When you're ready to ramp up your home's curb appeal, give the front door a fresh coat of paint, pressure-wash that stained driveway, install a new mailbox--and don't forget about the plants. Upgrading your front yard with colorful flower beds and fast-growing trees and shrubs makes your entire home more attractive and inviting. Here, the best plants for the front of your house, according to HGTV's gardening experts. You may also want to incorperate some larger structural front yard landscaping ideas.

Boxwoods

When you're working on your home's curb appeal, start with evergreens that give structure to your yard. Boxwoods make great foundation plants and come in many sizes. You can add them to beds and borders or use them to line walkways and driveways.

Mix in annuals and other plants with year-round interest, says Julie Arnold Camp, a realtor with Better Homes and Gardens Metro Brokers in Atlanta. If you don't have much space in the lawn or landscape, she recommends bringing in containers of flowers. "Using pots is a good idea to add seasonal color, or to add color to an area that has no interesting character."

Tip: Flats of annuals are usually cheaper than individual plants.

LEARN MORE: 26 Annual Flowers for Year-Round Color

Roses

Roses aren't attractive in the winter, and even when they're blooming, they often need pruning, fertilizing and spraying. But some roses, like the Knock Out family, are low-maintenance, so you can have beautiful color and fragrance without a lot of work. Knock-Out roses are available in red, pink, white, coral, orange, peach and yellow, and the gorgeous flowers rebloom from spring until frost.

Tip: Smaller Drift roses, which mature around 18 inches tall, are also easy to grow and make a pretty groundcover for sunny spots.

LEARN MORE: Growing Double Knock Out Roses

Hydrangeas

Shrubs for your house front don't always have to be all green. Hydrangeas are flowering shrubs that give you a lot of bang for your curb-appeal buck. They’re easy to grow, need little care and put on a spectacular show when they flower in shades of white, pink and blue. Most of them prefer morning sun with afternoon shade and are hardy in Zones 4 or 5-9. 'Invincibelle Mini Mauvette,' shown here, is hardy in Zones 3-9 and takes full sun.

Tip: If you use hydrangeas to camouflage a view, like an unsightly foundation, leave a couple of feet between the plants and between the plants and the foundation (or whatever you're hiding), so they have room to spread.

LEARN MORE: How to Grow Hydrangeas

Flowers for Front Door Urns

For quick and easy curb appeal, post urns on each side of your front door, and plant them with feathery-textured Pinpoint Blue false cypress. These evergreen shrubs for the front of your house grow into tall, narrow columns, so they won't block your entrance. Here, they're underplanted with 'Spot On' lungwort (Pulmonaria); the pink buds will open into blue flowers. The urns also hold yellow pansies, creeping phlox, calibrachoas Superbells Honeyberry and Shadowland 'Autumn Frost' hostas.

Tip: Urns are also ideal for growing topiary plants.

FIND MORE IDEAS: 20 Ways to Use Large Garden Containers

Hostas

Bare spots under your trees are ugly and can be tricky to get around when you mow. Tuck shade-loving hostas into the areas where grass and groundcovers simply won't grow, or use them around shrubs and in borders. Hosta flowers aren’t very showy, but their leaves, which come in shades of green, gray, blue, cream, and yellow-gold, are standouts. Choose small, medium or large varieties; most are hardy in Zones 3 to 9.

Tip: Add containers of shade-loving begonias and impatiens for pops of color. Shown here: Shadowland 'Autumn Frost' and Shadowland 'Coast to Coast.'

LEARN MORE: How to Grow Hostas

Tropicals

Lucky you, if you live in a climate that will support tropicals or subtropicals. Flower bed ideas for your front yard include fast-growing lantanas, plumerias, canna lilies and tropical hibiscus. Some of these will also thrive in other regions, although they'll perish when the temperatures drop. Want trees that get established quickly? Look for King Palms, Queen Palms and Royal Palm trees. Some can live for decades, so they're a good investment. You can find smaller-growing palms and palmettos that are hardy in Zones 7 and 8.

