• Successful gardens incorporate plants in a variety of colors, textures and sizes.Sara Wight/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  Gardens can add a lot to your outdoor environment. They contribute beauty and color and help you to connect to nature. They provide food and shelter for wildlife. They enhance a landscape and make outdoor spaces more enjoyable. Some even provide food for your family. Of thousands of landscape plants, some popular favorites help gardeners meet a range of landscaping needs.
  
  

Groundcover

• Just as the name suggests, groundcover spreads to provide low foliage along the ground. Groundcovers can help to unify a landscape. Juniper is one familiar and easy-to-grow groundcover, with a juniper for almost every landscape, according to the Clemson Cooperative Extension. Junipers have evergreen foliage and come in a variety of sizes and shapes, from groundcovers to trees. Their scaly green foliage is attractive without drawing attention away from your showier plantings. Juniper tolerates adverse conditions, especially heat and drought. Other groundcovers include English ivy, hens and chicks and creeping thyme.
  
  

Trees

• Small, large, evergreen and flowering, trees provide a focal point in your yard, as well as pockets of shade. The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is a popular landscape tree because it remains small, rarely exceeding 25 feet high. Blossoms emerge in the spring in white or pink, but the dogwood provides interest throughout the year. In the fall, trees develop red foliage, and the red berries feed birds and wildlife going into the winter. In nature, dogwoods exist as understory trees, so they can tolerate full sun to partial shade, and they grow well in most climates. Other small trees include the crabapple and redbud. Larger trees such as oak, maple and pine provide screening, windbreak and shade.
  
  

Shrubs

• Shrubs develop woody tissue like trees, but don't grow as tall. Rhododendrons and azaleas -- both of which belong to the Rhododendron genus -- are among the most popular landscaping shrubs, according to the University of Missouri Extension. Rhododendrons typically have evergreen foliage, while azaleas lose their leaves in the fall, sometimes after assuming bright autumn colors. Both shrubs tend to stay small and produce showy flowers in a variety of colors and shapes. Although they can grow well in a range of climates, both types need protection from winter winds in northern regions and require acidic soil. Other easy-to-grow and popular shrubs include lilac, forsythia and hydrangea.
  
  

Vines

• Vines can climb to cover fences, mailboxes and trellises or hide unsightly objects in your yard like a woodpile. Clematis provides not only a woody vine with thick green foliage but produces large, showy flowers in a variety of colors. Blossoms may reach diameters up to 10 inches, according to the Ohio State University Extension. Clematis generally requires full sun, but like their roots to be cool and moist. Once established, they are long-lived and will survive all but the most extreme winter cold. Other vines include the trumpet vine -- which attracts hummingbirds -- morning glory, wisteria and honeysuckle.
  
  

Perennials

• Perennial flowers grace your garden every year with fresh blooms. Perennials such as lilies come in all colors, and cultivars bloom at different times during the growing season, making it possible to have color throughout the spring and summer and into autumn. They grow from bulbs, and multiply from year to year, quickly filling your garden with color. Other perennials include iris, coneflowers, chrysanthemums and black-eyed Susans.
  
  

Annuals

• Annual plants survive only for a single growing season, and gardeners often use them to fill in the spaces left by more permanent plantings, such as shrubs and perennials. Lantana is one of the most colorful annuals, and produces vividly hued blooms throughout the summer, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. Many cultivars give you a choice of color and sizes. Other annuals include pansies, petunias and zinnias.