Conifers, like pine, spruce, cedar and fir are exactly what typically come to mind when we think of evergreens but magnolia, hollies and lavender trees will also be evergreens.

Annuals As their title suggests, annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in just 1 season. Typically used to add seasonal colour to flowerbeds and planters, these prolific bloomers die back after flowering. Removing spent blooms will stimulate annuals to produce more gaudy blossoms. Frequent annuals include marigold, vinca, begonia, coleus mount tv on wall installation . zinnia, impatiens, petunia, nasturtium and pentas. But climate plays a huge part in determing an yearly plant's lifecycle -- some forms of daisies, geranium, lantana, mandevilla, pansies and verbena are perennials in hot climates. Locate the best annuals to your zone at our plant finder.

Biennials Less common than annuals and perennials, biennials reside making flowers the next and foliage the first year. Flowering biennials include hollyhocks, foxglove, dianthus and Canterbury bells. Many biennials are in reality vegetables -- beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, collards, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsley, parsnip and rutabaga -- which make food the first year but do not complete their growing cycle and shed seed till the second. Find the best biennials for your zone in our plant finder.

Perennials Technically described as a plant that lives for more than two years, perennials will be the backbone of any landscape with colorful annuals offering variety. Depending upon your climate, some perennials can maintain their leaves through the winter but most drop them and die back to the floor to return again in the spring. Popular perennials include: clematis, some types of daisies, hardy ferns, hellebore, hibiscus, hostas, lavender, several ornamental grasses, peonies, periwinkle, phlox, roses, salvia, sedum, violets and yarrow. Find the best perennials for your zone in our plant finder.

Bulbs Among the easiest crops to grow, bulbs offer lots of show-stopping color year after year for very little work. Best of all, bulbs self-propogate meaning they multiply and distribute to quickly fill a little bed with blooms. Tulips and daffodils are the most commonly known bulbs causing many people to associate bulbs with spring but a lot of varieties of lillies, including canna, Asiatic and Oriental, bloom throughout the heat of the summer. A few other plant types tend to be mistaken for true bulbs because they grow the same manner. For example, bearded iris is a rhizome, crocus and gladiolus are corms, and dahlias and elephant's ear are all tubers. Find the best bulbs to your zone in our plant finder.

Evergreens Defined as plants that retain their leaves year-round, evergreens include a bright spot of color to a winter scene. Conifers, like pine, spruce, cedar and fir are exactly what typically come to mind when we think of evergreens but magnolia, hollies and lavender trees will also be evergreens. Determined by your planting zone, lots of blooming shrubs, such as laurels, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and gardenias, retain their leaves year-round making them great base plants. Learn more about picking an evergreen to your landscape.

Deciduous We can thank deciduous trees and trees to the kaleidoscope of orange, red and gold leaves we enjoy each autumn. Unlike evergreens that maintain their leaves, deciduous plants shed them each year before entering a dormant period in winter, then grow a new canopy of leaves in spring.

Vines The acrobats of the plant world, climbing plants allow you to take your garden to new heights when planted along with a trellis, arbor, fence or wall. Although a few blossoms, like morning glory and nasturtium, are annuals, most are perennials, coming back year after year to completely pay their supporting arrangement with blooms, leaves or fruit. Thanks to the variety of colours available, clematis is a popular climber. Other good choices are bougainvillea, blackberry, gloriosa lily, honeysuckle, jasmine, mandevilla, trumpet vine and indigenous wisteria. Locate the best vines for your zone at our plant finder.

Groundcovers If your yard comprises a steep bank or bare spots beneath trees where grass won't grow, planting a hardy groundcover might be just the solution to your landscaping woes. These low growers creep across the floor fast forming a dense mat that's resistant to weeds. With so many varieties to choose from, the key is matching the plant into its place, either sun or shade. For sunny areas, very good options are creeping phlox, goldmoss sedum, ice plant, plumbago, creeping juniper and lemon thyme. For shade, try periwinkle, euonymus wintercreeper or English ivy. Locate the best groundcovers to your zone in our plant finder.

Aquatic Plants If a pond or water garden a part of the own landscape, aquatic plants are worth contemplating not just for their beauty but also for the role they perform purifying and oxygenating the water while giving a shady habitat for resident fish, such as koi. Although we're most comfortable with water fountains, there are dozens and dozens of aquatic plants -- a few float on the water's surface, like lotus and water hyacinth, while others are completely submerged, rooted to the pond's bottom, or grow along the water's edge like cattails, reeds and stalks.

Shrubs Compact and compact, shrubs can be either evergreen, such as boxwood, holly, barberry and azaleas or deciduous, like lilacs, viburnum, forsythia and spirea. Their small stature make shrubs the ideal selection for foundation planting around your home but shrubs are also well suited for adding color to hedges and borders or anchoring garden beds. Most all shrubs will benefit from an occasional trimming to help them maintain their shape and promote new growth -- but always wait until the shrub has finished flowering for the season. Read 25 shrubs which can work in even the smallest spaces.

Grasses, Rushes and Sedges Though we typically loosely refer to grasses, rushes and sedges as decorative grasses, they actually belong to various plant families and possess varying sunlight and moisture requirements. The simplest way to distinguish them is the form of the stems: grass stalks are typically round or hollow while sedge stalks are usually triangular and rush stems are generally round or flat. As for care, grasses (such as pampas grass, revealed here) favor a full-sun location with well-drained dirt while sedges are ideal for shady, moist places and appears such as it dampest of -- they're usually found growing in water's edge. Locate the ideal bud, rush or sedge to your zone in our plant finder.

Cacti and Succulents Thanks to a sophisticated method for storing water in their roots, stalks and leaves, succulents (which includes cacti) have been able to flourish in the most polluted environments. This durability also makes them incredibly easy to keep and perfect for desert landscapes. The increasing popularity of xeriscaping, or landscaping which reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation, has brought attention back to those water-saving plants -- but their habitat needs (sandy, loose soil, infrequent rain and yearlong warm temperatures) limit their use to mainly the Southwest. The very popular exception is that the prickly pear cactus which has been proven to survive as far north as Canada. Locate the greatest succulent to your zone in our plant finder.

Tropicals With a warm year-round climate and abundant rainfall, it's no wonder that the tropics are home to a number of the world's most plants. It's also no surprise that those people who live in tropical climes wish to incorporate these exotics into our landscapes -- but frequently the unpleasant truth is that many tropical plants are not hardy beyond USDA Zone 8. Container gardening is almost always a safe bet, you can overwinter the potted plant indoors then return it to a landscape once the last threat of frost has passed. Check this useful manual for 8 popular tropical plants and suggestions for growing them.