Let every day be one to look forward to with a flower garden. Indeed, with careful planning you can brighten even those dark winter days.

PAGE CONTENTS: Flower shades Blooming perfume Fruits ornate Leaf aroma Leaf sensation Leafy shades Shape & texture Mysterious plants Eat & enjoy Diverse wildnerness

You may remember a time when Begonia, Impatiens, Petunia and the like were grown from seed in the greenhouse by those who could. Public parks and gardens put on great displays of color. Then nurseries offered the plants for sale in strips. Now anyone can easily plant beds of spectacular color but they lack depth and interest.

In more northerly climates exotic highly bred flowers have an artificial look. Mass planted flower beds are plain. A useful alternative is mixed planting (shrubs, perennials, bulbs, annuals) in less well defined planting areas.

A flower garden of bright garish colors and exotic plants is short-lived in the north. All too soon, it fades away and the garden is abandonded. So let me tell you about an organic style to flower gardening.

To begin with I recommend you learn to experience the full sensation of garden plants. Create a multi-sense experience in your garden. Aim to make it highly interesting rather than a riot of color.

Flower Color - concentrate on pastel shades that look more natural. I recommend you choose flowers that blend with your natural environment. This choice alone often extends the main flowering period of your garden. Place the stronger brighter colors in front of a background of pastel shades to heighten awareness of depth. Strong contrasting colors generally enhance a more formal style to the flower garden. I prefer muted colors to bring gradual but continual change through the seasons.

Examples INFORMAL: Passion Flower has an attractive flower that displays precise geometry. But this doesn’t take over the whole display. Its leaves and stems bend in all directions as it climbs naturally to provide a back-drop and good cover. Combine with Clematis, Viburnum opulus.

LESS INFORMAL: Delphiniums provide a splendid show. They don’t pretend to be the perfect single flower. Instead their many flowers seem to vary naturally and they easily blend in with other plants. Combine with Meadowsweet, Foxglove, Lavender. Salvia.

FORMAL: Shrub Hydrangea can be very geometric and showy. This shrub can be balanced by plants that are equally showy but different, perhaps with Chrysanthemum, French Marigold, or going slightly exotic with Dahlia. It is also a strong feature plant to mark the end of a bed perhaps.

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Just ideas... but your flower garden is personal to you. Find an R.H.S. Award Winning Garden Designer based in Sheffield U.K. who can change your ideas into a real garden.

A mass of bright vivid colors doesn’t look natural. Highly bred flowers like Begonia, Carnation, even some Roses and double blooms seem artificial as if crafted from wax. Indeed they are not natural, as many years of artificial selection has gone into breeding them. Many of these flowers are also exotic and fade at the first frosts. A garden of temperate climate centered on plants like these will spend many months virtually derelict.

Ornamental grasses though not brightly colored, do have interesting flowers. E.G. Quaking grass, Cat’s Tail, and the shiny inflorescence of Wavy Hair Grass.

Flowers For Perfume - insignificant blooms may carry a lovely scent. Indeed they are more in need of this to attract insect pollinators. Scent by night is especially useful for those moonlight strolls. Use them around doors and windows for a pleasant waft of evening air. I love Night Scented Stock and the shrub Skimmia is also remarkable. When choosing garden plants, use scented flowers as one criterion for inclusion. It is the fourth dimension of garden design.

Blushing Ornate Fruit - after flowers come the ornate fruit. Berries are the common garden decorations from bright red, orange, yellow, blue, white berries. When your flowers finish in August, try extending the season of beauty by including plants with autumn and winter berries, like Cotoneaster, or Snowberry. But fruit also come in interesting shapes like the decorative feathery tassels of Clematis tangutica and the hazy smoke effect of Cotinus coggygera, and the slightly 'not of earth' shaped seed cases of Lunaria.

