5 Flowers You Only Need to Plant Once – They’ll Multiply Into Dozens More for Free
These easy perennial flowers fill in garden beds fast! Just put them in the ground, then they'll spread and bloom for years to come.
All too often, you pay a pretty penny for a flowering plant to install in the garden, enjoy it for the season, then face an empty flower bed the next spring. Every gardener’s dream is to plant some gorgeous blooms and watch them, year after year, reappear and multiply to fill their flower bed.
Perennials that multiply with ease are among the very best choices for your garden. These are neither rare nor exotic, just appealing flowering plants that reappear every year bigger and better than the year before. There are dozens of these “magic” plants with different blossom shapes and colors.
Here is a short list of the best flowers you only need to plant once and they’ll multiply into dozens more for tons of free blooms every year.
Flowers You Only Need to Plant Once
Once you invite plants into your flower garden that not only reappear, year after year, but multiply every year, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this earlier. Here are the top varieties to try.
1. Daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.)
Daylilies are a beginning gardener’s best choice for a first plant. They delight with vibrant blooms that appear year after year, yet they top the list of the most adaptable plants on the planet.
Poor soil? They don’t care. Lots of sun or minimal sun – that’s fine. Even if the winters are harsh or the summers get little rain, through it all, these perennials grow cheerfully, filling your bed with colorful trumpet-shaped flowers in USDA zones 3-9.
But that’s not all. Thanks to their tuberous roots, daylilies multiply rapidly and form large clumps over time. Call it an effortless expansion. They just seem to spread joyfully, producing more and more blooms with no fuss or muss.
Each blossom lasts for one day only, but not to worry. Daylilies are like bud factories, popping out bloom after bloom for your visual pleasure – flowers that attract pollinators to your garden. They are perfect for beginner or overworked gardeners because Mother Nature does the bulk of the work.
Explore dozens of gorgeous daylilies in different colors from the Home Depot.
2. Cranesbill Geranium (Geranium spp.)
Now don’t just run to the garden store and ask for geraniums, if you’re looking for perennials that multiply on their own. Cranesbill geraniums, aka hardy geraniums, are perennials that spread just for the fun of it.
Their clusters of delicate flowers do some reseeding each year, but the quick spread is from their rhizomes. Cranesbill geraniums form wide mounds that are perfect for borders and low-maintenance beds.
Compact and beautifully blooming, cranesbill geraniums fill your beds with flowers in shades of pink and purple starting in spring in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. Give them a full sun or partial shade location – they aren’t picky about light – and regular garden soil suits them just fine. This herbaceous perennial grows in the wild in Europe and attracts butterflies with its vivid flowers.
Shop gorgeous cranesbill geranium plants online from Wayside Gardens.
3. Catmint (Nepeta spp.)
Cats are always right (if you doubt this, just ask any cat!) and most kitties sing the praises of catmint. Okay, they like catnip better, but catmint comes in a close second.
Catnip contains a chemical compound called nepetalactone that drives cats wild. Catmint also contains nepetalactone, just less of it. However, catmint is more attractive – with lavender blue flowers – and multiplies quickly to fill your flower bed.
Catmint is yet another perennial that spreads through self-seeding and underground stems. It flowers best in sunny, well-draining areas, and its blooms hang on for weeks on end. They have a soft and lovely fragrance that attracts passing humans as well as bees. Plant catmint in USDA hardiness zones 3-9.
Buy catmint plants online from Garden Goods Direct.
4. Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia spp.)
Are black-eyed Susans the most recognizable garden flower? The daisy-like yellow petals of this summertime staple radiate out from their dark centers. Big and bold, black-eyes Susans are also reliable bloomers.
These perennials spread through both rhizomes and prolific self-seeding, which guarantees a vibrant display season after season. They create naturalized drifts that bloom from midsummer to frost in USDA zones 3-9.
Are these classic garden plants picky? Not one bit. Black-eyed Susans accept average soil conditions, are famously drought-tolerant and deer resistant, making them ideal for wildflower meadows or cottage gardens. Their bright and happy flowers attract butterflies and bees, adding to the joy of the garden. And when the flowers are done, birds enjoy their seeds.
Get a 3-pack of Monrovia black-eyed Susans from Lowe's to fill in your garden fast.
5. Bee Balm (Monarda spp.)
Bee balm’s tubular flowers are fragrant and showy, a perfect place for a hungry hummingbird to get a bit of nectar. In fact, bee balm, with its aromatic foliage and red, purple or pink blossoms, is notorious as a magnet for pollinators. This perennial also adds a pop of color to the landscape with its vibrant blooms. It is perfect for sunny borders or meadow gardens in USDA hardiness zones 3-11.
Plant bee balm in a sunny site with moist soil. Once the perennial is established, bee balm spreads every way but Sunday via underground runners as well as self-seeding. You don’t have to do anything to help it make its way into a colony – just appreciate the bright flowers and the minty fragrance of the leaves when crushed.
Just in case you’re hungry, you ought to know that this plant is a member of the mint family, so the entire plant is edible and often used for Oswego tea.
