Gardening: Flowers

Black Thumb Plants

If all those images of Michelle Obama digging a South Lawn garden have you determined to cultivate your own south 40, it's time to start thinking about what to plant.

So what if you don't have an army of fifth-grade volunteers to help you. Or your thumb isn't naturally green. So what if you think a Purse Flower is a charm for your handbag and Bee Balm is a new kind of lip moisturizer. You don't have to be a pro -- or a first lady -- to have a colorful, fragrant, and maybe even edible, spring garden.

To entice you, we asked several experts to suggest some easy-care plants -- varieties that you can't kill, no matter how hard you try. Click on for their picks, then check with your garden store to see what will grow in your hardiness zone.

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GEM MARIGOLD

Marigolds may be as basic to a garden as dirt, but for a more interesting variation on the theme, try the Gem Marigold (Tagetes tenuifolia). Not only is this golden species colorful, but with names like Lemon Gem and Tangerine Gem, the flowers are also fragrant (think citrus scents) and flavorful (a hint of citrus-tarragon). "I'm not into marigolds, but when I found gem marigolds, I fell in love," says Gayla Trail, founder of the hip gardening website, You Grow Girl. "The leaves are ferny and delicate, the flowers are small but incredibly prolific -- and they're edible. I grow them in large pots with my tomatoes, so that I get beauty along with the tomato plant." And who doesn't love a two-fer?

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BROADLEAF THYME

Known, too, as Cuban Oregano, Broadleaf Thyme (Coleus amboinicus) may be one of the easiest plants to grow, says You Grow Girl's Gayla Trail. The herb does best in sunny spots, but, that said, this succulent can flourish outdoors or on a windowsill, in droughts or something wetter. "It's really aromatic, and it's pretty -- the leaves have little scallopy edges," Trail says. "It's fairly unknown here, but in Cuba, it's all over the place." Indeed, the pungent herb makes a great addition to bean and fish dishes and Jamaican jerk recipes.

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RUGOSA ROSES

Roses may be the stuff of poetry, but growing those garden divas can require slavish devotion. "People enjoy tending roses, but I feel like I'm dealing with a princess," says You Grow Girl's Gayla Trail. Which is why the hardy, indestructable Rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) makes the pros, well, wax poetic. "It takes the heat, it takes the cold, and it produces beautiful, fragrant flowers," says Charlie Nardozzi, staff horticulturist for the National Gardening Association. "You get a big flush of flowers early in summer, then periodically throughout the summer, then big rose hips in early fall." If there's a downside, it's that the stems are covered in thorns. "But that," says Trail, "makes them good in my street garden because no one wants to pick them."

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BEE BALM

No, Bee Balm (Monarda) is not a lip salve, though the plant was used for skin rashes and oral infections once upon a time. The bee in its name, says Charlie Nardozzi of the National Gardening Association, comes from the fact that the plant attracts bees -- lots and lots of bees, though they aren't the only creatures that want to propagate it. Since Bee Balm is widely adaptive, you'll want to grow it in your yard and give away cuttings to all your friends. Best, its flowers dazzle in a rainbow of colors -- white, red, purples -- while the leaves bear an intense, minty taste.

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HEUCHERA

How could you not smile about a plant that also goes by the name Coral Bell? The very name rings out cheerfulness. Though some varieties produce spikes of flowers (they're magnets for hummingbirds), opt for Coral Bell as foliage, a foil for flowering annuals, says Sonia Uyterhoeven, the New York Botanical Garden's public education gardener. Her favorites? "Huchera Dolce Peach Melba has orange foliage that turns pinky hues throughout the season; Huchera Mocha has huge chocolate foliage, and Huchera Key Lime Pie has citrine green foliage that will pop in any shady situation."

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IMPATIENS

Talk about Gardening 101. Impatiens, quite simply, give you real bang for your buck -- they're inexpensive, easy to care for, and blossom from spring to fall. "Once you plant them, they sit for a week or two while the roots are getting established, and then they take off and fill the space beautifully," says Sonia Uyterhoeven of the New York Botanical Gardenn. She says she mixes impatiens with Foxgloves for a carpet of color with vertical accents, or she'll use double-flowering impatiens or New Guinea impatiens, which have bigger flowers and tolerate more sun.

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DAYLILY

It might be hard to find anyone who doesn't love the Daylily (Hemerocallis). "You can grow them from northern Maine to southern California, and they produce flowers in the middle of the summer in a wide range of colors and shapes," says Charlie Nardozzi of the National Gardening Association. As the name implies, the daylily lasts only a day -- it blossoms at dawn, dies at dusk -- but each stem produces so many flowers that it blossoms for weeks. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

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BLACK-EYED SUSAN

There's good reason why this wildflower is a garden staple, and it's not just its cheery yellow face. "They're un-killable -- they're going to end up taking over the world," jokes Gayla Trail from You Grow Girl. A member of the poppy family, Black-eyed Susan grow and grow -- in height and footprint. Which means that if you want to control your swath of Suzies, you're going to have to be vigilant about cutting them back. That said, nothing could be easier to tend. Be daring, though, and go beyond basic Black. Charlie Nardozzi suggests trying newer varieties, like the Cherokee Sunset, which have fiery red and orange plumes.

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RUSSIAN SAGE

Another grow-anywhere beauty is Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), with its spiky silver-grey stems and gorgeous blue flowers. "It's gotten a lot of press in the last five or ten years," says Nardozzi. "That's because it's easy to grow and takes pretty adverse conditions -- it does well in the heat, it does well in dry conditions and it will grow well if you have water. It's a beautiful perennial."

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