My favorite perennials: Spanish lavender: Day Lilies; Butterfly Bush; Amaryllis; Sedum, Autumn Joy; Hardy Ageratum; Hardy Hibiscus;

Asclepias, butterfly weed; Hollyhock; Sweet William. Some favorite annuals: Larkspur; Morning Glory; Zinnia; Salvia, all varieties; Gloriosa Daisy; Black Eyed Susan; Gallardia, all varieties; Shirley Poppy; Bachelor's Buttons, Blue Boy & Pink.

Be sure to check hardiness in your zone, as I grow these in zone 8. One way to get a nice variety of both types of plants is to sow a wildflower seed mix that's recommended for your zone. Here's a site that has regional mixes. Wildflower Farm

Hope this helps.. maw

Salvia, salvia and more Salvia! I love it, and so do the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. It starts easily from seed, blooms early and keeps blooming until fall with a little deadheading. My other favorite annual, if you have shade, is Impatiens.. absolutely NO maintenance, many colors, and looks great until frost. I save the seed and start my own.

Longest blooming perennial I know is Gloriosa Daisies. You can start them from seed and they also come in many different colors, including some pretty bi-colors. They are very hardy in zone 4, start blooming in June and bloom until frost if you deadhead once in a while... but the flowers last several days.

I love hardy geranium because the foliage is darling and it blooms for a lonnnnng time and spreads well.

You didn't say if you wanted tall or short/ full sun or shade.

I also love hollyhocks both singles and doubles.

coco

My all time favorite annual is marigolds.  There are so many varieties of the old timey annual, just love the colors.  The perennial is Lamb's Ear, so easy to grow and no maintenance.  Dale

Let's see....zinnias are great! They also last fairly long and make great cut flowers. I love Gazanias.....Any kind of daisy is nice, black eyed Susan, various varieties of Coreopsis, Cosmos, I love yarrow -- particularly Parkers Gold and Coronation Gold...I love cannas, but they require more maintenance. Brugs are nice, too, but they are high maintenance plants. Calla Lilies are gorgeous, non-stop begonias are also nice. One of my all time favorites is portulaca (moss roses) -- especially if you get a mix of colors...You can put them in a hanging basket or plant them in the ground at a border and they kind of turn into a ground cover. I'm big on stuff that attracts hummingbirds....so many vines are great for that....Gloriosa lilies are beautiful vines that look very exotic....another beautiful vine is Corkscrew Vine (Vigna Caracella) but I like the multi colored fragrant one. I would say, though that both corkscrew vine and Gloriosa lilies are trickier to grow.