Planting Elegant Annual Flower Beds
You can plant beautiful flower beds using annual flowers by working on the pattern and the color theme.
Based on pattern you can work out four different ways of planting the flower bed, they are
- Layering flower bed
- Repetition flower bed
- Stacked flower bed
- Common flower bed
Based on the color you can go in three types of themes, they are
- Soft theme
- Bold theme
- Contrast theme
Let's look at each in detail with examples.
Annual Flower Beds based on Pattern
Layering works great with annuals because they come in different heights and widths.
Certain annuals grow low while some have a tendency to grow to good heights. There are extremely compact annuals and then there are mound forming annuals. There are spiky annuals which have really broad and spiky leaves and flowers.
Place a row of mound forming annuals followed by another row of compact annuals. Place the low growing annuals behind the compact annuals. The large sized annuals and spiky annuals come at the end. Thus you have a beautiful layering of annuals in the flower bed.
Examples of each type of annuals is given below
Low growing annuals
- sweet alyssum
- fan flower
- portulaca
Compact annuals:
- Lobelia
- Diascia
- Small pansies
Large sized annuals:
- Sunflower
- Zinnia
- Cleome
Mound forming annuals:
- California puppy
- Impatiens
- French marigold
Spiky Variety Annual Flowers
- Snapdragon
- Salvis
The other three patterns of annual flower beds you can try are
Repetition: Use annuals which have the same height but different colored flower and repeat them over a space of two to three rows. It gives a uniform and graceful effect.
Stacked: You place the lower growing and mound annuals at the bottom and the medium to tall annuals behind them to create a stack effect.
Common: Be simple and just cluster the annuals of a particular size and color in different parts of your garden.
Annual Flower Beds Color Themes
You can also go in for different types of themes based completely on the color of the flowers. Few examples are as below
Soft theme: Go in for colors like light yellow, pale white, baby pink, light blue, lavender and cream. It gives a romantic and tranquil ambience. Some flowers you can try are
- Osteospermum
- Verbenas
Bold theme: Go for bright color which are striking like thick orange, red, purple and magenta. Examples would be
- Petunias
- Marigolds (orange ones)
Contrast theme: You can contrast two specific colors like blue and white, orange and bellow, red and green. A good combination would be nasturtiums and blue salvias.
The burst of colors provided by the annual flowers in your garden is quite enchanting. Watering and fertilizing adequately will keeps the plants in full bloom, just make sure you cut off the dead blossoms before they take seed.
When you prevent the annual flowers from going to the seed, they bloom continuously.