Flower Gardening Ideas

* How to choose special plants for a spot,
* 8 flower garden themes described,
* Flowers that love each other and your admirers,

The first task in successful flower gardening is to choose the plants that grow well on your chosen site. The second important skill is in selecting attractive flowering plants that blend well together in a group to good affect. And furthermore, to grow a selection of plants that between them provide all-year-around interest.

Flower Garden Themes

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Organic gardeners can grow most flowers, but some are indeed more valuable and easier to grow than others. More information on growing your own flowers from seeds, plants and cuttings is coming soon.

The following information combines the second two skills into 8 illustrations of organic flower gardening. And here, instead of dealing with individual plant preference, I provide pointers on the suitability of each theme for your gardening conditions and your style.

Create Your Own Themes - perhaps a different theme for each area.

Well in any ordinary garden it could be the color green. But seriously, the shape, size, color-mix and texture of plants all contribute to create a unique and 'magical' atmosphere. Perhaps it's the organically repeating structures that stir our senses (star shaped flowers, divided ferny leaves, tassels, spiky shapes, or neat mounds...), or is it the memory of a beautiful landscape we once visited?
Add to that those exquisite and indelible garden flower fragrances...

Let's illustrate this with 8 possible themes for flower gardening.
You will then be able to:-

• Decide on your own garden theme,
• Select the main plants that embody your theme,
• Decide on the main shape and structure of your new garden,
• Make repeat and impressive plantings of your main theme plants,
• Consider the seasonal changes throughout the whole year,
• Fill spaces in the outline with contrasting or supporting plants,

Formal and Decorative        Your panel selection is remembered  VV  

Pansy 'Colourburst' March-June

Primrose 'rainbow' March-May

Tulip 'Queen of Night' May

Regal Pelargonium 'Parisienne' May - Nov

Cineraria 'Silver Dust' Foliage plant flowers in summer

Dahlia 'Howard' July - October

Box topiary

A formal flower garden - regular planting, neat lines, bright colors and high contrast - sends a strong message to onlookers. Your flowers become a sign-post, one that points visitors to your home, and makes a statement about ownership.

Formal and decorative flower gardening requires regular upkeep. Anything out of place will clearly be a spoiler. You will also need to enrich your soil with organic fertilizers and compost.

What messages do your flowers send to their admirers?

Pansy flowers seem to have an expression - but this can be happy, welcoming or cheeky. Winter pansies brighten up dark days, and they might even be seen as tiny cheer leaders.

And for small plants, mixed pansies have loud colors - but they do need to be planted in sufficient numbers. They also look good in hanging baskets and pyramids. Tip: use extra large plug plants.

African Marigolds with dozens of uniform double flowers they are just right for a display garden. Their frilly, full flower heads come in rich shades of gold, bronze, and orange. You can get compact varieties or more impressive medium sized specimens. They are spectacular en-mass. Don't forget the single flowered French Marigolds for organic gardens - varieties often display in 2 colors.

Dahlias blend beautifully with marigolds and really show some class. You can plant larger areas with 3 to 4 foot specimen dahlias. Many compact varieties are also available. Some of the most striking Dahlias have bright flowers set against dark leaves. They are highly admirable flowering plants.

Tulips are aloof and stately, standing to attention like soldiers. Grow the Darwin Hybrids or Single Hybrid Tulips for a formal garden. Use the frilly, multi-stemmed, wild, or botanical varieties for a decorative garden. Plain leaved varieties are more formal than the stripy leaved types, while mixed colors are less formal and more decorative.

Coleus and Cockscomb create a picturesque, ornate and colorful combination. Coleus brings the most beautiful, brightly coloured and ornate leaves. And Celosia plumosa or 'Cockscomb' is one of the most ornate bedding flowers.

Their precise and complex patterns grace formal gardens while at the same time suggesting something more natural. But remember, to get the best effect as always, you need to plant in sufficient numbers.

Shrubs, topiary and pyramids. A formal flower garden also benefits from tightly pruned fine leaved shrubs (topiary), as well as hanging baskets, rectangular containers and pyramids. The shrubs maintain the flower garden structure in all seasons.

Luxuriant and Vibrant Flower Gardening

Gunnera manicata June

Here's where your beautiful plants simply take over your garden. This theme contains robust impressive perennial plants seemingly crammed together. Flowers

Allium 'Globemaster' July

jostle for attention, tall arching grassy plumes combine with wide open exotic blooms. The front is packed to the border with bold solid leaf shapes and foamy flowers.

These flower gardens require deep, rich, moisture retentive soil and regular watering on dry days. Some plants are sun lovers some enjoy partial shade and you site them accordingly. This garden may suffer after a hard winter. But the choice is yours to grow more.

