Flower Bed for All Seasons

Shrubs

• A year-round flower bed must include a few shrubs and some evergreens too. These provide form and structure to the garden and are the backdrop for the flowers that follow. Some good shrub choices include spirea, lespedeza and hydrangea. Small evergreen globe or mounded shapes add good texture and create a transition between more colorful and busy plants. A single, upright, small to medium conifer can add a much-needed vertical accent that will really define the garden. A creeping juniper at the front edge, such as Juniperus procumbens "Nana," looks good 365 days a year. If possible, dedicate 10 to 20 percent of your flower-bed space to shrubs.

Hardscape

• Non-vegetative items are important to include in the all-season garden. In winter, they provide the "bones" that create a view and some interest. You can include an obelisk, arbor, bird feeder, birdbath, bench, garden sculpture or water feature.

Foliage

• Do not underestimate the value of foliage texture and color in good garden design. Most perennials do not have interesting foliage. Perennials mainly exist for the floral display. Focus on adding fine-textured foliage plants, coarse-textured foliage plants and plants with colored foliage to give your garden form and definition.

  Some fine-textured plants you may want to add include ornamental grasses, coreopsis, iris, euphorbia and amsonia hubrichtii, to name a few.

  Examples of coarse foliage plants include agave, yucca, hosta, hydrangea, Japanese shrub mint, acanthus, brunnera, ligularia, rodgersia, stachys, sedum and verbascum. These will all help to keep the foliage from blending into a single mass.

  Red, bronze or purple foliage goes a long way to add depth and interest to your garden. Some examples are Heuchera "Obsidian", Actea "Hillside Black Beauty", Sedum "Purple Emperor" and Hibiscus "Kopper King." . You can also use plants with gold foliage, but be aware that gold does not always coordinate well with other plants, so consider carefully.

Seasonal Interest

• For spring and summer, you will have plenty of easy choices for colorful plantings. With the framework established, you can choose nearly any flowering plants you like for the growing season. For autumn interest, establish some chrysanthemums in early spring for fall blooms. Other late-blooming plants include pansies, lobelia, agastache, aster, lespedeza, goldenrod, vernonia, vitex and salvia leucantha. A good garden center will be stocked with the stars of the late season for you to peruse. Some perennials have colorful fall foliage, such as perennial geraniums, false plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides), Epimedium and Amsonia. For winter interest, and for the birds, leave seed heads up on tall plants. Plants like sedum "Autumn Joy," lavender, heuchera, hellebores, bergenias, yucca, creeping veronica and buddleia have foliage that can remain during winter. Hydrangeas' old flower heads add to the winter garden. If you have roses, do not deadhead them after August and you will have rose hips for the winter. One caution regarding leaving seed heads for the winter is that there may be unwanted reseeding.

Additional Information

• Choose plants that are suitable to your climate, the space you have to work with and the sun and soil conditions of your garden. Use these principles as a guide to select additional plants specific to your requirements. Experiment with placement to find combinations that are pleasing to your eye. Although diversity is good, too much is chaotic. Keep a journal of the bloom times of the plants and make notes throughout the season of color combinations that do or do not work well. Remember that even when nothing is in bloom in your garden, if you follow all these principles, your garden will still look good.