Category: Garden, Growing Flowers

Planting flowering annuals and perennials in the landscape. New posts are Florida gardening with the hydrangeas and some others being from the north.

Planning a Garden Landscape That Includes Hydrangeas

Most people love to see a variety of color in a flower garden.  Along with the mix of sizes and shapes of shrubbery, getting colors to pop and draw the eye to a visual treat is most important.

This is not easy to do and you must know a bit about every type of flower being grown. Flower garden landscape design is very interesting.

(All photos on this page are courtesy of Pixabay.)

Cottage garden landscape with blooming flowers of all colors and sizes

Monarda, or Bee Balm, plants have tall, brightly colored flowers that attract bees.

monarda bee balm flower bright pink red

Hydrangeas can stand alone and be wonderful, but imagine them as the focal point in a diverse garden setting. 

When planting a tiered garden, with taller shrubs in the back, let hydrangeas be the mid-level plant (buy a type that doesn’t get super tall), with short annuals or perennials in front. 

garden path flowering landscape shrubs
Beautiful garden path

A word of caution about Monarda – it spreads, so if you don’t want it growing all over, plant it in a big pot to keep the roots contained.

tall flowering monarda bush with bright pink flowers
This Monarda was growing in my yard in New England

I also like the idea of adding interesting grasses beneath the hydrangea, but be careful you don’t disturb the roots and remember that the more you plant the more water the plants will drink.

Cosmos

Dainty, waving cosmos flowers are a wonderful addition to any garden. Their pink and white colors would offset a blue hydrangea nicely.

It will depend on where you live as to what you can plant. I now live in Florida so my one hydrangea plant grows beneath a large shrub near other tropical plantings.

Florida hydrangea garden perennial Spring
Hydrangea growing in my Florida yard

Planting a Garden In Tiers: Flowering Perennials For the Middle Section

I picture a tiered garden in three sections.  The tall, back section which will be the backdrop for the rest of the garden flowers;  the front area which will hold the ground cover plants and low growing annuals and / or perennials;  and the middle section which holds everything else!

It would be a bit more organized that a cottage garden where things of all sizes grow amongst each other.

flower garden landscape design

Filling in the central part of the garden may be the easiest task since finding perennials that are average in height may be the easiest.  Not only that, but mixing in a few taller varieties here is also okay. 

The middle area is a good place to add medium size hydrangeas or some day lilies. 

white flowering hydrangea
Blushing Bride white hydrangea (macrophylla)

Depending on how large your garden will be, or is, adding a central focal point such as a compact tree or larger bush would be a good idea.  I’ve never used tall, ornamental grass, but it can add character to the garden too.

Choose some type of garden ornament or giant pot to be the garden focal point or to add interest.

garden ornaments ornamental design focal point
Ornamental pots can be a garden focal point

The middle section could have some peonies (another favorite of mine) and stand alone asiatic lilies to add varying colors.  If you love roses, they could be planted in the middle section.

Just keep in mind the different needs of plants when you mix together a tiered garden, or any garden.  Roses need loads of sun, and good air circulation around their leaves.  They also need to be fertilized regularly.

When planting your tiered garden be sure to give everything room to grow.  It may look a little sparse the first year or two, but it can be filled in with annuals until the perennials grow up.

Pink and Cream Dried Hydrangea Bouquet

dried hydrangeas
Pretty Little Dried Bouquet

This little pink and white – or cream colored – bouquet of hydrangeas came from a shrub that was planted out near the woods in a house I once owned.

When I first moved to the northeastern U.S. from Florida, I didn’t know much about hydrangeas, or many northern flowering shrubs to be truthful. My new home had some very interesting and beautiful plantings, and I decided to find out what was growing in my yard.

Fortunately my next door neighbor was a big-time gardener himself, and his house was about 200 years old with huge flowering bushes growing all along the side of his yard. He came over and pointed out the Lilacs, hydrangeas and others for me, and between his help and visiting local nurseries, I finally figured out what I had.

