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Today I am sharing my plans for a flower garden, how I chose the flowers that I’m planting, and when I will be planting them. I will be sharing the whole list of plant and seed varieties that I am using, in case you would like to use them as well.
There are many factors to consider when starting a flower garden. The main ones that I focused on for my garden were growing zone, sun exposure, color scheme, and height of plants. My growing zone is 8a. It’s important to know what your growing zone is because it will determine the earliest and latest dates that you can successfully plant and get the best results. It will also indicate if you need to put your plants in during the fall or the spring. If you don’t know what your growing zone is, you can check the Farmer’s Almanac website or the USDA website.
Next you will need to know what type of sun exposure your garden bed will have. My garden bed is “full sun.” You can figure out what type of sun exposure your garden bed gets by simply seeing how much shade it gets throughout the day. Most flowering plants like to be in the sun.
After finding your growing zone and sun exposure, it’s time to decide what type of flowers you want to plant. One suggestion that I have for creating a beautiful garden is to decide on a color scheme. Just like interior rooms look more cohesive with a set color scheme, garden beds do as well. I decided to use a color scheme of purple, yellow, and white. This is a complementary color scheme because purple and yellow are directly across from each other on a color wheel. In gardening, green and white are considered neutral colors, so white flowers in my bed will be “neutral.”
Just a note about red: For those that love red flowers, if you want a complementary color scheme, your garden colors will be red and white flowers with green foliage, since green is the complementary color to red. Another color scheme that looks nice is red, white, and blue. A monochromatic color scheme with reds, oranges, and pinks is also one to consider, although it’s not my personal favorite.
Okay, after I chose my color scheme of purple, yellow, and white, I then looked at height of plants. I wanted the tallest plants to be in the back and the shortest plants to be in the front. This way none of the flowers are hidden, and taller or “leggier” plants have their stems hidden by the shorter row of flowers in front of them. Something else I looked at was when each plant would be blooming during the season. If everything turns out like I planned, I should have at least one type of flower blooming from early spring through late summer.
What I’m planting this fall, so that it will be ready to flower in the spring:
- Allium Gladiator, purple, 40″ tall, perennial
- Peony, Festiva Maxima, white, 39″, perennial
- Itoh Peony, Bartzella, yellow, 24-36″, perennial
- Canterbury Bells, Campana Lilac, purple, 30-34″, biennial
- Allium Mount Everest, white, 30″ tall, perennial
- Stock Seeds, Miracle Blue Mid, purple, 24-30″, annual
- Allium Purple Sensation, purple, 28″, perennial
- Yarrow, The Pearl, white, 16″, perennial
- Alyssum, Basket of Gold, yellow, 8-12″, perennial
As you can see, most of these plants are perennials, so they come back each year.
In the spring, I will be planting the rest of my seeds, which are all annuals. These are going to be in a separate, but adjacent, flower bed.
- Cosmos, Double Click, purple, 36-42″
- Zinnia, Benary Giant White, white, 36-40″
- Zinnia, Isabellina, yellow, 36″
- Snapdragon, Snowflake, white, 36″
- Love in a Mist, Orientalis Transformer, yellow, 28″
- Snapdragon, Madame Butterfly, yellow, 24-30″
- Cosmos, Xanthos, yellow and white, 20-24″
- Love in a Mist, Blue, blue, 18-24″
I purchased all of my flowers from Eden Brothers. The Eden Brothers website is very use friendly. You can filter by all of the things I mentioned in this article – color, growing zones, perennial, and so on. When your seeds arrive they will have a QR code to get specific instructions. I also received a link via email with helpful information for most of the flowers that I ordered.
I’ll update this article with photos of my blooms in a few months. In the meantime, please let me know below if you have any questions!