Your sunny garden needs both annuals and perennials to attract pollinators and provide season-long color to your yard. While annuals bloom for one season from the time you plant them until frost, perennials bloom for a shorter period of weeks to months. But they return year after year, making them a smart investment in your garden for the long haul.
If your lawn gets at least six hours of direct sunlight a day, you’ll want to plant full-sun perennials—they need that much light in order to bloom. (In hot climates, some of them do better with some afternoon shade.) When choosing plants, read the plant tag or description to make sure they’ll survive winters in your USDA Hardiness zones (find yours here). Then dig a hole about two to three times the size of the container, remove the plant from the pot and set it in the hole at the same depth it was in the pot. Replace the soil, tamp down and water well. Keep them watered during the first few weeks and during dry spells for the first year as their roots get established, and know that it’s usually not until their third year in the ground that they really take off and start growing like crazy.
Not sure which full-sun perennials to plant? We’re here to help. Here are, oh, 20 of our favorites (because declaring one the best full-sun perennial would be too tricky).
