When we finish installing a stone patio, our customers often ask us the same question: “What should I plant around it?” It’s a great question. Walking onto a well-designed stone patio feels like stepping into an outdoor room—a place where the boundaries between home and nature blur. But just as the right furniture makes an indoor room feel complete, the perfect border plants give your stone patio character and life.
While we love the clean lines and natural texture of stone, we know that thoughtfully chosen border plants transform a simple patio into a true outdoor sanctuary. Over the years, we’ve helped many Maine homeowners choose plants that not only look beautiful alongside their stone patios but also flourish through our distinct seasons. After three decades of creating outdoor living spaces throughout Maine, we’ve learned which plants best complement our stonework while thriving in our unique climate.
Whether you’ve just installed a new patio or are looking to refresh an existing one, we’ve got you covered with plant selections perfectly suited to Maine’s climate that will transform your stone patio into the outdoor retreat you’ve always dreamed of.
Perennials: Reliable Color Year After Year for Your Stone Patio
When it comes to border plants for your stone patio, perennials are the gift that keeps on giving. These steadfast beauties return year after year, providing reliable color and texture with relatively little maintenance. A well-designed stone patio deserves plant companions that are as enduring as the stonework itself, and perennials perfectly fit that bill. They’re the plants you can count on to show up every spring, ready to enhance your outdoor living space through another season.
Hostas: Shade-Loving Texture Masters
Hostas are the unsung heroes of patio borders, especially in shady areas. Their lush, broad leaves create a sea of texture in various shades of green, blue, and variegated patterns. These low-maintenance perennials thrive in Maine’s climate and provide visual interest from spring through fall.
Available in sizes ranging from miniature varieties to massive specimens, hostas can fit into any border design. The ‘Blue Angel’ variety offers stunning blue-gray foliage, while ‘Patriot’ features dark green leaves with crisp white margins. We’ve seen them transform the edges of many stone patios from plain to extraordinary with very little effort. Although primarily grown for their foliage, don’t overlook their subtle yet elegant flower spikes that appear in summer, attracting hummingbirds and adding vertical interest.
Black-Eyed Susans: Sunshine in Plant Form
For sunny patio borders, few perennials match the cheerful presence of Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia). These native wildflowers bring golden-yellow blooms with distinctive dark centers from mid-summer through early fall, creating a warm, inviting atmosphere around your stone patio.
Drought-tolerant once established, Black-Eyed Susans are perfect for Maine gardens, withstanding both summer heat and cold winters. Their daisy-like flowers stand tall on sturdy stems, dancing in the breeze and attracting butterflies and beneficial pollinators. We’ve watched countless homeowners fall in love with how these bright flowers make their stone patios feel more welcoming and vibrant. For a particularly stunning effect, try planting them en masse along a sun-drenched patio edge where they’ll create a golden border between your stonework and the wider landscape.
Coral Bells: Colorful Foliage for All Seasons
Heuchera, commonly known as Coral Bells, offer some of the most diverse foliage colors in the perennial world. From lime green and peachy amber to deep purple and almost black, these versatile plants add drama and sophistication to any patio border.
What makes Coral Bells particularly valuable for Maine patios is their evergreen nature—in milder winters, their colorful leaves persist, providing interest even in the off-season. Their delicate flower spikes rise above the foliage in summer, creating a fairylike effect. Try ‘Caramel’ for warm copper tones or ‘Obsidian’ for deep, nearly black leaves that make a striking contrast against light-colored stone.
Ornamental Grasses: Movement and Texture Against Stone
Nothing complements the solidity of stone quite like the graceful movement of ornamental grasses. These versatile plants add a dynamic element to patio borders, catching the breeze and changing through the seasons. The contrast between the permanent, unyielding character of your patio and the fluid, ever-changing nature of ornamental grasses creates visual interest that draws the eye and invites guests to linger and enjoy your outdoor space. We’ve found that the gentle swaying of ornamental grasses makes stone patios feel more alive and connected to the natural world around them.
Feather Reed Grass: Vertical Drama
Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, or Feather Reed Grass, creates stunning vertical accents with its tall, slender flower stalks that emerge in early summer as feathery plumes. As summer progresses, these plumes transform to a golden wheat color, remaining upright through winter for four-season interest.
This well-behaved grass grows in a tidy clump rather than spreading, making it perfect for defined patio borders. Its architectural quality provides a beautiful contrast to rounded perennials and flowering plants. Plant it where the setting sun will backlight it for a truly magical effect as you enjoy evening gatherings on your patio.
