Tag Archives: Plant

Flower Garden Plans | Flower Garden

Red Valerian, a perennial plant.
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Perennial flower beds can be considered as a basic component of a well-planned landscape design. They not only complement any garden, but are also easy to maintain. With perennial flower bed plans, you are not required to replace plants frequently, which is so in case of growing annuals and biennials. Once a perennial garden is established, you can follow simple maintenance tips to preserve the aesthetic value of the garden.

The color and flower type of perennial plants are plentiful; you can select specific varieties as per your flower garden theme. As we already know, the blooming period of perennial plants are short, usually 4 – 6 weeks. A properly planned perennial garden will give you the advantage of enjoying vibrant flowers throughout the year. While designing garden flower beds of a perennial type, make sure that you plan properly regarding the theme, beds and plant variety.

Perennial Garden: Designs for Flower Beds

Though perennial flowers can be grown randomly, plantation in beds gives a special visual impact. When viewed at a glance, vibrant colored flowers appear more beautiful when they bloom in groups, rather than in singles. Anytime, a perennial garden bed with full bloomed flowers is appreciated by every viewer. You can practice basic landscaping ideas for flower beds while designing a perennial garden. Following are some basic tips on perennial flower beds and designs for garden flower beds.

Perennial Garden Theme: First of all, select the theme of the perennial garden. You can opt for a formal type, scented type (roses and lavender), butterfly garden (salvia and buddleia), water garden or any other theme as your choice. If you are a beginner, it is always better to choose a manageable and attractive perennial garden type. Once you gain knowledge about the maintenance tips regarding various themes, you can go for more complex garden types.

Perennial Flower Bed Plan: Lay out the plan of the perennial flower beds according to the area of the yard. A wider bed gives more flexibility for designing the flower beds. Also, narrow flower beds give a crowded appearance. Nevertheless, too wide garden beds may be difficult to manage, as you will not be able to reach the middle plants. An 8 – 10 feet wide bed is a preferable dimension for perennial flower beds.

Selecting Perennial Flower: Selecting the plant variety is the most crucial step for designing a perennial flower garden. A basic tip is to select plants according to their required growing conditions (soil, light, water, temperature) so that they grow best in your garden. Another important aspect for selecting plant variety is the height, flower color, length of blooming and flowering time.

Creating Color Scheme: You can sort out the plants according to the height, flower color and blooming time prior to creating a color scheme. Also, make sure you consider the light requirements of the plants, while grouping perennial flowers. Speaking about the color scheme of the perennial flower bed, you can group perennial plants (of different colors) in odd numbers. A cluster of three perennial plants with various colors looks appealing. Warm flower colors include yellow, orange and red together; while cool colors are white, pink, purple and blue.

Plantation Pattern: While growing the perennial plants, place the short varieties (dianthus and phlox) on the front and tall plants (peony and iris) at the back. You can include 14 – 18 inch tall flowers in the front section, 1 – 3 feet tall varieties in the middle portion and 3 – 5 feet perennial flowers at the back. Planting in this pattern will create a scenic beauty to your perennial flower beds.

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Butterfly Bush: Loved by People and Butterflies Alike

Butterfly Bush
Butterfly Bush

The beautiful flowering butterfly bush is so named because it attracts butterflies, making it a striking conversation piece in any yard.  Butterfly bushes get very large, so keep that in mind when choosing a place to plant one.  They usually get at least six feet tall and can get much taller in good growing conditions.  The flowers are in large spiked clusters of pink, purple, red or white with orange throats.  Butterfly bush should not be confused with the orange wildflower known as butterfly.

The butterfly bush is hardy in zones 5 to 10, which is most of the southern half of the US.  The butterfly bush was originally found in the Orient, then was taken to France for cultivation.  In Europe it was called “summer lilac” because of the large fragrant flower clusters that resemble lilac. The plant attracts hummingbirds as well as butterflies.

Butterfly bushes are easy to grow as long as they have normal garden soil and at least six hours of daylight per day.  Of course, you also need to remember to give them plenty of room.  Some people like to prune them back to half their size in the late summer so that they will have new growth and lots of blooms when the butterflies migrate in September and October.  They also stay in bloom better when you remove dead flowers.  An established bush is somewhat tolerant of drought conditions.

There is one drawback with butterfly bushes, according to some experts.  Since the bush is not native to North America, and since it is so easy to grow, it is considered an invasive species in some places.  They also argue that it doesn’t really help the butterflies that come to it because it is not a suitable host plant for them.  That is, it is not a plant where they can lay eggs, and which will feed the caterpillars.

If you already have a butterfly bush that you enjoy every year, you can make it more environmentally friendly by removing the dead heads before they go to seed and trimming the plant back each year.  If you use a heavy mulch around the bottom, you won’t have to worry as much about new seedlings coming up.  Make your butterfly garden even more useful to butterflies by planting some milkweed relatives, such as the butterfly weed

Butterfly Bush
Butterfly Bush