14 Plants That Thrive in Clay Soil

If you need something to make your landscape really stand out, this list will help. These high-impact perennials offer bold textures, bountiful color and rugged durability. They will make a splash to wake up the neighborhood while addressing those mundane spaces in your garden. Castor bean, for instance offers huge, lobed leaves, interesting ornamental fruits and somewhat showy flowers. It's lush foliage adds a tropical look to temperate gardens. Hardy in zones 9-11, and grown as a warm season annual in cooler regions, it may grow to 10' tall in a single season.

Iris species, including Japanese, Louisiana, bearded and more, tend to perform very well on heavy soil. Different varieties of these sun loving, spring and summer bloomers are available for all parts of North America.

Ornamental grasses do very well in clay. Choose from dwarf fountain grass, mid-sized silvergrass and switchgrass, or large pampas grass. All of these sun lovers produce beautiful textures, colors and movement in the perennial garden or shrub border.

Heuchera, or coral bells, is a clay soil choice that offers some of the greatest diversity of foliage color of any perennial genus. From "natural" green, to chartreuse, to deep purple, to salmon and more, there is a heuchera to accent any dappled-sunlight garden. In warmer climates they are semi-evergreen to evergreen.

Baptisia, or false indigo, is a large clumping perennial with dense foliage and spring blooms in blue, white or soft yellow. This sun loving legume thrives in clay and adds nitrogen to the soil as well.

Platycodon, or balloon flower, is a low, spreading sun to part-sun lover that blooms repeatedly in summer. This tough plant is a great addition to the herb garden for it's medicinal qualities as well.

Hostas are widely planted and universally adored for their foliage color, and texture, as well as their durability. These shade to part-sun lovers offer green, blue-green, golden, chartreuse and variegated patterns on leaves that may be as small as dandelions or as large as elephant ears. And they do well in clay soil!

For a summer-fall bloomer in clay soil, asters are a good choice. Colors vary from blue, purple, pink, red and white. Asters are sun lovers.

Rudbeckia, or Black-eyed Susan, is a favorite of gardeners and pollinators alike. It holds up well under a variety of adverse conditions, and both nectar and seeds (as well as foliage) are favorites of all manner of wildlife.

Perovskia, or Russian sage, offers silver-green, lacy foliage and blue-purple flower spikes from summer through fall that butterflies, bees and hummingbirds adore. This sun lover performs well in clay soil.

Echinacea, or coneflower, is well known for its medicinal reputation. It is a sun lover, summer bloomer, and offers a wide array of bloom colors including white, yellow, purple, pink, orange and lime. In clay soil, it performs like a champ.

Coreopsis, or tickseed, may be ankle-high or knee-high, and bloom colors range from all shades of yellow, to orange, red and maroon. These sun lovers don't mind clay at all.

Achillea, or yarrow, is another sun lover that works well in clay soil. Beginning in late spring, yarrow blooms in colors ranging from white to pink, red and yellow, until mid summer.