Top 20 Low-Maintenance Plants Perfect for Effortless Landscaping

Distylium

New to home gardens, distyliums are excellent evergreen shrubs, especially well-suited for warm regions. These disease-resistant plants make an ideal replacement for boxwoods, particularly if you're dealing with boxwood blight. They're also highly resistant to insects, rabbits, and deer, and can withstand the challenges of heat and drought. Some distylium varieties can grow quite tall, serving as effective privacy screens. However, 'Cinnamon Girl,' featured here, maintains a compact size, reaching 2 to 3 feet in height and 3 to 4 feet in width. Its new, finely textured foliage starts with a plum-purple hue and matures to a lovely blue-green. This low-maintenance outdoor plant is the most cold-hardy distylium to date, perfect for Zones 7 to 9.

Distyliums thrive in conditions ranging from full sun to partial shade. They prefer moderate watering, and you can lightly prune the tips during the summer to promote dense, new growth. It's best to do this before the flower buds set in late summer. Although distyliums require minimal pruning, you can shape them in late winter once the tiny reddish-maroon flowers have finished blooming. Simply feed them with a balanced fertilizer in the spring, and these resilient plants will flourish in your landscape, making them a favorite among landscape companies.