Perennials are the hardest working garden plant, with minimal effort on your part. Since they'll come back year after year, choosing perennials with different blooming times will ensure pops of color all season long. The varieties are enormous, including ground cover plants, bushes, and everything in between. Here's a broken down list of the 10 best perennials to give your garden gorgeous blooms for years to come.

Amsonia/Bluestar

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Commonly known as Bluestar for its delicate, cool blue flowers, this hardy shrub will grow best in full sun from first bloom to last frost. It will produce small, star-shaped flowers in late spring and attract carpenter bees, butterflies, and even hummingbirds. Fall will turn the leaves from a rich green to a golden-yellow hue. Bluestar will typically reach two feet high and two feet wide, depending on the variety. These beautiful, low-maintenance shrubs will pack a punch all season long.

Baptisia/False Indigo

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Spring blooms don’t get more eye-catching than false indigo. These low-maintenance plants produce pea-shaped blossoms in blue, white, or yellow for around six weeks in early summer. These plants love full sun, and when mature they are up to two and a half to three-foot-tall and produce around a hundred flower spikes. False Indigo is drought-tolerant and thrives to last for decades, infusing your garden with bursts of color for years to come.

Phlox

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Phlox is a perennial that will shine in any garden. The two forms of phlox are garden phlox and creeping phlox. Depending on your needs, either of these varieties are a great addition to a garden that gets full sun and has well-draining soil.

Garden flox come in a variety of brilliant colors - think bright pinks, punchy purples or brilliant orange. With growth reaching up to three feet tall, these colorful blooms also have a lovely fragrance that attract pollinators. Most varieties start to bloom mid-summer and last for around six weeks.

As the name suggests, creeping flox, is a ground cover perennial that blooms from mid-spring until mid-summer in a wide variety of bright colors  ranging from pink, blue, red, purple, and even white. Creeping phlox needs about two feet of room to spread and does best in full sun or partial shade.

Hostas

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A best-of perennials list isn’t complete without hostas. This garden-favorite grower is low-maintenance and provides ground cover with beautiful green leaves and a wide variety of light colored flowers that bloom from early spring to later summer. There is a wide range of hosta cultivars, so there should be one suited to your garden no matter the requirements. Be sure to plant hostas in well draining soil with plenty of water, and you’ll see why these perennials have been so popular for years.

Peonies

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A sign of late-spring is without a doubt peonies. These gorgeous perennials come in a wide variety of forms, ranging from a single layer of petals to multiple layers that resemble a ball. Different forms of peonies mean different blooming seasons and different colors. The most common color is blush pink, but other favorites include red, orange, yellow, and white. You can find a type of peony for each stage of the growing season, but whichever you choose be sure to give them full sun and deadhead once wilted.

Astilbe/False Goat's Beard

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Astilbe, also known as False Goat's Beard, is the queen of shade (or partial shade) gardens. Its tall, feather duster-shaped flower cones will brighten shaded corners of pink, white, red or purple hues. These perennials also thrive best in colder climates, so consider something else if you’re in a hot, dry place. Depending on the variety, your astilbe will bloom in late spring, or late summer, lasting for two to three weeks.

Rhododendron

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Add this gorgeous perennial shrub to your shade-loving plant list. Rhododendrons, like most perennials on this list, have many varieties to suit the needs of your garden. With many varieties comes many colors to brighten a shady spot. Flowers of deep purple, blue, red, pink, or lavender will crown the evergreen leaves for a long bloom time that will vary depending on the climate. Colder climates can also produce mid-spring blooms, while hot climates can see rhododendron blooms at the beginning of the year.

Hardy Hibiscus

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As it’s name indicates, the hardy hibiscus can survive in colder climates, unlike it’s cousin the tropical hibiscus. Hardy hibiscus needs full sun and well-draining soil to reward you with red, pink, or white saucer-sized petals. Although they’re late-spring or early-summer bloomers it’s worth the wait for these oversized jewels to grace your garden.

Coreopsis

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This perennial plant will only bloom after two years, but if you can wait that long, the reward will be bursts of color that will draw butterflies, bees, and passersby to do a double take. Many popular varieties of coreopsis are bright yellow, and will bloom from mid-summer to fall in direct sunlight. These plants are low-maintenance, but deadheading them can extend their bloom time.

Asters

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The final perennial on our list will finish your fall growing season in style. Asters are tall, growing anywhere from one to six feet. Their daisy-like flowers range in color from purple to blue to white. Although they bloom late in the season, asters should be in the ground by mid-spring. There are hundreds of aster species, but all will need direct sunlight to reach their full show-stopping potential.

Make Your Garden Eye-Catching

Perennials are the plants that keep on giving. Year after year, they will come back to soak up the sun and display their gorgeous colors. Let this list be a starting point for the colors you want to see all season long in your garden. Let us know in the comments below, which perennials blow you away with their flowers every year?