Plant Resource

Give these red or orange daisy-like flowers full sun, and they’ll bloom from summer deep into fall. Another plus: These drought-tolerant flowers attract butterflies, not deer.

Nearly impossible to kill, vigorous sun-loving daylilies tolerate drought and can even take part shade. Each bloom lasts just a day, but plants keep the trumpetlike blooms coming for weeks on end. Choose reblooming varieties like yellow ‘Stella de Oro’ (pictured) or red ‘Lady Scarlet’ for even more flowering time.

Few plants can brighten even the toughest dry shade like these rugged and varied perennials. Superstars include ‘Pandora’s Box’ with green-edged white leaves and ‘Frances Williams’ (pictured) with large rippled blue-green foliage and chartreuse edges.

This voluptuous beauty is no diva, thriving for decades given full sun and well-drained soil. Expect attractive mounding glossy-green foliage and fragrant late-spring blooms. Solid performers include the classic double ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and the semi-double ‘Coral Charm’ (pictured).

One of the easiest bulbs to grow, ornamental onions add interesting contrast to the garden with their clumps of grasslike leaves and rounded or nodding flower heads. Try ‘Forescate’ common chives for pink globes in spring or ‘Nodding Pink’ (pictured), a native ornamental onion with long-lived dangling pink flowers in late summer.

Given ample sunlight, this fountain-shaped ornamental grass (panicum) offers blue-green foliage in summer and dramatic golden or red tones in fall. Plus, it’s not on the menu for rabbits, deer or grasshoppers.