The little hydrangea “tree” was (I think) a PeeGee and in the Fall the white flowers turned tan, cream and light mauve pink. So pretty! I cut a few and added them to a little vase and got a photo.

This little shrub was doing quite well neglected and tucked under a pine tree at the edge of the woods, so I might try growing one this year in my new, not-too-sunny, yard.

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Out of The Box And Into the Yard – Mail Order Perennials

New little hydrangea plant
One of The Hydrangea Plants

I was impressed with the packaging of the perennials I had ordered from American Meadows, and even though they were a little droopy, they bounced back.

Both Hydrangeas are planted in the backyard where they will get sun and the forsythia is out front. Unfortunately we got a freak 2 feet of snow the end of October, so they hadn’t been in the ground for long before they were covered. One of the long stalks of the forsythia broke off so it’s pretty small now, and the hydrangeas are droopy and partially broken. (The photo was taken before the snow – which may seem obvious, but the snow has all melted now).

I ordered from an online store because I was anxious to get my gardening started here at my new place, but I have my doubts as to how well these plants will do once Spring arrives. And more importantly, how much will they grow. I will be saving up this winter to buy some local hydrangeas and probably more forsythia so we’ll see how much of a difference it makes as far as growth.

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Got My New Little Mail Order Hydrangea Plants

mail order hydrangea plants
Mail Order Hydrangeas & Forsythia

I actually received these plants October 11th, but I’ve been busy with renovations to my house and didn’t have time to post.

I ordered two hydrangeas, a forsythia and some other perennials and bulbs from American Meadows (link on my sidebar) and the hydrangeas and forsythia came in pots wrapped in little cardboard boxes, which you can see in my photo here. I just took the boxes and “unwrapped” them from around the plant. It was a pretty cool way to ship them with little damage showing.

On the left, is the Limelight hydrangea which has greenish flowers. In the center is the “All Summer Beauty Hydrangea” which (as the tag says) is a hardier cousin to the Nikko Blue.

They were in pretty good shape and it rained for days after they arrived so I set them out on the deck to get watered and adjust to the outdoors during that time. Then I dug big holes and mixed in some Bonemeal with the dirt and watered them well. I planted the All Summer Beauty next to the porch steps and the Limelight at the side yard next to my new red, rhododendron.

All the plants are doing very well and I’ve finally finished planting all my tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs.

Are you a mail order person or do you prefer to buy local – or maybe a bit of both.  I have written a page on Buying Perennials about my thoughts on this subject with pros and cons as I see them.

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Edible Nasturtium Flowers Are Easy to Grow

Certain flowers can be grown and used to add flavor and goodness to food. The edible nasturtium flowers are easy to grow. The plant is an annual, but if you allow it to go to seed it will replace itself each year in the garden. Or collect the seeds and store them overwinter.

So how do you know which flowers are okay to eat? One way to begin growing edible flowers is to buy a book with accurate information.

Red and yellow Nasturtiums are edible plants
Pretty and Edible Nasturtiums

Edible Nasturtiums

Last year I began adding Nasturtium flowers and leaves to my salads, but I hadn’t grown nearly enough of them to last long.  I love their peppery taste and plan to grow lots of nasturtiums in my new gardens this next Spring.

This salad photo below includes the seeds of the nasturtium, which I have never eaten.

nasturtium salad flowers seeds greens
The flowers and seeds are part of this salad

Growing Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are easy to grow and all you need is one or two plants as starters. At the end of the growing season, let the seeds dry on the plant and then collect them to use the next season.  These are great flowers for kids to grow because the seeds are quite large and easy to handle.

Leaves are green or variegated (Alaska variety) and flower colors are usually red, yellow, and orange. Read more at this master gardener site.

nasturtium plant with variegated leaves

They come in a variety of colors and are easy to grow by planting their big seeds after the last frost.  Don’t fertilize them or you may get only big bunches of leaves and no flowers!

holding nasturtium seeds
The seeds