With a wide variety of rocks out there, you can build entire rock gardens (such as a serene zen garden), using stones to create focal points and provide accents. While you can place statement, stand-alone rocks, piles or blocks of stones can also be functional for walls, pathways, and seats in your garden. 

If you’re curious about incorporating rockery into your garden, we’ve put together a guide on the most common landscaping stones, breaking down what you need to consider with each type.

How do you pick the right rocks for your rock landscaping project?

To get started on your rock landscape, check out what’s available at your local quarries, rock yards, and home improvement stores — you’ll save on transportation and other costs this way. But also keep in mind what project you’re pursuing instead of simply buying what’s available. It makes sense to prioritize boulders for water features and flagstones for pathways. It may be helpful to work with a contractor or designer to bring your vision to life.

To help you get a feel for the different kinds of rocks out there, here are basic types of rocks for landscaping that you should know about. 

Pea gravel

Pea gravel is a tiny stone (usually between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch big) that’s ideal for filling in driveways, patios, fire pits, and more. It’s also great for filling spaces between larger landscaping rocks, such as boulders and flagstones. Functionally, it’s also the perfect answer for controlling weeds and providing drainage, which could be great for a drought-tolerant garden.

Unlike mulch, it won’t break down over time. While it won’t provide nutrients to your soil, it’ll last for a long time. Keep in mind that it can be rough and bumpy to walk on and harsh weather can displace it.

Flagstone rocks

From sandstone to quartzite, flagstone rocks are smooth and flat, which makes them versatile for creating paths in high-traffic areas. You might also find them as stepping stones or edging around garden beds. Made up of fragmented sedimentary rocks, they can come in a wide variety of colors.

When it comes to maintenance, they’re fairly easy to clean, as their large surface area makes them easy to sweep or rake through. Bear in mind that they can be pricey since they’re so big (about 1 to 2 feet wide). Some weather patterns may impact Flagstone rocks, in that they get very hot during the summer and very slippery during bouts of rain. 

River rocks

Found near freshwater sources, river rocks feature a naturally smooth and polished appearance. They’re actually pretty similar to pea gravel stones, except they feature softer edges and are usually much bigger. About 1 to 2 inches in diameter, they can be used to fill in patios, but they can also work for accenting garden flowerbeds and succulent plant arrangements.

And, of course, they look great with water features, perfect for a basin around a fountain. River rocks do tend to be pricier than pea gravel and might be a bit dangerous as a walking surface.

Boulders

Adding a weathered texture, boulders are perfect for focal points in a garden. You can use them to line a walkway or section off certain areas of your landscape. They can also work perfectly beneath a tree or by a garden bed — don’t be afraid to get creative!

When it comes to functionality, boulders can also be quite useful for building retaining walls and benches in a landscape. Do keep in mind that they’re very heavy, so you’ll likely have to hire help to place them in your outdoor space.  

Lava rocks

Jagged and porous, lava rocks, or volcanic rocks, are great for mulching your soil. Small in size, they help your soil keep its moisture, provide weed control, and offer drainage. They can be gray, black, or red in color, so they also create a visual contrast in your space. One thing to keep in mind is that lava rocks do tend to be very light, so harsh weather can scatter them around.

Marble chips

If you’re looking for a bit of shimmer and luxury, marble chips are probably one of the fanciest rocks you can incorporate into your landscape. When light hits these white rocks, they give off a luminous appearance. Like gravel, you can use them for filling walkways and garden beds.

When using them in your garden, it’s important to keep in mind that they can make the surrounding soil more alkaline, which can be good for some plants (like hydrangeas) but bad for others (like magnolias). 

Cobblestones

Often used for walkways and driveways, cobblestones have a bit of a classic charm to them. They typically come from granite from riverbeds and are cut into rectangles or other shapes. However, you might find them in their round state at a rockery. Besides being used for entire paths, they also work well for walls and plant beds. Do keep in mind that cobblestone can be uneven as a landscaping rock, which makes removing snow and walking long distances difficult.

Building a rock garden can be a neat, low-maintenance alternative to keeping a lawn. With so many stones available out there, you can find just the right textures, colors, and sizes for your stonescape vision. From simple pea gravel to statement boulders, you’ll be able to create a stunning, easy-care space with a little bit of planning and manual labor. 

Beauty bush

Beauty bush has several names, including Linnaea amabilis, Kolkwitzia amabilis, or simply beauty bush. Native to China, this shrub is popular for being extremely easy to grow. It’s tolerant of all soil types, moderately drought tolerant, and grows quickly. The beauty bush earns its name by growing many pale pink, bell-shaped flowers in the spring. This shrub can grow to between 6 and 10 feet tall and wide, but you can also keep it smaller through regular pruning.

