When we think of beautiful gardens, we think of spring or summertime, flowers, green leaves, and everything alive and vibrant. And when we think of winter, we usually think of empty slots of land or maybe a few trees covered in snow. But not all plants die off as soon as the cold weather begins to creep in. With all-year-round plants, both foliage and flowers can be part of your garden no matter what season without needing to be replaced yearly.
We’ve made a list of 25+ perfect plants that last all year for permanent garden splendor.
What Plants Can Survive All Seasons?
There are a lot of plants that are sensitive to the extremes, both hot and cold, and that can’t sustain frost, but many will be able to not only survive but thrive throughout the year. These plants are known as perennials and can both maintain their unique foliage or even flowers. These all-year plants aren’t afraid of winter’s harsher conditions, which means you can still have color and fragrance in your garden. This will depend on your chosen plants, so make sure to choose plants that last all year in your area.
What Plants Are Best for Year-Round Cultivation?
Although the majority of plants prefer to be planted in spring after the risk of frost is over or right at the beginning of fall to avoid summer’s hot weather, there are exceptions to this. There are specific plants for each season. These are known as seasonal plants, and although you might know this about crops and other agriculture-related plants, this also applies to ornamental plants.
The best way to ensure all-year beauty is by mixing a variety of different types of plants with different characteristics, both perennials and annuals. This will ensure your garden always has ornamental and practical values, as well as create a beautiful and diverse landscape.
List of All-Year-Round Plants that Look Stunning in Every Season
Below are some of the most popular examples of plants that can ornament both indoor and outdoor locations throughout every season.
Indoor
Having indoor plants will allow you to choose from a wider range of options, with the bonus of making it easier to control environmental conditions for your greenery.
African Violet
Latin Name: Streptocarpus
Description: With fuzzy succulent leaves and blossoms in a variety of shades, such as purple, red, or white, this plant can bloom all year long and can live a long life in your collection.
The Advantages: This is a shade-loving plant, making it easier to maintain when days become shorter, and natural light is scarcer.
ZZ Plant
Latin Name: Zamioculcas zamiifolia
Description: This well-known beautiful plant has thick, shiny, dark-green leaves that grow upright. All it needs is a little light, and it will remain fresh and vibrant all year long.
The Advantages: This plant thrives on neglect, being extremely low-maintenance.
Purple Shamrock
Latin Name: Oxalis triangularis
Description: With dark leaves that resemble purple butterflies, this plant is part of the Prayer Plants, opening and closing its leaves throughout the day. It is a perfect year-round plant since it maintains its unique look throughout the year.
The Advantages: This plant is effortlessly beautiful, and all it needs is basic care and a trim every winter.
Rex Begonia
Latin Name: Begonia rex
Description: With dynamic color patterns arranged in swirls, splashes, or stripes, this is a great way to have color without flowers since this plant can come in various colors, like orange, red, purple, silver, and gold.
The Advantages: It is great for any home since it only needs a bit of indirect light and a damp substrate.
Christmas Cactus
Latin Name: Schlumbergera
Description: With flowers that range from red and pink to yellow and white and last for several days, this cactus is green and beautiful during the warmer months and in full bloom during the cold ones.
The Advantages: Besides surviving winter, it actually thrives and produces flowers when temperatures drop.
Rubber Plant
Latin Name: Ficus elastica
Description: Like many plants, it becomes dormant in fall but maintains its shiny rubbery dark green leaves with lighter undersides. When new growth appears, it is tinted red, matching the color of its central veins.
The Advantages: It allows for personalization since it can be pruned to look shorter and bushier or taller and tree-like.
Aloe Plant
Latin Name: Aloe vera
Description: Beautiful and resourceful, it is an all-season plant that looks the same throughout the year and offers practical uses such as helping with sunburns in summer or dry skin in winter.
The Advantages: It enjoys the drier air that heaters promote during winter and can sustain the cold, all while being low maintenance.
Outdoor
Your outdoor space could still buzz with beauty and color throughout the year since some plants are hardy enough to survive both summer's hottest days and winter's harsher storms.
For Front Yard
Japanese Silver Grass
Latin Name: Miscanthus sinensis
Description: It's an ornamental grass that can grow up to 12 feet (3.70 m) with reddish to silver clusters of flowers, which in fall, turn into fluffy seeds, and the seed heads maintain their form throughout winter.
The Advantages: A perfect all-year-round outdoor plant that offers a variety of forms throughout the seasons.
Crabapple
Latin Name: Malus
Description: A true all-season plant, it blooms in spring, bears showy glossy leaves in summer, has brightly colored fruit and color-changing leaves in fall, and its fruits will linger until winter, paired with elegant leafless branches.
The Advantages: Multicolored and versatile ornamental value.
Rhododendron
Latin Name: Rhododendron
Description: The entire Rhododendron genus has incredible potential as ornamental plants, and some varieties can sustain all seasons. Spring means vibrant leaves, summer means massive clusters of colorful flowers, and in fall, leaves turn into the typical seasonal colors.
The Advantages: Some varieties are evergreen, keeping their paddle-shaped leaves all year round.
For Flower Bed
Coneflower
Latin Name: Echinacea
Description: It can have multiple colors and sizes and bear flowers from summer until late fall. In winter, it keeps its seedpods, making them perfect for a winter garden and attracting some wildlife, mainly birds.
The Advantages: Easy to grow and versatile throughout the year.