Tip: For a lush look, plant layers of tropicals in the flower beds in your front yard. Use taller plants as a canopy or backdrop. Add shrubs for a middle layer and groundcovers as the lowest layer.

LEARN MORE: Tropical Garden Design

Annuals

Need more flower bed ideas for the front yard? Inexpensive annuals are easy to establish and make good fillers when your bulbs, perennials or flowering shrubs stop blooming. For instant curb appeal, pot them up in containers, hanging baskets or window boxes for splashes of color. Marigolds, petunias and geraniums are popular and easy to grow.

Tip: If the temperatures are cool, try flowers like pansies and mums or ornamental kales and cabbages. Supertunia 'Bordeaux,' pictured here, blooms profusely until frost.

LEARN MORE: Annual Flowers That Thrive in the Shade

Arborvitae

Fast-growing, evergreen arborvitaes are available in a range of sizes and are a great choice for use as hedges, privacy screens and borders. True to its name, Mr. Bowling Ball arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis 'Bobazam'), shown here, grows into a spherical shape. It tops out around 30 inches tall and wide, but you don't have to prune it. Grow it around your foundation or let the compact shrubs edge a walkway, path or driveway. Hardy in Zones 3 to 8, Mr. Bowling Ball also grows well in containers.

Tip: Some arborvitaes grow faster and are more drought-tolerant than others. Read the plant's tag or label to be sure it will suit your needs.

LEARN MORE: How to Plant and Care for The Eastern Arborvitae

Xeriscaping Plants

Drought-resistant plants are the key to xeriscaping, an eco-friendly landscaping style that helps conserve one of our most precious natural resources: water. For flower bed ideas for front yards that don't get a lot of water, or where watering is restricted, try coneflowers, lantanas, yarrows, coreopsis, agaves, butterfly weed and catmints. Red yuccas, Yaupon hollies and forsythias are shrubs that can tolerate dry spells or dry climates. There's a different kind of beauty in plants that don't demand frequent waterings--but they're as beautiful as any others.

Tip: Succulents with fleshy leaves, desert wildflowers and trees with fuzzy or waxy leaves are also good choices for dry landscapes.

LEARN MORE: Xeriscaping Basics: Landscaping Strategies That Save Water

Bulbs

Bulbs are wonderful, versatile plants for the front of your house. Spring bloomers usually need to be planted in the fall, so you can't pop them in the ground and expect instant color, but summer flowering bulbs can go into the ground in mid to late spring. If the growing conditions are right, most bulbs come back faithfully year after year and put on a eye-catching display. Plant bulbs with staggered bloom times, like the ones in this 'Rainbow Coalition' tulip blend, to prolong the colorful show for several weeks.

Tip: Plant bulbs in containers for portable color and move them out of sight when the flowers finish.

LEARN MORE: 19 Favorite Bulb Flowers for Year-Round Color

Mailbox Plants

Don't just stick your mailbox post into the ground and leave it all alone in the dirt or grass. If it's a plain Jane, dress it up with a mix of plants. Try evergreens like compact inkberry holly Gem Box, assorted perennials and colorful annuals like ColorBlaze Lime Time coleus or Luscious Berry Blend lantanas. Choose sun-loving or shade-loving plants for the front of the house, depending how much sun the mailbox gets.

Tip: Avoid trips back and forth to the faucet for plants at the front of the house need frequent waterings. Choose low-water or drought tolerant plants instead.

FIND MORE INSPIRATION: Mailbox Landscaping Ideas: Gardening at the Curb

Azaleas

Add eye-candy to your front yard with sweeps of azaleas planted in beds or around your mailbox or porch. Most are hardy in Zones 6 to 9 and need filtered sun or a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade. These pretty shrubs come in a variety of colors and sizes.

Tip: If your budget is tight, put a few dwarf azaleas in containers near your entrance, or choose reblooming types that flower in spring and again in summer. Pictured here: Encore Azalea 'Autumn Carnation.'

