What Are Flower Gardens?

An informal flower garden boasts a wide range of colors and forms.

Flower gardens are lush, landscaped areas dominated by flowering plants. A gardener may maintain a year-round flower garden by planting many species with a range of bloom times. Alternatively, the flower garden may have a specific time period, with many species all producing flowers during approximately the same dates. Some gardeners use their flower gardens as the place to enjoy the many blooms, while others use the gardens as a source for cut flowers to enjoy indoors.

Flower Types

When designing a flower garden, you must decide what types of plants you prefer for the space. Flowering plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials, meaning that they live for one year, two years or more. Planting annuals means that you can redesign your garden each year. On the other hand, planting perennials gives you some recurring elements to work with. You may wish to combine annuals and perennials, dividing them up into various beds. This way, you reduce the yearly expenses and labor of planting annuals while permitting yourself some variation from year to year.

Layout

Flower gardens can take a nearly endless range of layouts. If space is at a premium, create a miniature flower garden in the form of a single bed. Arrange plantings so that the tallest growth goes at the back, letting you see the blooms of lower growing varieties up front. For a formal look, use plenty of straight lines and symmetry; for example, orient multiple flower beds along each side of a central walkway. If you prefer the charm of an informal cottage garden, incorporate plenty of plants with sprawling growth. Keep the individual plants lushly packed and diversify the flowers' colors and shapes.

Themes

Flower gardens can take many themes according to plant species, flower color or even your intentions for how to use the garden. For example, a rose garden is one popular single-species theme for a flower garden. If you'd rather broaden your range to include more diversity, you can focus on flowers of a particular color family. Planting flowers with aromatic blossoms makes for a sweet-smelling sanctuary. If you enjoy watching butterflies, select species that attract the winged pollinators. For blooms you can enjoy indoors and out, look for species with hardy blooms that fare well as cut flowers.

Container Gardens

Container gardening lets you bring your flower garden almost anywhere. A collection of pots and planters is all you need to extend the garden to a patio or an urban balcony. Even if you have a plot of land available, container gardens can help protect your plants from common soil problems such as nematodes. You can even bring some plants indoors at the end of the season to extend their blooming a bit longer.

References

• University of Arizona: Flower-Bed: Perennials
• University of Arizona: Flower-Bed: Annuals
• Country Living; The Instant Garden; Susan Heeger
• Fine Gardening; An Annual Cutting Garden; Michael A. Ruggiero, et al.
• Colorado State University Extension; Container Gardens; M. Roll, et al.; May 2006