 Live more than one

season
 Know your hardiness
zone
 Bloom for 3-4 week
period
 Careful planning for
continuous color
 1,000’s of varieties to
choose from
 Can be “high
maintenance”
 Early spring and fall
best time to divide
 Easier to dig up entire
plant and divide into
smaller plantlets
 Don’t dry out roots
 Each division should
have adequate roots
and buds
 Plant immediately
 Don’t rely on common
names
 Use botanical names
 Do your research
 Know the heights,
flower colors, light
requirements you
want
 Don’t impulse buy
 Go to a reputable
garden center
 Buy healthy, compact
plants--preferably
without flowers
 Get your money’s
worth
 Buy for color all
season
 Measure the bed
 Length x Width= Area (square feet)
 Calculate number of plants needed
1 plant per 3-4 square feet for perennials
 Choose odd number of plants in
groupings
 Draw plan on paper
 Take your plan and list to the nursery to
avoid impulse buying
 Start with a base map
(permanent
structures)
 Overlays of spring,
summer and fall
 Use color drawings
 Color combinations &
timing
1.Start by tilling your
garden area to a
depth of 6-8 inches
2.Rake out any large
rocks or debris
3.Incorporate organic
matter
4.Rake the area again
 Place all plants out
before planting
 Dig individual holes to
the depth of container
and twice as wide
 Loosely pack soil in
around each plant
 Water plants in
 Spring Columbine

Zinnia

Poppies

Penstemon

Blue flax
Spring-Summer
 Russian sage

Gaillardia
Zauschneria

Hardy Ice plant

 Coreopsis moonbeam

Agastache

Osteospermum
Echinacea

Asclepias
 Diascia ‘Coral Canyon’ Lavender ‘Grosso’

Delosperma cooperii
Asclepias, Callirhoe, Lavender
Zauschneria with Verbena ‘Homestead Purple’
Zauschneria, Solidago, Veronica, Agastache
Autumn Joy Sedum

Aster “Monch”

Fall Anemone

Plumbago
 Add texture to design
 Add fall and winter
interest
 Many varieties to
choose from
 Ornamental Grasses

Red twig Dogwood

Bristlecone Pine
Color

Texture

Balance

Repetition

Unity

Light Requirements
 Next to each other
on color wheel
 Subtle changes in
hue
 Can be restful or
dramatic according
colors used
 Safe
 Directly across the
color wheel from
one another
 Compliment each
other
 Make sense
 Green is universal
 All colors 2 steps
away from each
other
 Not restful
 Bold
 Calls attention
from distance
 Good for curb
appeal
Color
 Symmetrical  Asymmetrical
 Live only one season
 Need to replant each
year
 Give color all summer
long
 Many sizes, colors,
and varieties to
choose from
 Getting Started
 Measure the bed
 Length x Width= Area (Square Feet)
 Calculate number of plants needed
 2 plants per square foot
 Choose odd number of plants in
groupings
 Take your plan and list to the nursery
to avoid impulse buying
 Wait until after the
snow melts—
hopefully by Mother’s
Day
 Always choose a
reputable nursery
 Look for plants that
are compact, healthy,
and not in bloom
 Avoid plants that are
leggy, diseased, or
root bound
 Skeleton, Tendon, Flesh design by Peter Lassig
 20% of the plants
 Dominant
 Tall
 Focal Point
 Ornamental grasses,
Flowering cabbage or
kale, New Zealand
flax
 Skeleton Plants

Purple Fountain Grass

New Zealand Flax

 Skeleton Plants cont.

Ornamental Cabbage or Kale

 Skeleton Plants cont.
Black-eyed Susan

Cleome
 20% of plants
 Less dominant
 Compliments
skeleton
 Salvias, Profusion
Zinnias,
Gomphrena,
Geraniums
 Tendon Plants
Geraniums

Profusion Zinnias
 Tendon Plants cont.

‘Victoria Blue’ Salvia

‘Lady in Red’ Salvia

 Tendon Plants cont.
Fireworks Gomphrena

‘Strawberry Fields’ Gomphrena

 Tendon Plants cont.
Lisianthus
 60 % of plants
 Fills in gaps
 Usually creeping,
low plants
 Alyssum, Sweet
potato vine, Lobelia,
Licorice plant,
Verbena, Sanvitalia
 Flesh Plants
Sweet Alyssum

Lobelia
 Flesh Plants cont.
Sweet Potato Vines
 Flesh Plants cont.
Sanvitalia

Sanvitalia ‘Sunbini’
 Flesh Plants cont.
Licorice Plant

‘Imagination’ Verbena

Diascia
Ferns Coleus
Tuberous
Begonias
Impatiens
 Thriller, Filler, Spiller
 Diascia
Ornamental Millet

Purple Fountain Grass,

Red & Green Coleus

Geraniums
 Nemesia
Osteospermum
Fuchsia
Verbena Calibrachoa

Scaveola
 Licorice vine

Trailing lobelia

Sweet potato vine

Lantana
 Weeds
Pre-emergent
Mechanical
control
 Fertilizer
 Water-soluable
 Granular
 Slow-release
Perennials Annuals
 Hydrozoning your
plants
 Mulching
 Check sprinkler
efficiency
 Magazines
 Internet
 Ogden Botanical
Garden Classes
 Susie