Late summer treats: 5 workhorse plants to keep your garden looking fresh

If you want a garden that looks good all summer, you need plants you can count on. I doubly appreciate those that are useful as well as beautiful. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is one that does double duty. It’s an excellent border plant, but also a useful ground cover. A few years ago, I planted about a dozen underneath this Magnolia because I was tired of weeding bare space. I noticed no weeds penetrated it once it was established. That didn’t take long either, the photo below was taken at the end of year two. How’s that for a blast of color?

Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Here it is in the front of my garden. This is a smaller space, but it’s not a thug. It winds its way among the other plants, but doesn’t take over the show. Requires no weeding, deadheading, staking or cutting back. This perennial the answer to a gardener’s prayers - and it flowers from July til October.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ rocking it in the border.

Calamintha nepetoides ‘White Cloud’ is another weed stopping beauty I wouldn’t be without. Frothy little white flowers adorn it from July til October. And it smells good - the delicate foliage emits the scent of peppermint when you brush against it. Below, it’s growing as a ground cover on a hillside with Stachys Byzantina ‘Helen Von Stein.’

It’s a handy little edging plant - not quite as aggressive as others in the mint family (members of nepeta x fassenii) and it’s easy to control.

I use it as a filler around perennials and annuals so I don’t have to weed bare spots. In the photo below you can see it growing around annual blue Salvia and an Agapanthus that stopped blooming weeks ago. It looks delicate, but this is one tough perennial - doesn’t mind dry, lean soil and it’s hardy to zone 5.

Looking for something the deer won’t eat? Alium ‘Millenium’ (a member of the onion family) is a late bloomer worth waiting for. Come July, it’s a show stopper that lasts til October. Even in a crowded garden, there’s always a place to fit it in.

Alium ‘Millenium’ nestled next to Rudbeckia ‘Goldstrum’

It took me awhile to appreciate the virtues Little Bluestem (Schizachryium scoparium), but after observing it for several years I’ve become a big fan. This finely textured prairie grass looks best planted in masses, otherwise it looks floppy. The tufts form dense mounds at the bottom and keep weeds from taking over, handy for a large area like the one below.

The soft bluish gray foliage fades to bronze in fall.

I allow space between the tufts for interplanting. In the above photo you can see that Verbena bonariensis has reseeded itself. It mixes nicely with other perennials and shrubs too. Below, it’s planted with orange cosmos (Cosmos sulphureous) and Hypericum ‘Albury Purple.’

Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’ has become one of my favorite shrubs for tough places. This little beauty will take anything you throw at it. This one is planted in soil that resembles cement- almost impossible to kill.

Initially, it was the purplish foliage that caught my eye, those little red berries were an unexpected treat the birds and I enjoy. Here’s to the workhorse plants that make me look like a good gardener!