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Flower Gardens: Design Basics
In the context of gardening history, flower gardens are a relatively recent concept. Gardens planted entirely with flowers first became popular during the nineteenth century, when show and artistry was often valued above functionality.
Flower Garden Design
The sheer beauty of today's flower gardens can take your breath away. They seem so effortless, yet so exuberantly showy.
But behind the scenes is a great deal of labor, planning and careful garden design.Overall layout, backdrop, paths, garden borders and the use of flower bed space to best advantage are all important considerations when designing a visually appealing flower garden.
Balance and proportion are essential. Aim to 'frame' your flower garden with a hedge, fence or wall that goes with the architecture of your home.
Flower Beds: Shape and Proportion
Choose well-drained soil in a sunny location. Avoid mixing-and-matching styles of flower beds. In formal flower gardens, symmetry and layout are paramount, with straight-edged flower beds and surrounding paths.
Informal flower gardens are enhanced by a more random effect. But this doesn't mean that informal flower bed design is easier to achieve. If anything, it requires considerably more effort and planning. Try to design soft-edged flower beds, on different levels. Lay meandering paths that blend into the natural outlines of your terrain.
Choosing Flowering Bulbs
Select bulbs (corms or tubers) that feel firm and plump. The growing tip and outer skin or 'tunic', should be intact. Avoid bulbs that appear shriveled or moldy. Bulbs should be stored in cool, dry places, before planting.
Roses: Gardeners' Favorites
When many gardeners think of flower gardens, they think immediately of roses. From a single rose bush as a focal point to a flower garden full of roses, choose from: climbers and ramblers; hybrid teas, with large blooms and slim stems; small flowering clustered floribunda roses; glorious grandifloras; or traditional garden roses, shrub roses and miniatures.
Favorite Cut Flowers
An increasing number of gardeners are growing cut flowers as a profitable hobby. A long flowering period is the main deciding factor when choosing cut flower types for profit.
Favorite cut flowers in North America include: aster, celosia, cockscomb, cosmos, gypsophila, hybrid tea roses, lavatera, rudbeckia, scabiosa, snapdragons, sunflowers, zinnia . . . the list is endless.
Specialty hybrid tea roses are among the most popular cut flowers, followed closely by carnations, lilies and chrysanthemums.
Garden Wild Flowers
Back-to-nature flower gardens planted entirely with wild flowers have grabbed the gardening world's imagination. Wild flowers attract wildlife to your garden and arguably create a floral extravaganza as stunning as other more pampered garden plants.
While growing wild flowers from seeds takes time, it can be hugely rewarding. Popular wild flowers for garden cultivation include: celandine, cornflower, forget-me-not foxglove, honeysuckle, primrose and red campion.
Flower Garden Ideas
The following flower garden design ideas will help you achieve maximum impact for minimum effort:
- Take time to peruse gardening catalogues. Study the descriptions of each flower. Consider its hardiness, growing requirements, color, height and appropriateness for companion planting.
- Aim for year round color and variety by growing a combination of perennials, annuals, flowering shrubs and bulbs. Choose as many early flowering bulbs as possible, so that your flower garden never suffers from 'all or nothing' syndrome!
- Keep flower garden accessories to a minimum; let the flowers themselves serve as decorations.
- Study other folks' gardens in your area. Check out which types of flowers flourish best. Chances are, these flowers would also thrive in your flower garden. Then trump the competition by planting a similar variety, but perhaps in a more flamboyant color.
- Opt for the minimalist approach. By limiting your range of flowers, you will save on labor and maintenance, while still producing a magnificent show. Less is often more when going for dramatic effect. Too many types of flowers often end up looking cluttered, with different flowers competing with one another for pride of place.
- When your flower garden begins to look jaded during the late summer, pep up your flower beds with a few vertical plants, such as Cleopatra, hollyhocks or verbascum for maximum color, using minimum ground space.
Flower Types
Types of flowering plants don't necessarily fall into neat categories. Much depends on the growing conditions and climate in different regions. Perennials, for instance, are often treated as annuals in colder climates, whereas annuals can extend their lifespan to match biennials in warmer regions.
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Types of Flowering Plants |
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annuals |
Annuals flower once only and complete their life cycle within one year. Some annuals germinate, flower, seed and die within two or three months. In colder climates, certain perennial flowers are treated as annuals, as they're unable to survive freezing temperatures. |
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biennials |
Biennials take between one and two years to complete their life cycle. During the first half of their cycle, biennials produce stems and leaves, remain dormant during the cold season, then bloom in spring or summer before dying. Some biennials have an abbreviated cycle of three to four months. These fast-track biennials can be treated as annuals in most flower gardens. |
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perennials |
Perennials live for more than one year, producing flowers and seeds more than once during their life cycle. Many flowering shrubs fall into his category. |
Flower Garden Maintenance
The show goes on; and nowhere more so than in flower gardens: soil preparation, mulching, top dressing, fertilizing, spraying, trimming, pruning and deadheading. Above all, plan ahead.
More Flower Gardens
