Master Gardener: Landscaping with low-maintenance plants

For many of us, winter is a busy season in Southwest Florida. The area comes alive with art exhibits, theater productions, and nature walks, to name a few.

We enjoy having time to visit with friends and family who travel down to escape the cold, northern temperatures. We want to have lovely gardens where we can relax with our guests without having to excuse ourselves to care for our landscape. One solution is to plan an easy-care landscape with low maintenance plants.

The term “low maintenance” refers to plants which do not need frequent care, such as pruning, watering, or spraying to remain healthy. These plants have low fertilizer requirements, few problems with disease or pests, and have adapted to our hot, wet summers and our dry winters.

Additionally, the plants should not be listed as invasive by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council or the UF/IFAS Assessment of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas. It is of utmost importance to select the “right plant for the right place.”

When doing so, try to group plants together according to their needs which include light, moisture, and temperature. Hardiness zones are determined to help us better understand which plants will survive winters in a specific area of the country.

In 2023 many Hardiness Zones shifted upward, which means that the minimum temperature for a plant to survive in a specified zone has gone up. Please refer to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for Florida at ffl.ifas.ufl.edu>resources to look up the hardiness zone for your area. This will assist you in finding plants that will survive the temperatures in your location. Remember when selecting plants that common names are often misleading, and sometimes more than one plant species may share the same or similar common name. When possible, it is better to refer to scientific names when researching plants for your landscape.

Some annual and perennial species have their own distinguishing features commonly referred to as cultivars. Annual plants complete their life cycle in one growing season. Because of Florida’s warm climate, some annuals last more than one year and continue to bloom. Perennials live for three or more years and vary in their life spans. Some annuals behave like perennials and appear to return year after year. A new generation of plants has grown from the seeds dropped by the mother plant, a process referred to as self-seeding or reseeding. Zinnias (Zinnia elegans) are an example of self-seeders.

When planning a garden, interspersing brightly colored plants with green leafy plantings defines the area with a contrast of colors. Crotons (Codiaeum variegatum) with their brilliantly colored leaves, feature many leaf types and sizes, from swirly ribbons to wide, flat leaves. This perennial shrub has the best color in bright, indirect light and does well in fertile, well-drained moist soil. Coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides) is a heat tolerant, durable annual that has very few disease or insect problems.

It is known for its colorful foliage which can include green, yellow, pink, red, orange and maroon. These plants can be paired with the selloum philodendrum (Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum), or the variegated ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’) for a dramatic effect. The selloum philodendron grows quite well in full sun or partial shade and needs some room to spread. It can also be used in large containers which look attractive on the patio or at poolside. The variegated ginger is a striking foliage plant with its large yellow and green striped leaves and its clusters of fragrant white flowers blooming from summer to late fall. It is an herbaceous perennial which needs room to spread and does best in partial shade.

Low maintenance pollinator plants can add beauty and excitement to the garden by attracting bees, butterflies, and birds. These include the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), white wild indigo (Baptista alba), American beautyberry (Callicerpa americana), button bush (Aphalanthus accidentatis), Indian blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), beach sunflower (Helianthus debilis), and scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea). Many pollinator plants need full sun and well-drained soil. The exceptions are the scarlet sage, the American beautyberry, and the button bush which prefer moist soil.

Ornamental grasses can provide texture and variety to offset your flowering plants. They come in multiple shapes, heights, and foliage colors. Grasses that are easy to care for include pampas grass (Cortaderia Sloane), lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus, Stapf), liriope (Liriope muscari), pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), and palm grass (Setaria palmifolia). It is recommended to plant ornamental grasses in the spring, but container-grown grasses can be planted in all seasons. Most grasses can benefit from cutting back, usually before new growth begins in the spring. Grasses grow best in three to five hours of direct sun each day. In the shade, grasses may not bloom, and often become limp and tend to fall over.

Groundcovers provide protection for your topsoil and prevent it from erosion and drought. They are effective for suppressing weeds and for adding texture to the garden without much effort. Groundcovers vary in height, texture, and shape. Some of these include perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata, Benth), star begonia (Begonia heracleifolia), white begonia (Begonia semperflorens), gazania (Gazania rigens), and aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller) and miniature agave (Agave pumila), both groundcover succulents. These groundcovers require sunny conditions, with the aloe needing indirect sunlight, and the miniature agave thriving in both full sun and partial shade.

The plants listed here were taken from a list of low-maintenance plants compiled by UF/IFAS. For more information on low-maintenance plants, go to

sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/miami-dade/landscapes--gardening/low-maintenance-landscape-plants-for-south-florida/.

The Lee County Master Gardener volunteers will offer a seminar on Low Maintenance Plants for your yard from 10 until 11:30 a.m., Saturday, March 2, at the Estero Recreation Center, Room 103A, 9200 Corkscrew Palms Blvd., Estero.

Other Master Gardener Seminars will include the “9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping” offered March 9, March 21, May and May 4; “Don’t Call Us Pests” on April 20; “Butterfly Basics” on April 25 and “All About Seeds,” May 16.

For more information regarding time and place and to register for the free classes, go to Eventbrite at:

eventbrite.com/o/lee-county-extension-4394003213.

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And Master Gardener: Plants that bloom year-round

Carole Kerns is a Master Gardener Volunteer with UF/IFAS Lee County Extension. You can contact Carole and other Master Gardeners with your gardening questions at [email protected] or call (239)533-7504 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Follow the extension service on Instagram at lee_ufifas. The University of Florida is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Master Gardener: Landscaping with low-maintenance plants