A lush garden is a must to make the summer more beautiful. But to get it, you will need to fit plants into your budget and schedule planting time. As a docent and horticulturist at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, I am familiar with this struggle, but I have also experienced it in my own backyard.

The No. The number one summer garden tip: Choose flowers and shrubs with the highest return on investment. What does that mean? When I think about “best bang for your buck,” I look for plants that are low maintenance, have a low initial cost, and can grow and spread easily in your yard. Monique Young is a gardening expert who serves on the board of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. She shared some of her favourite suggestions with me.

Flowering Maple

I fell in love with the flowering maple, Abutilon spp., after meeting a fellow docent. I love papery flowers in vibrant colours. The flowers of this small tree/large shrub sway and hang like little paper lanterns.

I bought my first abutilon at the garden shop, eager to pamper my little girl. It was 30 inches tall, had brightly lobed leaves which give it its common name, and some of the lovely lantern flowers in crimson. It didn’t last very long. The abutilon grew quickly and, by the end of the month, was covered with papery flowers.

The flowers of the flowering maples are brighter and more colourful than ever. Forget the pampering; these shrubs are hardy and tolerant. I water and fertilize my shrubs every two weeks.

Hot Lips Sage

The first time I saw a Hot Lips Sage shrub was in a friend’s garden located in the northern part of California. She suggested I plant a clump in a sunny area of my garden while she was pruning her plants. The rest is history.

Sage is a plant that loves to grow. These compact shrubs are no exception. The two-toned blossoms of white with lipstick-red lips continue to appear throughout the summer until the first frost. Hot Lips is a colourful and carefree perennial that grows quickly to three feet in height. It continues to spread and fills empty spaces like magic. It is drought-tolerant and a good perennial for low-water gardens.

Did I mention that sweet scent? You’ll find these in the Fragrance Garden at the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

Nasturtiums

Can flowers affect your moods? I believe they can, and nasturtiums — with their brilliant orange flowers and straight-out-of-Alice-in-Wonderland saucer leaves — never fail to give me a lift. These flowers are so cheerful and happy that they’re growing. They also attract pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

The bush variety is good for small gardens. But, if you want to maximize the impact of your garden, choose a trailing/climbing type. They twine up my fence to create a beautiful wall of flowers. In San Francisco, they grow all year round and reseed themselves. They can also be grown annually in zones with lower hardiness.

Mophead Hydrangea

What an impact! Mophead is a tough and resilient hydrangea, but it also has a supersized beauty: the leaves are as large as tortillas, and the flowers can be as big as snowballs. The coolest plants are those that will change colour depending on the pH (acidity) of the soil. Acidic is blue, and alkaline is crimson. Watch your shrub grow when you plant a small one!

San Francisco Botanical Garden offers an amazing display of different types of hydrangeas, each with a unique kind of flower. Mopheads are the best value for money because of their size and number of flowers, but every species is beautiful. Mopheads begin blooming late in June and continue to flower until fall.

Hydrangeas are easy to propagate if you place cuttings in water.

Bush Monkey Flower

Monique Young, a gardening expert, gave me her suggestions. She is a passionate gardener who also sits on the board at the Ruth Bancroft Gardens, Walnut Creek in California. My town has a colder winter and a hotter summer than hers, so our lists of “best bang-for-the buck” plants are different.

The bush monkeyflower is a native North American wildflower that grows quickly and requires little maintenance. This flowering shrub is not as common as its name suggests. The five-lobed flowers come in an array of vibrant colours, including pink, yellow, orange, red and purple. It is a native plant that requires very little maintenance.

This shrub is a favourite amongst the crowd, as it blooms profusely for a long period. The blooms on the West Coast start in March and last until October. Some people think the flowers look like grinning monkeys.