If you’re looking to add visual appeal to your landscape, the quickest and most effective way is to plant flowers. The most effective way to maintain the beauty of your landscaped garden is to choose what you plant wisely, from annuals and perennials to flowering shrubs and even trees.
Real flowers will eventually wither, which makes them more special. However, the fact remains that this can cause your garden to lose its natural beauty.
Fortunately, you can prevent this by ensuring your garden is blooming all year round. This means that your yard or garden should have flowers blossoming every season.
However, this task may be easier said than done. To help you out, here are five tips you can try to make sure you have a blooming garden 365 days a year, according to landscaping experts in Conway, AR.
Consider the Season
The seasons, or the changes in climate occurring in cyclic patterns, are a key factor affecting how your garden will look like throughout the year. With four seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter – occurring during the year in the United States, you should think about planting something for every season to make sure that your garden remains in bloom all year.
You see, flowers and seasons are bound to each other intimately. Most flowers thrive during a specific season, although there are some that aren’t affected, such as anthurium, aster, carnation, chrysanthemum, lily, and Gerbera daisy.
If you’re not sure what flowers bloom during each of the four seasons, read the guide below:
Spring
Springtime is the best time for growth and renewal for flora. Most flowering plants bloom during spring, but because each season occurs during different months, flowers that bloom only in spring tend to do so at different times in the two U.S. hemispheres.
Some examples of spring flowers are amaryllis, apple blossom, and bird of paradise. You also have a better chance of seeing anemone, calla lily, cherry blossom, cosmos, dahlia, and forsythia flowers during this season.
Other spring florals you’d want to have in your garden are:
- Freesia
- Gardenia
- Heather
- Hyacinth
- Larkspur
- Stargazer
- Lilac
- Orchid
- Peach blossom
- Peony
- Poppy
- Rose
- Sweet pea
- Tulip
- Zinnia
Summer
Summer is not only the hottest time of the year, but also a great time for floral growth.
For this season, periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) can help add color to your garden. Also known as annual vinca, this flowering plant is a durable addition to your garden. It is native to Madagascar, which explains its common name: the Madagascar periwinkle.
The periwinkle plant has an upright growth and spread. Its flowers have different colors, ranging from pinks and reds to whites and purples. Some even have bi-color combinations, a bright center eye, and solid hues.
Moreover, periwinkle leaves come in a bright, glossy green shade, which is complemented by white veins. It thrives best in well-drained soils under full sunlight, making it the most drought-tolerant annual flower grown in Arkansas.
Autumn
This season falls during the months of August through November and is usually the best time to harvest crops. Lovely color-changing leaves are at their best during this time of year. You could also expect some anemone and baby’s breath.
Other flowering plants that bloom in Autumn are:
- Cosmos
- Freesia
- Hypericum
- Iris
- Orchid
- Rose
- Star of Bethlehem
- Sunflower
- Zinnia
Winter
Expected between December through February in the North and June through August in the South, winter is the coldest season of the year. This makes the season a difficult time for flowering plants. But as daunting as it may seem, it is not impossible to incorporate some color in your garden to make it stand out amidst the pure white of snow.
In Arkansas, this time of the year requires extra color, so you should consider having pansies around your garden. According to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research Extension, pansies are considered the flower of the month of January, along with violas.
This type of flowering plant also comes in different types and sizes. It can add a wide range of colors to your garden: blue, red, yellow, pink, orange, purple, white, and even black. Some varieties are solid-colored without faces, others are bi-colors with contrasting faces, while the rest can yield blended colors.
Thanks to intense breeding, pansies can also get as tall as four and a half inches and come with a velvety texture. Its bloom also lasts longer than others and can thrive in cool weather between October through early January. From there, it may also bloom late in March through April.
Choose Reblooming Plants
Aside from planning what you will plant in your garden according to bloom times, you can also choose to plant those that rebloom.
Shrubs and perennials can help you ensure that your landscape has something blossoming throughout the year.
Although their traditional counterparts only flower in a specific season, hydrangeas, roses, azaleas, and other plants now have varieties that can rebloom from spring through autumn.
Plant Perennials to Add Color
One major benefit of having perennials in your landscape is that they bloom year after year. While they may have shorter blooms per season compared to annuals, you can count on these flowering plants to blossom annually, adding the color your garden needs.
Keep the Soil Fertile
Now that you have some idea of how to choose flowering plants, it is time that you understand the importance of soil fertility. Whether you have shrubs, annuals, or perennials, you have to make sure that your soil meets their specific nutritional needs.
For annuals, you can feed your plants using granular fertilizers that are time-released during planting time. You can also supplement with liquid “bloom food” to keep them looking their best throughout the season.
Perennials and shrubs, on the other hand, only require general-purpose plant food when they start growing in spring. Repeat feeding after you remove spent blooms by deadheading.
Don’t Forget to Deadhead Dried-Up Blooms
Deadheading is the process of removing blooms that have dried up. Pinching or cutting these spent flower heads can help the plant focus its nourishment and energy on producing new blooms rather than ripening seeds.
The practice can also help reduce the time between flower cycles by a couple of weeks in many reblooming perennials and shrubs, not to mention keep annuals looking tidy and neat.
Make Your Landscape Bloom All Year Round
Making sure that your garden and landscape bloom throughout the year not only helps boost your property’s curb appeal and value, but also helps you stay healthy by being close to nature. In doing so, the time, effort, and money you invest in cultivating these plants yield a return you cannot put a price on.
Of course, blooming flowers are not the only things you need to pay attention to. Proper lawn care in Conway, AR – especially in the extreme temperatures of summer and winter – is also crucial in ensuring that your landscape maintains its color throughout the year.