The Flower Guide for the Weekend Gardener

Everyone needs a type of flower guide to get the most from their gardens, especially those who do not have time to garden every day. Flower gardening is all about stimulating the senses with a display of colors. So what should we plant, and when?
The buzz in gardening seems to be about whether the annual or perennial flowering plants. Some of these flowers give us textures, shapes and heights, while others just go crazy bloom all season long. Here is a simple flower guide for these two types of flowers that will help you design a spectacular wash of color to your garden.

Annual Flower Guide:

Annuals do all their growing in a season. The seeds germinate in the spring, the plants bloom and grow throughout the season, and then they die. You will plant them every season, but the result is immediate color. Also, if you make a mistake in your design on color or height, the perverse effects only last for one year.

Annuals produce an endless array of colors and sizes, and most are easy to plant and grow. They can be used for cuttings, in mass plantings, on the edge, in rock gardens, in mixed beds, containers, and in hanging baskets.

Indeed, most annuals are great plants for the weekend gardener because they are so versatile and not too picky. For all their glorious colors, annuals are very cheap. You can start them indoors as seedlings, or buy bedding for your nursery or garden center. The majority of annuals bloom for most of the growing season.

Here is a list of some major annual flowers that are easy to grow, showing off spectacular colors and are well worth the digging of a trowel to plant:

Begonia - Grows 6-12 inches long. Flowers are white, pink, red, rose and scarlet.

Tricolor Chrysanthemum - Grows 2-3 feet. Flowers are white, yellow, gold, red, or brown, with contrasting color bands at the base of the petals. (This is different than the eternal chrysanthemum chrysanthemum called the "garden mother".)

Dahlia - Grows 1-6 meters. Flowers are all colors except blue and green.

Geranium - Grows to 2 meters. Flowers are white, pink, scarlet, orange-red, red and salmon.

Impatiens - Grows to 1 ½ meters. Flowers are white, pink, rose, scarlet, violet, salmon, and orange.

Marigold - Grows 6 inches to 4 feet. Flowers are yellow, gold, orange, white, near red and mahogany.

Zinnia - Grows 6-36 inches. Flowers are all colors except blue.

Perennial Flower Guide:

Basically speaking, perennial flowers, more than one growing season, returning year after year. When perennials bloom off, their foliage provides a beautiful background, texture, shape and color to your garden.

Perennial flowers can bloom only a short period and at certain times of the growing season. This makes it harder to be limited to a garden perennials plants and still have the desired effect of constant color. For this reason, mixing perennials with annual flowers is the key to a beautiful garden of constant color.

Let's look at some favorite perennial flowers that beautiful color and depth to offer to any garden and will grow just about anywhere:

Butterfly Weed - Grows 1 ½ to 3 meters. Flowers are bright orange (ideal for attracting butterflies!) With beautiful pods that the plant once flowering ends. Blooms all summer.

Chrysanthemum or "Garden Mum '- Grows 1-4 meters. Flowers are all colors but blue.