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A Flower Garden Design for Spring, Summer, and Fall Color
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Imagine a gorgeous flower garden drenched with color from early spring to the first frost of autumn. A daydream, you say? Not anymore! This flower garden design fills the wish list of amateur and expert gardenersalike.
Three Seasons ofColor
We’ve selected common plants for each season to meet most geographies in the U.S. (Because most of these perennials need winter chill, this garden is inappropriate for subtropical climates such as southern Florida and southern California.)
Our goals in designing this three-season garden are:
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- Constant color: Spring flowers and foliage in burgundy, pink, and blue give way to yellow, orange, blue, and ebony for summer andautumn.
- Effortless impact: This plot is almost maintenance-free. For at least five years, it will need no staking, dividing, or pruning—only fertilizing, feeding, and maybe a bit ofweeding.
- Easy adaptability: The plot size can be reduced or expanded to suit your space (and time), and these plants tolerate most climates, whether the first freeze occurs on September 10 or November15.
SpringColor
- ‘Black Lace’elderberry
- Rozannegeranium
- ‘Foxtrot’tulip
- ‘King of Hearts’dicentra
- ‘Obsidian’heuchera
- Wine & Rosesweigela
Tulips
SummerColor
- ‘Connecticut Yankee’delphinium
- ‘Goldsturm’rudbeckia
- ‘Mardi Gras’helenium
- ‘May Night’salvia
- ‘Mönch’aster
- ‘Summer Sun’heliopsis
(‘Black Lace’ elderberry, Rozanne geranium, ‘Obsidian’ heuchera, and Wine & Roses weigela will stillbloom.)
Heliopsis
FallColor
- ‘Arendsii’monkshood
- ‘Mönch’ hardyaster
(‘Black Lace’ elderberry, Rozanne geranium, ‘Goldsturm’ rudbeckia, Mardi Grashelenium, ‘May Night’ salvia, ‘Obsidian’ heuchera, ‘Summer Sun’ heliopsis, and Wine & Rosesweigela will stillbloom.)
Garden GroundRules
- The bed is 16 feet long and 6 feetwide.
- The garden requires at least six hours of sunlight aday.
- The 13 plant varieties are massed in numbers of each for maximum color and instant curb appeal. The plan is customizable to your best advantage, as a border or anisland.
- To create larger beds, double or triple the number ofplants
- If space (or time) is at a premium, cut the length of the bed to 8 feet, reduce the number of plants accordingly, and forgo the large ‘Black Lace’ elderberryshrub.
- For a centerpiece in the middle of a lawn, place the elderberry and taller perennials in the middle and surround them with plants of shorter stature, ending with Rozannegeranium and ‘Obsidian’heuchera at the edge of thebed.
Best Three-Season PlantsList
A three-season garden requires three essentialingredients:
- Perennials that bloom copiously year afteryear
- Small shrubs with color-saturated foliage all seasonlong
- Plants that do not spreadaggressively
These characteristics are found in all of thefollowing:
- Elderberry (Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’)
1plant - Weigela (Weigela Wine & Roses)
2plants - Bleeding heart (Dicentra ‘King of Hearts’)
4plants - Heuchera (Heuchera ‘Obsidian’)
2plants - Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’)
2plants - Ox eye (Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra ‘Sommersonne’, aka ‘Summer Sun’)
2plants - Sneezeweed (Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’)
2plants - Salvia (Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’, aka ‘May Night’)
4plants - Cranesbill (Geranium ‘Gerwat’, aka Rozanne)
8plants - Aster (Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’)
3plants - Tulip (Tulipa ‘Foxtrot’)
40bulbs - Monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelli ‘Arendsii’)
6plants - Delphinium (Delphinium ‘Connecticut Yankee’ series)
6plants
Helenium
Tips for Success EverySeason
- Before you start digging, arrange the potted plants on the bed so that you can get a general idea of what the garden will look like. Remember to leave space between the plants to allow them to growwider.
- Plant from the back of the bed to the front. Set shrubs and perennials at the same depth as they are incontainers.
- For a lush look, plant tulip bulbs thickly (about 5 per square foot of bed). After they bloom, remove the dead flowers so that the bulbs put their energy into storing nutrients for the next season rather than into setting seeds. Remove tulip leaves after they brown. Don’t worry about appearances; nearby perennials will cover up the agingleaves.
- Fertilize if you want these plants to thrive. Scrape away any mulch from the base of each plant in the early spring and spread an inch of compost around the plants. In July, lightly mix bonemeal or a slow-release fertilizer into the surface of the soil above the bulbs. (Note: Bonemeal may attract rodents that will dig for bones.) Learn more about organic soil amendments.
