Home > Flower and garden articles > Creating long flowering gardens is much easier than you think - the secret is starting with the right plants.

Creating long flowering gardens is much easier than you think - the secret is starting with the right plants.

One of the greatest pleasures in life is having a garden which is continuously filled to over-flowing with flowers. I revel in such luxuriant bounty and love nothing better than seeing flowers spilling onto the lawns and pathways surrounding the garden.
I`ve been watching what happens in our own Trial and Display Gardens, studying other inspirational gardens and constantly experimenting in my own garden and, in doing so have discovered that creating exceptionally long flowering gardens is surprisingly simple.
At home I`ve developed a garden which is by no means an artistic masterpiece but which gives me a great deal of pleasure since it is filled with flowers for most of the year. It starts flowering as early as Spring and then builds to a crescendo for Summer and Autumn before slowly winding down to Winter for a period of rest. And it does all this without much effort from me!
I`ve learned that - with very few exceptions - anybody can have such a long flowering garden if they follow two simple steps:

How to build a long flowering garden:

Step 1 - Create long flowering `foundations` in your garden.

Choose one, two or three plants which will form the foundation of your lasting flower display. These `foundation` plants should be the longest flowering and most prolific you can find. They should start flowering in Spring, continue through Summer and then well into Autumn.
It may seem near impossible to find such fantastic plants but there are actually quite a few plants which meet the challenge (see my list of suggestions at the end of this story).
Once you`ve chosen your `foundation` plants, simply position them regularly through-out the garden. You to use them as continuous drift that meader through the garden beds or you might repeatedly plant them in bold clumps at regular intervals.
In this way these wonderful plants will ensure that there will always be at least some flowers in your garden from Spring until Autumn.

Step 2 - Fill in the gaps with your favourite flowers!

Now that the foundations of your garden are in place you can fill in all the gaps with all your favourite bulbs and perennials.
At this point it`s important to include a blend of Spring, Summer and Autumn flowering selections to ensure that there`s always lots of things in flower .
Hints:

To extend your season even longer, consider including some late Winter flowering plants to get the display off to an early start - Anemones, Hyacinths and Daffodils are great for this. You should also plant some late Autumn flowering plants to ensure you enjoy flowers until very late in the season - Japanese Anemones, Dahlias and Nerines are all ideal
You can get more flowers from many of the popular perennials by simply trimming off the fading flowers after each big flush. By doing so you will be further filling your garden with colourful blooms! Read the Tesselaar Growing Guides to determine which perennials this applies to.

Get planting!

The Tesselaar Mail Order Service makes it easy for you to create your own dreamy garden which over flows with flowers.
Firstly we only list the most “garden worthy“ of bulbs and perennials (ie those which are showy, long flowering and generally easy care.) Throughout our catalogues we further highlight plants/bulbs of exceptional garden value by awarding them the Tesselaar Diamond Award for Exceptional Garden Worthiness.
Secondly, we mail a catalogue for each of the major planting seasons so that you`ll know when it`s the right time to plant each of the different bulbs or perennials.
Thirdly, we illustrate the bulbs and perennials in full colour so that you can easily select those items which you love the most!

Great `foundation` plants:

(Most are available through our Winter and Spring mail order catalogues):

Medium to tall foundation plants:

Gaura (or Whirling Butterflies) - there are many forms available including the new pink & bronze `Karalee Petite` in our upcoming Spring catalogue
Saliva nemerosa - especially the neat & vibrant “East Friesland“
Dwarf white Agapanthus - very prolific as well as having lush evergreen foliage which has the added benefit of giving your garden Winter structure
Lavatera `Lilac Lady` -a taller shrubs filled with masses of soft pink blooms and soft grey foliage.
Anisodontea -great for adding bulk, height and, of course, loads of soft pink flowers to the garden.
Nepeta (or Catmint) - these are our favourite! They`re similar to Lavenders but much easier to care for and very long flowering

Ground cover or `edging` foundation plants:

Penstemon `Catherine De La Mare“ - this open shaped sprawling Penstemon is great for softening garden edges.

Stella D`Oro Daylily - a wonderful plant for bringing seemingly endless colour to the front of the garden

Nemesia - flowers for up to 9 months of every year and so is great as a “foundation“ plant towards the front of the garden or as an edging plant.

Scabiosa/Pincushion flowers - wonderfully prolific in Spring, Summer and Autumn and available in pretty pinks and mauves.

Dwarf Peruvian Lilies

Fuschia `Ballerina` - flowers for a sensationally long time with flowers of brilliant hot pink and purple to catch the eye.

Campanula `Rescholt variety` - a great ground cover with pretty mauve star shaped blooms for month, after month, after month.

Verbena - the Babylon Series or `Homestead Purple`. These terrific ground covers bring lasting eye-popping colour to the garden. The Babylon series is particularly flat whilst `Homestead Purple` is a more upright rounded bush.

Calibrachoa - another great ground cover for eye popping pink & blue.

Campanula `Elizabeth` - the large soft pink bells of this plant are on display all the way to late Autumn. It`s one of the latest flowering cottage garden perennials we`ve seen.

Calamintha - a pretty little bush that`s a mass of tiny star-shaped flowers. It flowers endless and is wonderful as a filler or edging plant.

Perennial Snap Dragons - cute and colourful too!

Australian Paper Daisies (the Florabella range of Bracteantha). These daisies are particularly neat and tidy. We rely on them to flower for months on end without any fuss. They also have a wide range of climatic tolerances.

Last Reviewed: 18/02/2004 9:33:41 AM

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