What Plants or Flowers Grow All Year Long & Will Not Die?

If you are disappointed each fall when the air turns chilly and all your plants begin to die, consider growing plants in containers that can survive year-round. Some plants are well-suited for growing outdoors in well-drained containers where they will stay green and even their keep color throughout the coldest months of the year. Choosing options that will keep grow all year long will put an end to your wintertime gardening and landscaping blues.

The golden sword is a yucca plant that blooms with fragrant white flowers on tall stems throughout the summer. When the weather cools, this plant's foliage flattens out a bit, but it retains color all winter. In cooler areas the golden sword performs better if planted in a container. In tropical locations where there is no hard freeze it can be planted directly in the ground for similar results. The green, yellow and red stems of the golden sword protrude from the center of the plant, while the tall stems where the flowers grow in the spring and summer die and drop off.

The green mountain boxwood shrub is an evergreen that grows very slowly all year long. Even in the winter when other varieties of boxwood shrubs begin losing their color, the green mountain version remains deep green. A ground-planted green mountain boxwood will grow up to 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, while transplanting the shrub to a pot will stunt its growth and keep it the size of a small ornamental. This variety needs equal sun and shade on all sides to prevent the formation of bare spots in the limbs.

The saguaro cactus doesn't survive everywhere, but it is very resilient and continues to grow year round in the Sonoran Desert climate of the Southwest. The cactus is not frost tolerant and will not survive in winter in areas that suffer freezing temperatures on a regular basis. But in the warmer climates these cacti continue to grow up to 60 feet tall over the course of 200 years, in some cases. They flower in the spring and are able to store water for survival in times of long drought. Some larger saguaro cacti can weigh up to 4,800 pounds because of their water content, according to the Desert Museum website.

Allamanda, also known as yellow bell, is a prolific flowering annual that blooms continually as long as it is in a warm climate. It is an evergreen climbing vine with large yellow trumpet-shaped flowers that can be pruned into a free-standing bush or will climb walls or decorate fences or mailboxes. Allamanda typically grow only in coastal California, the desert climates of the Southwest, the southern tip of Texas and the southern half of the Florida Peninsula, according to the University of Florida Cooperative Extension website.