Leaves For Aroma - some garden plants have aromatic leaves that exude an aroma especially in sun. e.g. Thuja. With others it is necessary to brush against or crush the leaves e.g. Feverfew, Lemon Balm, Anthemis nobilis. Many are culinary herbs like mint, and thyme. Lavender, Sage, and Rosemary are especially good near paths and access ways where they brush against passers bye.

Sensational Leaves - the touch sensation is particularly useful to the partially sighted or blind. But the feel of plants is for everyone an experience of nature. There are many contrasting textures. Holly, Osmanthus, Yew, Box, Privet, conifers, heathers, all have an interesting if sometimes prickly feel. Topiary gives shape to the feel of these hedge plants. Add to them the rough texture of Comfrey, the waxy feel of Sedum; grass, chives and soft fern leaves, silver wooly Stachys lanata, feathery tassles of Clematis tangutica, and cool wet mounds of sphagnum moss, and you have a garden of touch.
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Pure Color Filled With Leaves - why abondon the garden when summer flowers have died? Autumn leaves can bring spectular displays of yellow, orange, red and purple. Some plants have colorful leaves all year around e.g. Japanese Maples, Sorbus, and plants with variagated leaves, or white and grey foliage e.g. Santolina, Senecio greyii and the like.

Growing With Shape and Texture - strong bold shapes can be used in contrast with fine textured leaves. Leaf size, variegation, branching and bark all add to texture. Bold shapes set before fine textures can add to a sense of depth.

Plants Of Mystery - most plants have a fascinating story to tell. Obvious examples range from specialized orchid flowers, fly pollinated Arum lilies, insect eating Sundew or Pitcher Plants, to the aromatic burning bush Dictamnus. Moss, ferns and mushrooms can add a lot of interest to your flower garden at quieter times. Entertain your guests with stories about Gingko, or Cycads. Show your children the parts of a ‘passion flower’ as Christian missioners did.

Plants To Eat And Enjoy - what better than to go down the garden path picking and sampling here and there a rich variety of juices and fresh tastes. Indeed every outing can be enjoyable. With herbs, vegetables, and summer fruits, tasty leaves, shoots and roots, hard fruit and mushrooms too. Growth goes on all year around except in the most extreme conditions. Indeed, you could have a veritable flower garden of Eden.

Plants For Wildlife - the activities of bees, hoverflys, butterflys, moths, and birds bring movement to the flower garden. Flowers are important as attractants, providing pollen for insects, and seeds for birds to eat.

Of course, not everything goes to plan. Some years bring bad crops, or disease here and there. But with diversity in your flower garden there will always be something to enjoy. That’s what makes the garden so interesting whatever happens.

Don't forget that the flower garden needs flowering shrubs and trees to extend the season further. The attractive shapes and colors (not to mention cones) of conifers are a good choice in gardens under winter snow.
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Select plants for colour and blossoms right through winter.

More on the flower garden.

Further information on flower gardening

BOOKS ABOUT THE FLOWER GARDEN

Winter Gardening - Steven Bradley

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ON OTHER WEBSITES: DOBIES SEEDS - for a comprehensive range of flower seed and plants supplied to UK gardeners NATURE HILLS NURSERY - seeds and plants supplied in USA - a wide range of shrubs. Backyard Garden & Patio - build your dream garden with our tips on planting, flower care, garden furniture and ponds. Garden Here - America's Favorite Home Gardening Community. Exchange plants and flowers here - it's easy. Do you run a gardening website? - if you would like to post a link here, suitable for this page or my other pages then click this.	MORE ON THIS WEBSITE: On Flower Gardening - see also ... Organic Garden Design - a personal view The Winter Garden - it can be the most beautiful season Gardening Perennials - care for herbaceous borders and the like Container Gardening - grow anywhere ... Companion Plants - discover how some flowers assist growth in neighbouring plants Pre-seeded Mats - flower seed germination made easy Prepare a Good Seed Bed - important for germination and choice of flowers Flower Award Winners - a few of the best flowers ^ Top of page
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