- Spread 3 inches of mulch over the bed. It will help to retain moisture and suppress weeds. Use an organic material (such as shredded bark or leaf mold), which adds nutrients to the soil as it decays. Cedar bark mulch is an excellent choice as well, because the resins in it repel many insects and prevent fungal diseases. Learn more about mulch.
- Remove fading flowers to increase perennials’ bloom production. Shrubs drop their old flowers and will bloom again if conditions areright.
- Do not remove brown foliage on perennials until early spring when new green growth appears. The dead material insulates plant roots from the extreme temperatures ofwinter.
- If you must prune your shrubs, do so after the shrubs flower, not in earlyspring.
Once your three-season plot is planted, be patient. Perennials reach their full size and beauty by the second season. Shrubs grow more slowly, reaching their mature size 3 to 5 years afterplanting.
Do you have a perennial garden? What’s your favorite perennial flower? Let us know in the commentsbelow!
Garden Layouts and Plans
About The Author
Doreen G. Howard
Doreen Howard, an award-winning author, is the former garden editor at Woman’s Day. She has gardened in every climate zone from California to Texas to Oklahoma to the Midwest. She’s especially fond of unusual houseplants and heirloom edibles. Read More from Doreen G. Howard
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Comments
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I am in zone 7a. Can I plant all of these in early Spring, or should I plant each according to its season?
- Reply
Yes, this garden design is for temperature regions such as zone 7a. You should still doublecheck with a local nursery or your cooperative extension for more local knowledge! They’re “on the ground,” no punintended!
- Reply
Hello, I really want to recreate the 3 seasons planting but I’m struggling to find Delphinium Connecticut Yankee. What would be good alternative please, I’m located in South England.
- Reply
Hi, Julie, Part of the challenge in locating Delphinum Connecticut Yankee may be your location. Seeds for it appear (on a Google search) to be available in the States. (It was selected as an “All-American Selection” in 1963, which means it’s high-quality and AAS plants are usually almost eternally available; FWIW https://all-americaselections.org/product/delphinium-connecticut-yankee/ and here’s a seed company description [there are others]https://www.redemptionseeds.com/delphinium-belladonna-connecticut-yankee-mix-seeds.html#:~:text=Delphinium%20belladonna%20Connecticut%20Yankee%20Mix%20is%20a%20celebrated%20All%20American,lavender%2C%20light%20rose%20and%20white.).
Coming up with a replacement is not easy—thinking color, height, double flower, and any other desirable features. But I Delphinium Double Stars https://gracefulgardens.com/delphinium-double-stars (this vendor appears to be in New York state). Another is Delphinium NEW MILLENNIUM but the page was only a plant description and the text reads “Selected in New Zealand … ” so it’s not clear where it’savailable.
With that, I would only say try larkspur, which is a close relative. We hope thishelps!
- Reply
This is the worst flower garden design I’ve ever seen. Don’t buy it for the plants unless you have a huge area to put them in. The sneezeweed is 5 feet tall and so is the cat mint. The elderberry takes up most of the bed . The daisy falls over. The salvia blooms in spring and is then dormant till fall and looks awful. The geranium dwarfs and covers any annuals I have. It is nothing like I expected. It’s a huge mess and I’m pulling it all out.
- Reply
My favorite perennials are gladiolus and Rhudbekias. They are at the center of my oval garden and this year I grew all different zinnias from seed as well as French marigolds and planted them from center to front edge with sunflowers coming up through fading gladiolus.
- Reply
Like this plan a lot! Will it work on west side (full sun) for new construction site?
- Reply
Great article! I have it book marked now. I have started searching for plants, but most are available as bare roots. Do you know how long will it take for a bareroot plant to establish. Tomorrow I will visit our nearby nursery to see if they will have potted plants instead of bareroots. I am in Zone 7. Thank you!
- Reply
GREAT PLAN!
When I found this article yesterday I knew it was perfect for our front yard. Here's how it went for me... I don't know much about plants but I had to research and try to find alternatives for a few plants I couldn't find at our local nursery. Spent a couple hours shopping around the store for which plants I wanted; if I asked for help I'm sure it would have gone faster. Total cost was about $450 (ouch - but this garden will hopefully be here for years to come so it's worth the investment). Don't forget to buy fertilizer, bulb feed, dirt, weed-mat, drip line, and mulch (or whatever ground cover you are using). Completed the entire project from start to finish in about
7 hours (including shopping) which might be slow or fast - I'm not sure because I don't plant very often.
The amount of flowers was perfect for this spacing. I hope I come across more articles like this one! Thank you! :)
I don't know how to upload pictures but if someone knows a way - I would be happy to.
- Reply
What a wonderful design. I am in Zone 4 at a high altitude. What is the best time to plant this garden. Thank you for providing.
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