Planning your garden

Here are some of the factors to think about when you're laying out flower beds and choosing your flowers:

Flower Life Span

Your first consideration is usually how long you want your flowers to survive in the garden.

Annuals last one season and die out, which means they have to be replanted every year but which means you're also free to change the layouts.

Perennials will survive winter and return the next summer, which means you don't have to replant them but which means you're stuck with the original layout unless you transplant them all.

Climate

You must also factor in the prevailing weather conditions in your area and choose flowers that will thrive in your climate. Your local nurseries will steer you in the right directions, and plant catalogues usually provide zone information for the flowers they sell.

Sun and Shade

Pay attention to the hours of sun and shade wherever you want to plant flowers. Different varieties have different requirements, so don't try to grow a flower that needs lots of sun in a spot that never gets any.

Flower Height

When you buy flower transplants, they're all about the same height but at maturity the different varieties will be anywhere from a few inches to several feet high. So check their heights at maturity and then plant the taller ones in the back of your beds where they won't block the shorter ones.

Time of Bloom

Most annuals bloom all summer, but many of them and most perennials will bloom for a month or two at a specific time. The trick is to group the varied blooms together so that as one is fading, neighboring flowers are just coming into full color.

Colors

One way experts take advantage of color is with mass plantings of individual colors, which create winding blocks of color in a mature garden. But it's also effective to group multi-color flowers of the same variety.