it.)

Other Perennials:
Rose 'Don Juan'
Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
Sedum 'Angelina'
Columbine 'Blue Barlow'
Obedient Plant


Shrubs:
Azaleas
Beauty Berry
Spirea 'Ogon'
Camellia
Forsythia

Here is what didn't make it - verbena 'Homestead Purple', chrysanthumum 'Sheffields Pink', butterfly bushes, hydrangeas (both mopheads and oakleaf), blue salvia, Japanese iris, lambs ear, astilbe, and rudbeckia, pink coneflower.

So if you are looking for new plants that require little fuss, please feel free to use this list as a reference, as none of us know when we will have to stop gardening for a little while or perhaps a long while!