Is Anything No Maintenance?
Are there any plants that could be called 'No Maintenance'?
No.
These are growing and living things. They need fertilizer. Leaves and flowers are spent and must be removed.
It's just true that a fine garden takes effort. But we can be smart about it, can't we?
Let's talk realistically about the amount of maintenance and maintenance expectations required in your own gardens. Some plants are necessarily fussy, and they do have a place. But it's also true that sometimes your conceptual design can be resolved with more than one type of plant. Why not include maintenance as part of your plant criteria when you are building a plant list?
Height Matters
Start here: It's useful to call any plant that never needs trimming for height 'No Maintenance'. Examples abound:
- Any of the ferns: N. Biserrata, Macho Fern; Polypodium scolopendria Wart Fern;
- Dianella tasmanica, Dianella;
- Strelitzia reginae, Bird of Paradise;
- T. asiaticum, Asian Jasmine.
Each of these plants will establish at a given height. Some spread more than others. But there's no routine height adjustment needed, so let's call them 'No Maintenance'.
What's left? Are all of the others high maintenance? Not at all! We have an entire category of shrubs that I call
'Low Maintenance': they need trimming no more than once per year, and some less frequently. Some examples:
- Hamelia patens, or Hamelia glabra, Firebush;
- Plumbago capensis, Plumbago;
- Ficus microphylla 'Green Isle', Green Island Ficus.
And now you know.