SEE MORE PHOTOS: Biltmore Estate Azaleas

Portulacas

You don't have to spend a lot of time or money to increase your home's curb appeal when you fill matching containers with plants in complementary colors. Yellow pots hold this Mojave series of portulacas in bold colors like fuchsia, pink, red, yellow and tangerine. Portulacas, also known as purslane, sun roses and moss roses, are nearly carefree annuals that bloom vigorously in sunny spots. They also spread easily, so they're a good flower bed idea for front yards.

Tip: When the seasons change, just pop out the portulacas and replant with other kinds of flowers or foliage.

LEARN MORE: Drought- and Heat-Tolerant Annuals

Daylilies

Sun-loving daylilies add cheerful color to your home when they're grown in masses. These tough perennials are a great idea for flower beds in the front yard; they'll tolerate heat, drought and many pests and diseases. Grow early, mid- and late-season varieties, and you’ll have a show that lasts for weeks. Daylilies grow from fleshy roots that usually take year to get established. But you can sometimes find daylilies already in bloom and plant them for instant curb appeal, Or, if you plant daylily roots in early spring, there's a good chance you'll get blooms the first year they're in the ground.

Tip: After the flowers fade, divide the clumps and you'll have extra daylilies to plant or share with friends. This variety is Rainbow Rhythm 'Going Bananas.'

LEARN MORE: How to Grow Daylilies

Nandinas

Nandina, or heavenly bamboo, provides four-season curb appeal in some regions (the plants are evergreen in USDA Gardening Zones 8 to 10 and semi-evergreen or deciduous in Zones 6 to 8). These practically care-free shrubs have airy-looking foliage and white flowers in the spring. In fall, red berries appear, and the foliage turns vibrant shades of red, bronze and purple.

Tip: 'Firepower,' shown here, is a dwarf variety that develops its richest colors in full sun. Look for it at home and garden stores like Home Depot or on Amazon and other websites.

Sunflowers

While you're mulling over flower bed ideas for the front yard, don't ignore blooms for your porch. Use big planters for high visibility and fill them with fabulous flowers like SunBelievable Brown Eyed Girl Helianthus. Add a comfortable chair to make scene more inviting. These award-winning sunflowers bloom on compact, multi-branched plants from spring to frost.

Tip: Cut the blooms for indoor bouquets, too; the plants can produce up to 1,000 flowers in just one season.

LEARN MORE: Growing Sunflowers: When to Plant and How to Grow Sunflowers

Loropetalums

Crimson Fire fringe flowers (Loropetalums) are compact shrubs for the front of the house and almost anywhere else. The plants hold their ruby-red foliage throughout the year and form neat, small mounds, so they're ideal for growing around your foundation or in flower beds. Bright pink flowers open in the spring; the plants are hardy to Zones 7-9. Give Crimson Fire full sun to part shade and grow it in containers or in the ground. It's combined here with evergreen shrubs for a striking, easy-care combination.

Tip: Shrubs at the front of the house can take up as much room as you want to give them, so you'll have less grass to mow.

Distyliums

Introduced in 2015, Distyliums are shrubs with a spreading habit and they're still a relatively new look in shrubs for your house front. They adapt to heat, drought or wet soils and bear small, maroon flowers in the winter. These tough evergreens also resist pests and diseases and need little pruning, so they're great for dressing up walkways and foundation plantings. Small cultivars like 'Vintage Jade', shown here, stay low enough to use as ground covers.

Tip: Hardy in Zones 7 to 9, these plants are a good alternative to overused hollies, junipers or boxwoods.

Peonies

Spectacular peonies, with their brilliant colors and huge flowers, bloom from spring into early summer. They're old-fashioned curb appeal favorites that can grow in large containers with good drainage, flower beds and borders or the landscape. These very long-lived plants don't need much care and love full sun. To keep the blooms coming, choose early, mid-season and late-blooming varieties. Courtesy of the National Association of Landscape Professionals and LoveYourLandscape.org. Peonies are sold at Lowe's and many other online or brick-and-mortar garden centers and nurseries.

Tip: In the winter, gardeners in Zones 3 to 8 should move potted peonies into a spot that stays above freezing.

