Polk County Master Gardeners
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Color All Year
A garden at its blooming peak all year long may not be an attainable goal,
but you can certainly come close. No one plant is willing or able to do the
whole job for you all year long, but if you plan carefully, you can have a
succession of bloom surrounded by interesting textures almost all year. The
operative word here is PLAN.
The backbone of your garden should be perennials that will continue to
delight you for many years. Surround these with annuals for “instant color” and
you are on your way.
A good start on your plan would be to draw a rough sketch of your garden and
do some deciding about what is there now that you want to keep and how you can
support those star plants already in place. The things you want to consider are
color, height, texture, need for sun or shade, and time of year for blooming.
Very few plants are so spectacular that they can stand completely alone. Most
can benefit from other blooms nearby that complement the colors of your stars.
Be sure to choose plants that bloom at the same time, have the same needs for
sun or shade and will not be so tall they shade out the center of interest.
Be sure to include some plants with interesting foliage: hostas have wide,
beautiful leaves for the shadier areas of your garden. They make a great
contrast to ferny plants with wispy leaves.
After you have some areas of your garden designed around the plants you
already have that you want to keep, take a look at other areas. Here you may
want to choose plants that bloom at a different time of the year so that when
some parts of your garden have faded, others are coming into their own. Again,
be sure that the plants you choose for one area have colors that go well
together, compatible heights, and a similar appetite for sun or shade.
Your garden does not have to be unattractive in the fall and winter even if
the blooming plants are past their prime. Choose some plants that have colorful
fall foliage so that these can become the center of interest when summer is
gone. And there are always pansies for the wintertime.
Your local garden center will have the expertise to help you choose the
plants that will give you the garden you see in your mind. They can also help
you choose which plants need similar care: you do not want to put the cactus
next to the mint - one would drown or the other die of thirst. Take your sketch,
labeled with information about the plants you want to build around and what
areas get sun and what areas get shade, to your nursery expert..
Achieving a garden that is a delight all year long takes a good deal of work,
but it is certainly worth the effort.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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