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Planning a Flower Border

Source: NDSU - T.A.P.E.

Plan your flower bed or flower border carefully before you sow seeds or transplant young seedlings outdoors. An unplanned flower border usually fails to display flowers properly. Tall growing plants may hide short ones or one end of the bed may have all red colored flowers while the white ones are grouped at the other end.

Here are some things to keep in mind when drawing up your flower border plans:

• Place lower growing plants near the front of the border and the taller ones near the back.
• Set plants by color groups in an informal pattern, and not in rows.
• Use colors that complement each other. Red colored flowers, for example, may not look their best when planted next to orange or pink flowers.
• In a flower bed of mixed colors, avoid having similar colors in one area of your flower bed. Distribute colors throughout the border. For example, have some blue colors in different parts of the border.

If you have perennial flowers in the border, you may choose perennials that have a sequence of flowers blooming at all times throughout the entire spring, summer, and fall seasons. If you have a border consisting of mostly annual flowers, this is usually less of a problem, as most annuals will generally bloom throughout the entire growing season with proper care.

For future reference, you may want to obtain a copy of Extension bulletin H-322, entitled "Annual Flowers for North Dakota", which is available free of charge at your local county extension office.

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