Underused landscape plants to make your yard look unique: Garden Guy

There are popular plants that end up in just about every landscaped yard in Minnesota, but there are plenty of other plants to choose from that add color and interest to your lawn and garden. 

While hosta and hydrangea are popular plants (and for good reason), FOX 9's Garden Guy Dale K is sharing a variety of underused landscape plants that will make your yard look unique. While some may be tricky to find, most high-quality garden shops will be able to help you. 

Here are some of Dale K's favorite underused plants: 

  • Sedum, especially the varieties that spread, do well in cut-stone walkways, boulder walls/retaining walls, and for green roofs.
  • Helenium. which has a daisy-like flower and blooms all summer long.
  • Lansia, there are different varieties, including some with silvery foliage that illuminates at night and some with stunning flowers.
  • Honeysuckles, especially if you want to attract hummingbirds, and it grows quickly.
  • Blueberries, a wonderful landscape plant that blooms in the spring, grow berries in the summer, and provide vibrant colors in the fall. (Just make sure you plant two of them for the fruit.)
  • Variegated Jacob's ladder, which does well in the shade and can take some sun as well.
  • Tiarella, a great flowering ground cover for shady spots.
  • Gaillardia, which produces vibrantly colored flowers and loves the heat.
  • Spirea, which used to be over planted but now it's under planted, blooms multiple times per year.
  • Hypericum, a shrubbery.
  • Perennial gypsophila, which flowers and makes for wonderful cut flowers in your home.
  • Baptisia, which has wonderful yellow or blue flowers and grows into a mounded bush.
  • Foxgloves, which have tubular-shaped flowers.
  • Elderberry, which grows taller and provides nice accents in the garden.