After that, choose your color scheme and assign colors to the different plant clumps.
Now it’s time to select plants. Choose those in the appropriate colors, being mindful to plan for a variety of blooming times, heights, plant forms, flower shapes, and textures. Use the box here to guide you to perennials that flower at different times. (See here for profiles of these plants.)
FLOWER FORMS
To make your garden more exciting, include flowers in a variety of shapes. Since many flowers are spherical, include some of the following:
Spiky flowers —are often clusters of small blooms growing along a vertical stem. Speedwells (Veronica species) and salvias, as illustrated above, are good examples of spiky flowers.
Cup-shaped or bell-shaped flowers, —such as those of tulips and this bellflower, look like upwardfacing cups or dangling bells.
Trumpet flowers, —exemplified by day-lilies and lilies, as illustrated above, have a narrow, tubular throat and widely flared, pointed petals.
Daisylike flowers, —such as tickseed and this boltonia, have round centers surrounded by lots of narrow petals. These blooms are actually composed of disc flowers that make up the center, and ray flowers (which often look like petals) that circle the central disc flowers.
Tubular flowers —are elongated and sometimes flare at the top. They are more narrow and slender than trumpets. Good examples are foxglove (Digitalis species) and this nicotiana.
BLOOMING SEASON
Spring-blooming Perennials:
• Bergenia (Bergenia species)
• Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis)
• Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
• Christmas rose (Helleborus niger)
• Cranesbill (Geranium species)
• Columbine (Aquilegia species)
• Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
• Garden pinks (Dianthus species)
• Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus)
• Iceland poppy (Papaver nudicaule)
• Iris (Iris species and cultivars)
• Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla species)
• Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis)
• Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale)
• Peony (Paeonia species)
• Primrose (Primula species)
• Red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria)
• Salvia (Salvia species)
• Sweet violet (Viola odorata)
• Thrift (Armeria maritima)
Summer Perennials:
• Baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata)
• Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)
• Beard-tongue (Penstemon species)
• Bee balm (Monarda didyma)
• Bellflower (Campanula species)
• Blanket flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora)
• Blazing star (Liatris spicata)
• Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
• Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii)
• Coneflower (Rudbeckia species)
• Cranesbill (Geranium species)
• Daylily (Hemerocallis cultivars)
• Delphinium (Delphinium species)
• False indigo (Baptisia australis)
• False spirea (Astilbe species)
• Fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia)
• Garden phlox (Phlox paniculata)
• Garden pinks (Dianthus species)
• Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
• Lavender (Lavandula species)
• Ligularia (Ligularia species)
• Meadowsweet (Filipendula species)
• Monkshood (Aconitum species)
• Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana)
• Pincushion flower (Scabiosa caucasica)
• Plantain lily (Hosta species)
• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria)
• Rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
• Salvia (Salvia species)
• Showy primrose (Oenothera speciosa)