Azalea

Azalea is a classic flowering shrub, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a type of rhododendron (another popular flowering bush) that comes in an array of colors. Although the flowers are classically pink or purple, you can also find them in orange, red, white, and yellow, making it easy to match an azalea bush to your garden’s aesthetics. Additionally, the bush’s popularity makes it easy to find at any nursery or garden center.

Butterfly bush

If you want to draw pollinators to your garden, or want stunning flowers that won’t wilt in dry weather, then a butterfly bush might be the right choice for you. Available in a wide variety of colors, the bush’s conical flower spikes are a favorite of butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds! In addition to being drought tolerant, these shrubs have long-lasting blooms, so they’re a great choice if you want your garden to stay colorful most of the year.

Loropetalum

For a gardener with more unusual tastes, loropetalum is sure to be a delight. Also called the Chinese fringe flower, this shrub grows bright pink flowers with long, thin petals that splay outward. When not in bloom, this shrub is still a beauty. It has dark purple or pink leaves that won’t fade or fall in winter, providing color all year long!

Weigela

Weigela is the perfect shrub for northern gardeners who struggle to find flowering plants that survive cold weather. This bush can survive temperatures as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit, so you can enjoy its beautiful flowers each spring without fear! Its flowers can be many shades of pink, and there are even varieties with variegated leaves.

Whether you’re looking for a flowering shrub that can survive drought or cold weather, or you want something that’s easy enough for a true beginner to grow, we’ve got you covered. One of these five flowering bushes is sure to meet your needs and bring you joy. These shrubs make it simple to create a colorful garden full of flowers!

Add ornaments and lights to your houseplants

Here’s a simple holiday plant idea: Furnish your houseplants with ornaments, tinsel, and string lights. If you’re doing this in lieu of a Christmas tree, it’ll very likely be much cheaper than furnishing a 6-foot-tall tree, as you can buy most of the mini decorations at your local dollar store! Money trees, corn plants, and rubber trees are just a few houseplants with strong central stems that can handle minor weight from lights and ornaments. If you want to avoid placing anything onto your plants, create holiday stakes with cut-out Santas, snowflakes, ornaments, and more.

Actual tree plants, such as lemon cyprus, also work perfectly since they look like mini Christmas trees. They’re usually around 3 feet tall, so they’ll give you that Christmas feel without breaking your budget or burdening you with an extensive cleanup after the holidays.

Use decorative mugs as planters

Along with bells, whistles, and ornaments, the holiday season also usually comes with new mugs in stores for everyone who wants to infuse festive cheer in a cup. If you have a holiday mug that you’re not getting much use out of, or one with minor cracks, upcycle it as a planter. You can drill a hole directly into your mug, but using it as a cover pot is definitely easier — a large one can easily accommodate a 2 or 3-inch nursery planter.

Wrap ribbons around your plants

It really doesn’t get any easier than wrapping ribbons around your planters or branches for easy houseplant holiday decorations. For your ribbon, choose colors such as red, green, silver, and gold to give your plant Christmas vibes. Of course, holiday-specific and tartan patterns also work beautifully. For an even more low-maintenance project, stick a shiny adhesive bow onto your planter — you’ll likely have these around for wrapping presents, anyway! Another fun tip: Cover your planter in actual wrapping paper, then place an adhesive bow onto it.

Add Christmas skirts to your planters

If you have a plant sitting in a pot that’s at least 12 inches, you can definitely place a Christmas skirt beneath it to get that holiday vibe. Velvety, embroidered skirts are easy to source during the holidays in any home goods store or online. If you want to create one that’s more custom to the planter that you have, you can also get crafty. Pick out a fabric to your liking (burgundy and white make for classic Christmas skirts), cut and seam along the outside, then iron on holiday-themed embroidered patches.

Place trailing plants on your mantle

Alongside your poinsettias and paperwhites, place a trailing plant on your mantle. Plants such as ivy, pothos, and philodendron can add a cozy, rustic feel to any space. They look especially inviting at the base of candle holders (just keep them away from flames!). You can attach ornaments to stems and nodes for a festive look as well — just make sure that your planter is heavy enough or securely attached to the mantle so that it doesn’t tip over.