Sedum
Latin Name: Sedum
Description: The Sedum genus has a large number of plants that bear flowers that become brighter as summer transitions into fall. This means the colder the temperatures, the brighter and more vibrant the growth. Its succulent foliage can come in many colors and even change them to orange and red as winter approaches.
The Advantages: Incredible ability to endure climate extremes, from hot and dry, to cold and humid.
Candytuft
Latin Name: Iberis
Description: This genus has a lot of species that produce fluffy clusters of flowers of several colors in late spring to early summer. One variety, called Autumn White, can even rebloom in fall, offering a longer flowering period.
The Advantages: Their foliage remains in winter, and the wide range of varieties provides interesting combinations of similar flowers with different blooming periods.
Siberian Iris
Latin Name: Iris sibirica
Description: Flowers can be blue, lavender, yellow, or white, and they bloom in spring and summer. After that, its grass-like leaves turn golden in fall, and dark seedpods remain throughout winter.
The Advantages: Hardy and versatile throughout the seasons.
For Pots
Coral Bells
Latin Name: Heuchera
Description: There are multiple color varieties, with foliage in shades like reddish-pink, purple, lime-green, and golden. It bears small colorful flowers in spring and summer.
The Advantages: It sustains its leaves throughout the year and brings color to any garden.
Red Osier Dogwood
Latin Name: Cornus serices
Description: This shrub bears white flowers in spring, variegated foliage in summer, berry fruits in fall, and branches that turn bright red in winter.
The Advantages: This plant lasts all year, with an everchanging look and color palette.
Emerald Arborvitae
Latin Name: Thuja occidentalis
Description: This shrub stays dark green all year, offering your garden a classic and evergreen accent. Its pot size will determine its size, so it can be kept small or repotted to increase its growth.
The Advantages: It is low maintenance and can be shaped into different styles and figures.
Old Fashioned Mums
Latin Name: Chrysanthemum
Description: The well-known Chrysanthemum genus has perennial species, such as the Old Fashioned Mums, that will bloom from summer until the end of fall and produce many flowers.
The Advantages: Its perennial nature means it doesn’t need to be planted again in spring like other species, and its later blooming period allows flower beds to remain colorful for longer periods.
Golden Creeping Jenny
Latin Name: Lysimanchia nummularia
Description: This ornamental creeper has bright yellow flowers in spring and gold or lime-green foliage that stays vibrant all year.
The Advantages: Easily spreads and fills a pot, which creates a beautiful cascading effect.
For Borders
Cedar
Latin Name: Cedrus
Description: In many cedars, growth is highlighted in spring, unique small flowers and pollen capsules appear in summer, cones form in fall, and winter means luscious green foliage.
The Advantages: These are great for hedges and borders due to their dense evergreen foliage and how they can be easily pruned into any size and shape.
Boxwood
Latin Name: Buxus
Description: Simple and practical with intricate, beautiful leaves that remain vigorous throughout all seasons.
The Advantages: This type of plant is a great complement to all sorts of garden types.
Anise Hyssop
Latin Name: Agastache
Description: Also known as Blue Fortune, this plant exudes a minty scent and bears beautiful vertical purple-blue flowers from summer until frost. Once they die, the foliage remains.
The Advantages: Besides beauty and scent, this plant’s leaves can also be used in teas.
Are There Plants that Grow All Year Round?
It’s hard for most outdoor plants to grow during their dormancy periods, but indoor plants can be “forced” into growing all year if the right growing conditions are met. If winters are not extremely harsh in your area, some outdoor perennials will display growth throughout the year.
What Plants Grow All Year-Round?
All-year growth depends on plant hardiness and environmental and weather conditions. The right conditions need to be met for growth to happen. Some examples of plants that grow all year round are:
Hibiscus
Latin Name: Rosa sinensis
Description: Flowers can come in many sizes and colors, such as pink, red, yellow, and white, although red is the most common. When kept outside, it tends to attract pollinators.
The Advantages: When kept indoors or under favorable external conditions, this plant will not only survive but also grow all year long.
Peperomia
Latin Name: Peperomia
Description: The majority of Peperomias will be able to grow throughout the entire year under favorable conditions. The plants in this genus tend to be compact and with a wide variety of beautiful and unique foliage.
The Advantages: Easy to find and, usually, easy to care for.
Episcia Pink Panther
Latin Name: Episcia cupreata ‘Pink Panther’
Description: A beautiful plant with soft and fuzzy silver-green foliage that bears pink flowers. This houseplant will grow as long as its humidity requirements are met.
The Advantages: Very easy to grow and creates a beautiful trailing or spreading effect.
FAQ
What Type of Plants Keep Their Leaves All Year-Round?
Plants that can remain evergreen all year round are referred to as perennials. This category of plants includes a wide variety of plants such as trees, shrubs, succulents, crops, and ornamental flowering plants.
What Are Good Outdoor Plants that Come Back Every Year?
Many plants stay green all year but only bloom during the usual growing period of spring to summer. These plants don’t die between seasons and flower annually. But there are also annual plants that return every year without the need to be planted again, especially those that grow from bulbs.
Is There a Plant that Flowers All Year-Round?
Depending on the weather or environmental conditions, yes. Some can only survive the first frosts, but plants like The Golden Trumpet (Allamanda cathartica) will keep their flowers all year long.
Are There Flowering Plants that Stay Green All Year?
Evergreen flowering perennials will keep their green foliage all year, long after the blooming season is over. Many herbs are particularly known for being great practical flowering plants with evergreen foliage, such as Lavender, Rosemary, and Salvia, among others.
