When decorating a home, plants and shrubbery are an important part in bringing life and color to your property. For second homeowners who don’t have the time to offer constant care, or those without a green thumb, low maintenance flora can be the perfect option.
Below are some plant suggestions from local nursery owners.
Grasses
“The low maintenance part is synonymous with native plants because if it’s native, it means it survives well in the environment without additional care. Rather than plant invasive varieties from Asia, it makes sense to buy American natives that can create a nice environment without using a lot of water and fertilizer.”
-Peter Clarke
Clarke’s Garden and Home, Greenport
Sedum Autumn Joy
“They are succulents by nature and, once established, are really drought tolerant and resistant to cold. They have no problem with our winters and they have a period of flowering. Some are in the spring, some in the summer and some in the fall. They are generally deer resistant too.”
-Valerie Cichanowicz
Chick’s Agway, Southold
Lavender
“Perennials are one [type of plant] that is popular. It’s something you have every year that is very, very low in maintenance. For example, you have lavender. Lavender is drought resistan … and really good for a border plant — along the driveway or along the walkway — and it’s a beautiful blue flower during the summer time.”
-Manuel Canel
Colorful Gardens, Jamesport
Adam’s needle
“Low maintenance gardens, they best are ones they call xeriscaping, which would be gardens that can take very little water. That would automatically be a low maintenance garden. Once the plants are established, any kind of plants that use less water, like the yucca plant, is great.”
Noreen Ficuciello
Verderber Landscape, Nursery & Garden Center, Aquebogue
Green Giant Arborvitae
“It’s deer resistant, it’s low maintenance. You don’t have to prune it. It grows about 2.5 feet a year and once it’s established, it’s fine to take care of itself.”
—Eric Giles
Giles Nursery, Baiting Hollow
This story originally appeared in the March 2017 edition of northforker magazine