Make terrarium ornaments

Why not furnish your Christmas tree with even more plants? Grab sets of plastic or glass terrarium ornaments online or from a local craft store come the holidays. You can stick in an air plant to keep things simple. Alternatively, you can go all out with a soil base and mini plant cuttings. If space allows, add mini ornaments, gnomes, and other holiday-themed tchotchkes as well.

Mount your air plants onto a wreath

Air plants are extremely easy to care for in addition to coming in interesting shapes and colors for a vibrant wreath setup. Secure these low-maintenance beauties to a plain wreath with floral wire and add creative touches with ornaments, fake holly, pine cones, and more. Every so often, spritz your air plants as you would if they weren’t on the wreath.

While houseplants can feel like separate entities from your Christmas decorations, they don’t have to be. It’s easy to incorporate holiday cheer into your home with plants. In some cases, you can skip the tree altogether if you don’t have the space — toss the tinsel, lights, and ornaments onto your favorite houseplant to ring in the holidays!

Cyclamen

Cyclamens often hit your local garden centers during the holiday season. This delicate tuberous plant features marbled or matte green leaves with butterfly-shaped white, purple, pink, or of course, red flowers. It blooms during the fall and winter, then goes through dormancy in the summer, during which its foliage dies down. It’s hardy down to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, but it does best around 50 to 65 degrees — consider bringing it indoors during the winter. With this plant, you’ll want to provide adequate bright indirect light for blooms. It also appreciates being watered deeply once its soil dries out, but be careful with overwatering during winter.

Burning bush

The burning bush is an understated staple in many suburban landscapes. Its name comes from its neon red color, which makes its cluster of pointed leaves resemble a burning bush. This woody shrub is known to be low maintenance. It can thrive in both partial shade and full sun as long as it sits in well-draining soil. There’s no need for fertilizer, although you can feed it early during the spring to help it flourish. With warm conditions and bright sun, it can grow anywhere from nine to 15 feet tall. As such, it’s considered an invasive species in some areas.

Poinsettia

Come the holidays, poinsettias take over garden centers. The festive red foliage (sometimes white or pink) is often mistaken for flowers. What appears to be petals are, in fact, actually bracts, or modified leaves, with tiny yellow leaves at the center. The poinsettia plant prefers moist soil around room temperature, so it’s often kept as an indoor plant during the winter. If the temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in your area, take your poinsettia inside, or else its leaves may fall off. When inside, make sure not to leave it near drafty windows or drying radiators.

Anthurium

The anthurium plant, sometimes called the flamingo flower, features waxy, colorful spathes that are sometimes mistaken for petals. These spathes, which come in red, pink, purple, orange, and white, are actually leaves that surround the spadix, which produces male and female flowers. Though a hardy indoor plant, the anthurium doesn’t tolerate frost well. It prefers a temperature range of 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep it in a container that you can bring indoors during the winter. Inside, this plant thrives with bright indirect light and consistent watering.

Red coral bell

The red coral bell, also called Heuchera Forever® Red, features deep red foliage during cool springs and falls. It has lobed leaves and thin stems, putting out small white flowers during the growing season. It’s perennial to climate zones 4 through 9, so it’s relatively hardy. If you live in an area with cold winters, consider layering two to three inches of mulch over your soil to insulate your plant and keep it from frost heaving. The coral bell plant does best in moist but well-draining soil mixed with rich compost.

Red Christmas cactus

Another plant that you’ll find hitting your local garden center during the fall and winter is the Christmas cactus. This colorful trailing plant comes with flat, leathery leaves and blooms in red, pink, purple, or white. Though this plant is a succulent, it does prefer its soil to be well-watered and appreciates a moderate level of humidity. For the blooms to appear, the plant needs darkness from the shorter days of winter — you can try to get your plant to bloom by keeping it in a period of darkness for longer.

Redhead Coleus

The Redhead Coleus features velvety red foliage, making it a beautiful addition to any garden landscape for holiday vibes. All in all, it’s a relatively low-maintenance plant, thriving in moist soil and bright light. Though it’s hardy down to 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it will appreciate being grown indoors during the winter in most areas, doing best in a 4- to 6-inch planter. The coleus plant can make for lovely ground cover in springtime, growing up to 3 feet tall and spreading around 2 feet wide.

While we love a crisp red autumn leaf, you can still find beautiful plants with red blooms and foliage that aren’t on the brink of death. To brighten your garden with color, red blooms on Christmas cacti and cyclamens are fail proof, as are red leaves on poinsettias and burning bush shrubs. Even if you need to bring some of these indoors, no worries — the red will bring seasonal cheer into your home.