• Hardy herbaceous plants are perennials that die completely to the ground, with no stems or leaves left over the winter, but return the following spring. Rugged perennials often require little attention and maintain a garden's color during the growing season for years. Perennials offer reassuring constancy among annuals or other changing landscape touches.
  
  

Rugosa Rose

• The fragrant 2 1/2- to 3 1/2--inch blooms of the Rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) attract bumblebees from the day they open in June. Its cultivars produce petals that include lavender, pink, white and yellow; but all Rugosa roses have yellow stamens, stems densely covered in prickly 1/4- to 1/2-inch thorns and wrinkled green leaves for which they are named. As vibrant as the plants blooms are their bright orange or orange-red fruits called "hips." Rugosa's hips grow up to 1 inch in diameter, ripen throughout the summer and stay on stems well into the winter.
  
  The rugged Rugosa needs little maintenance and thrives in hardiness zones 2 through 7, an area encompassing the entire northern United States with the exception of the coastal Pacific Northwest down to the northern edges of Georgia and Alabama to the east and the northern sections of Arizona to the west. Rugosa plants grow as tall as 6 feet and spread even wider, up to 10 feet. Because their spiny stems ward off rabbits and other fauna, they provide a good landscape barrier. Rugosa plants also do well by snowy roadways because they are tolerant of salt spray and salt runoffs.
  
  

Johnny Jump-Up

• Perennial Johnny Jump-ups (Viola tricolor) distinguish themselves among others taller than its 6- to 12-inch height or width with intensely purple petals that adorn white and yellow ones with purple lines and streaks. Johnny Jump-up's long-lasting blooms can open all season, starting with April. The flexible plant requires little maintenance once seeded. Without pruning, it spreads widely in a variety of soil types.
  
  Johnny Jump-up are rugged and winter hardy from zones 3 through 9, which cover almost all of the United States -- except areas with extremely hot or cold temperatures. Not only can this flower sweeten a landscape with its wintergreen aroma, it's edible blooms can accent a dish. Any edible bloom should only be consumed if grown for that purpose and without pesticides.
  
  

Bleeding Heart

• Pink, heart-shaped blooms dangle in rows from the branches of Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis). Anchoring these eye-catching flowers are white pistils that reveals themselves more as the heart petals spread open, after first blooming at the end of March or beginning of April.
  
  These perennials need some tending, as hearts do, and grow best in moist, well-drained soil. With attention they can thrive almost anywhere in the United States from hardiness zones 2 through 9 but thrive in cooler temperatures or shade during the summer, during which they may go dormant. Bleeding hearts grow up to 3 feet tall and spread up to 2 feet wide.