Banana Plant Musa Sikkimensis 'Red Tiger' July - Sep Striped Hemlock - Molospermum Full sun, May - Sep Plantain Lily - Hosta 'Sum and Substance' July - Aug Milk Parsley Selinum carvifolium Jul - Sep Lilium 'La Mancha' July - Aug Amaranthus cordatus 'Love Lies Bleeding' June - Sep Hollyhock 'Mixed' June - Sep

A One-Sided Floral Grandstand

Winter Jasmine Jan - March

Flws:July-Sep Grows over a pyramid

Meconopsis betonicifolia 'Himalayan Blue Poppy' June

Delphinium 'Pacific Hybrids' June - Aug

Iris foetidissima 'Stinking Gladwyn' June

Stipa tenuissima June - Sep

Ivy Hedera helix 'Gold Child' Covers a wall Sunflower 'Garden Statement' July - Sep Lenten Rose Helleborus x hybridus 'Harvington pink speckled' Feb - April Solomon's Seal Polygonatum × hybridum 'Striatum' May - June Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus' Aug - Sep

Flower borders that run along a boundary can only be approached from one side. Therefore, so as to reach the back, they are usually narrow. This restriction can be somewhat reduced by placing paving stones into the border. Nevertheless, with a one-side view only, special planning is needed with regard to plant heights at the front and back of border.

Now if you have the choice make this border face south rather than north. Several flowers in this selection bend toward the sun. They line up for your show and face their admirers.

Vertical flower spikes and columns fit well with straight sided narrow flower beds and they include Iris, Delphinium, Hollyhocks, and grasses... ...

Low narrow borders in sun look well when planted with Lavender. You can even choose half a dozen each say, of several varieties, with shades ranging from pink, white and blue, as well as compact, full-grown and the frilly flowered French Lavender. What a show!
What fragrance too!
And Sweet Peas will make an excellent backdrop. For training climbing plants like a perennial Clematis (illustrated) or Sweet Peas, simple-to-fix pyramid structures are available.

For low narrow borders that are shaded, even dry, Hypericum calycinum is ideal. This forms a low hedge full of bright yellow August blooms with ornate centres and it smothers weeds.

A narrow border is an ideal place for growing edible plants too. Scarlet Runner beans have pretty flowers similar to Sweet Peas.

But ferny leaved Asparagus is also visually appealing. And Leaf Beet has thick attractively coloured stems that bare large crinkly leaves.

Carpets and Mounds

Thymus coccineus

Sagina subulata var glabra 'aurea'

Campanula carpatica 'blaue-clips'

Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow'

Winter Heath Erica carnea 'Rosalie'

Blue Hair Grass Koeleria glauca

Cyclamen herderifolium

Fine leaved textures are most useful in small spaces. Imagine a low growing smooth carpet of fine textured green in various shades. Add to that, low mounds of small leaves, and then small leaved tightly pruned shrubs. You can expect a smooth background with a pretty patch work of seasonal flower color in subtle shades.

Carpets: Suitable plants include creeping and scented spreading Thyme Thymus praecox 'Coccineus', and Chamomile ('Treneague') for a scented walk. Add to that the fine leaved shades of Sagina subulata and Scleranthus biflorus and Sedum acre along with their tiny flowers.

• Carpet plants are best grown in shallow-pots to make dense cover before planting into a cleared space.

Then consider Delospermum (Ice Plant) and small Sedums... yellow flowered S. kamtschaticum, and red flowered S. spurium, plus the small Saxafrages to up the size scale just a touch.

Artist's impression - fine texture carpet / mound flower gardening - take care to keep it small.

While evergreens from 'Blue Rug' Juniperus horizontalis 'Wiltonii' to Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Sungold' provide fine textured ground hugging shrubs.

Clearances, Drifts and Contrasts: Consider contrasting shapes and colors too. Low carpets of green will easily accommodate small upright flowers: Crocus, Narcissus, Hyacinths... and dwarf Iris.

In damper areas leave space for the larger flat leaves in harlequin colors of Ajuga reptans, and 'organic flowers' such as the spreading Prunella 'freelander mix' or Lamium. Mounds of Polygonum and drifts of Primula viallii add contrasting flower spikes.

And small tufted grasses and sedges from the light shades of Blue Festuca Festuca glauca, the yellows of Carex elata 'Aurea' to Black Mondeo

Euonymus fortunei 'emerald-n-gold'

Hebe pinguifolia 'pagei'

Grass Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescense' can be planted in drifts. Convallaria may also fit in, but rapidly spreading plants are best grown in submerged containers. Keep it small scale.

Edges: Join the edges to lowish fine leaved shrubs carefully pruned into tight mounds. You might imagine them to be mountains, or a herd of elephants. Most such as dwarf Azaleas and Hebes will produce seasonal flower color too. While the likes of dwarf Berberis will also berry.

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You can also choose bright variegated foliage such as the small Euonymous fortunei. Heathers too are especially valuable for this flower gardening theme. Their foliage comes in many shades from reds, golds, bronzes, and greens and combines with fine textured flowers for all-year color.

• But take care with any kind of plant that is large, rapidly spreading or has a wide open growth habit. Avoid all plants that will spoil the main theme.

Shades of the Stars	Curves, Islands & Arches	Ferny, Woody & Gnarled	Sparse Dry & Grassy
Formal & Decorative	Luxuriant & Vibrant	One-sided Floral Grandstand	Carpets & Mounds

• U.K. & Europe - find your flower gardening selection on this link.

   

• American gardeners click here for excellent value in flower & plants.

   

Find more information on flower gardening with
the-organic-gardener.com:

• Essentials of Flower Garden Design
• Find flowers for a Winter Garden
• Find flowers to cut for home decoration
• Enrich your social life with Patio Gardening
• What to expect when you buy plants
• Find the flowers that benefit an organic garden here
• ... and lots more on growing & gardening with flowers

ALSO on The Organic Gardener find:-
organic gardening suppliers in your country from here.

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