dress your garden with flowers

Pairing plants is as easy as matching your clothes. Here's how to shop smart and pull it all together.

Life is an endless trial for Pamela Crawford, but she's not complaining. Her garden in Lake Worth, Florida, serves as an ever-changing testing ground for hundreds of different flowers and shrubs. Spectacular displays inspire beginners to embrace bright color.

The author of several popular gardening books, including Best Garden Color for Florida, Pamela began evaluating flowers for her master's thesis hi landscape architecture. "After I graduated, I felt my work was unfinished," she says. "So I created a residential garden where we watered twice a week, trimmed once a year, fertilized three times a year, mulched once, and never sprayed with pesticides. That's difficult for plants in Florida. Out of the original 2,500 tested, 2,300 died." But she did figure out what worked.

"I tried everything I could get my hands on," she continues. "I would do things such as order the whole Burpee seed catalog. And every time I was in a nursery, I would try new stuff." At the same time, she developed concepts for using color to delight and astonish visitors. Here are a few of her ideas.

Garden Like You Dress

People think combining colors effectively is harder than it really is. "What I try to get everyone to do is use that part of their brains they use when deciding what pair of pants goes with which shirt or when picking out throw pillows for their couch," she explains. "When I go to a garden center, I'll wander around with a cart full of many different plants, not necessarily because that's going to be my final purchase, but to see if I like how they look together."

Layer Colors for Impact

"I recommend three layers of color if you want a big show in an area," Pamela says. This means combining something low with something medium size and something tall. One great suggestion is lime-colored coleus backed by red 'Dragon Wing' begonias and 'Victoria' blue salvias. Another good combo is dark blue petunias backed by yellow marigolds and tall red salvias.

Look at the Light

Bright light demands bright flowers and foliage. "If you use pale colors in a sunny area, they can wash out," she notes. "Go with those pale colors in shady areas. The exception is white. I use that everywhere as a neutral tone and a unifier."

Raise Color to New Heights

"One mistake people often make is putting all of their flowers on the ground," she says. "There's a whole different impact when you put them at eye level." Pots of mixed flowers resting on pedestals and posts accent her garden. Adding this vertical dimension also means she gets more flowers in each square foot. "So many people tell me that they love color but have no space," she observes. "Well, my arbor measures 8 x 10 feet, and I fit 200 to 300 flowers on it."

Consider Containers

"Pots filled with flowers give major impact," she declares. "Growing plants in containers is also a lot easier. You don't have to deal with poor soil, and you're not expecting them to live as long as those in the ground. If they do well for three to four months, you're gonna say, 'Great!'"

Choose High Performers

Pamela's favorite plants to provide long-lasting color in hot weather include 'Dragon Wing' begonia, sun coleus, New Guinea Hybrid impatiens, yellow shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea), melampodium, and Summer Wave Hybrid trailing torenia. "That torenia breezes through the summer heat and will not go a day without flowers," she says.

Welcome Change

Her garden, which survived three recent hurricanes, changes all the time. That's exactly how she likes it. "What makes gardening so much fun for me is that there are always so many new plants to try," Pamela says. "I feel like a kid with new toys."

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jul 2006
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