Creating Interest

Creating Interest:

Your flower garden idea should be planned around how you want to perceive it as well as use it.

The Drama Your Cast of Plant Characters Will Play

Your dream for your landscaping design is as a plot is to a play…

… all the action should revolve around supporting your vision of your ideal garden. If you need more help with understanding this concept, please see our section on Finding a Path to Your Unique garden Style.

The trick is to have your plant characters support the plot in a cohesive way, providing interest while you at the same time are paying attention to their light, climate and soil needs.

There’s a lot more behind a good play besides a good story!

And so it is with any good garden drama.

Note the ‘focal points’ in your landscaping design, or the chief viewing points and natural resting places. To do this, examine the pathways and places where you and your visitors can stop and enjoy your landscaping design.

And don’t forget to look out the windows when you’re inside your home. You’ll want to plan to enjoy your garden drama from the inside especially when …

… you’re shut indoors on cold winter days, or during those hot sweltering times when you can’t bear to leave your air conditioning.

At these strategic places, you can place your plant actors to provide you with a harmonious blend of:

• Flowers and Buds


The joys of flowers are well known. In a flower garden idea, use small flowering plants in masses, as nature would.

If you’re planning on cutting your flowers often to bring indoors or give to friends, it might be best to consider a separate cutting garden so you don’t disturb the appearance of your main garden.


• Foliage and Bark


Foliage and bark are often neglected by gardeners; this is one of the chief reasons why a landscaping design fails. Plant foliage provides texture, which is a major player in an interesting garden design.

Be sure to contrast bold and fine-textured plants for visual relief and interest.

Foliage also provides color and interesting shape. Think of using the color of flowers and the color of foliage together. Foliage can be a provider of seasonal interest -- spring and summer leaves range from light green to yellow-green, purple-green and reddish purple. On some plants, the foliage will change color in the fall. The bark of trees and shrubs can provide color and texture interest to your winter garden


• Berries, Fruit and Seeds


Berries, fruit and seeds can also provide texture and color to your landscaping design, but we think that their chief benefits come from the birds and other wildlife they draw, which add a touch of whimsy to your garden drama.

And, of course, who could turn down a bowl of fresh blueberries or peaches?

The most exciting gardens involve all the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and …

… imagination.

Home Garden Tip: To create a more natural vibrant look, use a few of many types of plants in your flower garden idea. For a more formal, sedate, look stick to larger quantities of a few types of plants. Either way, be sure to repeat colors and forms to lead the eye through your garden.

The main thing to remember is that your flower garden idea and landscaping design are your own personal art form. The only hard and fast rule is that you’re pleased. So have fun! Be adventuresome!

And keep smelling those roses!

Now you are ready to begin planting, so visit the following online nurseries to purchase your plants.

Spring Hill Nursery has been a leading developer, researcher, and provider of perennial gardens since 1849. Since its inception, Spring Hill has been America's Favorite Mail Order Garden Center.


No organization has more knowledge about which bulbs grow and bloom best in all sections of the U.S. than Breck's. They take advance reservations, and then just as soon as the crops are harvested, the staff of Dutch Bulb Experts makes an on-the-spot selection of the finest bulbs available to fill those reservations.

Dutch Gardens For nearly a century, Dutch Gardens has been supplying Holland's finest bulbs and plants to beautify gardens throughout the U.S.



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