Little Bluestem: Native Beauty with Seasonal Color Changes
For a touch of Maine’s natural landscape, Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is an excellent choice. This native grass starts with blue-green foliage in spring and summer, then transforms into a stunning array of oranges and reds in fall.
Standing just 2-3 feet tall, Little Bluestem is perfect for smaller patio borders where it won’t overwhelm the space. Its upright habit and fine texture create beautiful movement, especially when planted in groups. As an added bonus, this hardy native requires very little maintenance and attracts birds that feed on its seeds in winter.
Shrubs: Structure and Seasonal Interest for Patio Definition
Incorporating compact shrubs into your stone patio border provides year-round structure and seasonal highlights that elevate the entire space. Well-placed shrubs can define the boundaries of your patio, create privacy screens where needed, and establish a sense of permanence that echoes the lasting quality of your stonework. The right shrubs transform your patio from an exposed slab into a cozy outdoor room.
Dwarf Hydrangeas: Show-Stopping Blooms
Hydrangeas are beloved for their spectacular blooms, and newer dwarf varieties make them perfect for patio borders. The Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lime’ offers apple-green flowers that mature to pink on a compact 3-5 foot shrub. For blue or pink mophead flowers (depending on your soil pH), try the reblooming Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Endless Summer’ series.
These versatile shrubs provide structure year-round and spectacular blooms from mid-summer through fall. Even in winter, their dried flower heads add interest when dusted with snow. Plant them at the corners of your patio or as focal points within a mixed border for maximum impact.
Winterberry: Bright Winter Interest
Ilex verticillata, or Winterberry, is a deciduous holly native to Maine that offers spectacular winter interest. After its modest green leaves drop in fall, the branches become studded with bright red berries that persist through winter, creating stunning color against snow-covered landscapes.
Compact varieties like ‘Red Sprite’ reach just 3-4 feet, making them suitable for patio borders. Remember that you’ll need both male and female plants to produce berries. Position winterberries where they’ll be visible from indoor living spaces to enjoy their vibrant display during Maine’s long winter.
Low-Growing Ground Covers: Softening Hard Patio Edges
Ground covers play a crucial role in softening the transition between stone patios and taller border plants, creating a lush, layered look. While we love the crisp, clean lines of expertly installed stone patios, sometimes those edges need a bit of softening to create a more welcoming atmosphere. Low-growing ground covers spill over patio edges, blurring the boundaries between built and natural elements in the most delightful way.
Creeping Thyme: Fragrant and Functional
For sunny patio edges, creeping thyme creates a carpet of tiny leaves topped with purple, pink, or white flowers in summer. When brushed against or stepped on, it releases a delightful fragrance, enhancing the sensory experience of your outdoor space.
Extremely drought-tolerant once established, creeping thyme can handle light foot traffic and spreads to fill gaps between stones or spill over patio edges. We’ve seen it transform the most formal stone patios into inviting spaces that beckon you to kick off your shoes and connect with the outdoors. Try Thymus serpyllum ‘Elfin’ for an ultra-dwarf variety that forms a tight mat, or ‘Coccineus’ for bright crimson flowers that make your stone patio pop with color.
Sweet Woodruff: Bright Solution for Shady Corners
For those shady corners of your patio, Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum) offers a solution with its whorls of bright green leaves and delicate white flowers in spring. This ground cover gradually spreads to create a lush carpet that remains attractive throughout the growing season.
Sweet Woodruff thrives in the dappled shade conditions common in Maine gardens, particularly under trees or on the north side of buildings. Its vanilla-hay scent when dried has traditionally been used in potpourris, adding another sensory dimension to your patio experience.
Expert Guidance for Your Patio Planting Project
When planning your patio border plantings, consider how the space will be used throughout the seasons. Choose plants that peak at different times to ensure year-round interest, and don’t forget to include evergreens for winter structure. Think about how plants will look both from the patio itself and from inside your home looking out.
At Stone Solutions Maine, we understand that a truly exceptional outdoor living space integrates hardscaping and landscaping into a cohesive whole. While our expertise lies in creating beautiful stone patios, walls, and features, we’re happy to collaborate with local landscapers to ensure your planting borders enhance and complement our stonework.
The right combination of plants can elevate your stone patio from simply functional to absolutely extraordinary. By selecting varieties that offer multi-season interest, diverse textures, and colors that complement your stonework, you’ll create an outdoor living space that feels both designed and natural—a true extension of your home that connects you to Maine’s beautiful landscape.
Ready to transform your outdoor space with a custom stone patio surrounded by beautiful plantings? Contact us today to discuss your project and start creating the outdoor retreat you’ve been dreaming of.