LEARN MORE: How to Care for Peonies

Ornamental Grasses

Easy-to-grow ornamental grasses boost your home’s curb appeal with interesting textures and add movement to the landscape or front of the house as they sway in the breeze. Use them for a contemporary look in beds or large containers or let them soften a rock garden or bed mulched with coarse bark, stone or gravel. Graceful Grasses 'Sky Rocket' combines here with Supertunia Mini Vista petunias in indigo, violet and white.

Tip: 'Sky Rocket' turns brown in the fall, but you can find winter-hardy, ornamental grasses that stay attractive year-round.

LEARN MORE: Ornamental Grasses for Sun and Shade

Mixed Flowers

Stately urns or traditional stone and resin pots of flowers and foliage are eyecatchers, but they don't suit every home style. Galvanized tubs, half barrels and other informal containers can hold plants for the front of the house and add charm to cottages, ranch houses, mountain retreats, log cabins and farmhouses. This blue-purple butterfly bush, Lo & Behold 'Lilac Chip' Buddleia, grows 18 to 30 inches tall and plays nicely with red Superbena Scarlet Star verbena and Superbells White calibrachoas. The butterfly bush is hardy in Zones 5 to 9, while the other plants are annuals in cold winter areas.

Tip: When you're coming up with flower bed ideas for the front yard, be sure the flowers you use have the same basic needs for water and light. You don't want to overwater a cactus planted next to a thirsty perennial.

LEARN MORE: Flower Bed Ideas for Beginners

Wildflowers

Wildflowers? In borders and flower beds in the front yard? Why not, if your Homeowners Association doesn't ban them, and you like them? Wildflowers are good for pollinators like butterflies, and those flying jewels add color and movement to our gardens. Seeds are sold individually or in mixes blended for different regions, so you can choose the kinds of flowers that will thrive where you live (and seeds are typically less expensive than plants). Look for wildflowers that grow in sunny areas or shade and in moist soils or arid areas. Some wildflowers bloom and die in the same year while others come back as perennials. Many will drop seeds that sprout, so you'll have more flowers in following years.

Tip: If you're unsure about turning your entire front yard into a meadow, sow the seeds along the edges of a path, like this one.

LEARN MORE: Mini Meadows Are the Perfect Small-Space Garden

Caladiums

For almost instant curb appeal, plant caladiums that grow in shade or filtered sun; some varieties can take full sun. In Zones 9 to 11, they come back every year as perennials but grow as annuals elsewhere. Plant them in masses for unmissable color in your front yard or containers; most will spread 12 to 24 inches. Look for them in cherry red, chartreuse, raspberry, violet-pink, cream and other shades. Shown here: Heart to Heart caladiums 'Scarlet Flame' and 'White Wonder.'

Tip: Caladiums need little care, but northern gardeners shouldn’t plant these tropicals until the temperatures are above 50 degrees.

LEARN MORE: How to Grow Caladium Plants

Ornamental Trees

Ornamental trees like this Snowdance Japanese tree lilac are traffic-stopping plants for the front of your house. For quick curb appeal, choose a fast-growing tree. This species grows about 12 to 18 inches a year and opens a cloud of fragrant, creamy-white flowers in the summer. Even if you don’t select a flowering tree, many other trees offer attractive fall color, shade or other desirable features. Fast-growing trees for curb appeal include crape myrtle, quaking aspens, river birches and red maples.

Tip: Snowdance Japanese tree lilacs tend to bloom biennially, but others, such as dogwoods and flowering cherries, flower annually.

LEARN MORE: The Best Ornamental Trees

Window Boxes

Lushly planted window boxes that match the borders and flower beds in your front yard really kick up your home’s curb appeal. The key to success is using complementary color combinations. These borders, with their graceful curves, lead the eye across the grassy lawn and echo the plants in the window boxes. The flowers in this front yard include Amazing Daises Daisy May Shasta Daisies, 'Tuscan Sun' perennial sunflowers and Rainbow Rhythm 'Primal Scream' daylilies.

Tip: Don't use too many different colors and different kinds of plants in your window box or it will feel "busy."

LEARN MORE: Easy Tips for Adding Window Boxes