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Landscaping - not an area in which it is possible to be guided solely by their own tastes. Without taking into account all-season decorativeness, coloristic unity and demanding to cultivate certain plants, flower beds made from perennials are impossible. Do not rush "into the pool with your head"!Familiarize yourself with the most important principles of landscape design before making a flowerbed of perennials at your summer cottage!
Flower Gardens: Definition and Configuration of
Flower Gardens are areas combining leafy, decorative flowering, grass and shrub plants, garden paths and small architectural forms. They can be regular - with strict composition lines, or landscape - with smooth outlines.
The sizes of flower beds are very different - from 1 sq.m to 1000 sq.m and more. The ratio of plants with small architectural forms and a green lawn may also differ. The “golden proportion” is the one in which the first digit is greater than the second, and the sum of the first and second digits is equal to the third: 3: 5: 8;8:11:19 et al.
The flower gardens are divided into subspecies in the form and method of arrangement:
- Modular flower gardens
Flower gardens combining greenery, decorative paving( stones, tiles) and small architectural forms( vases, fountains and containers). - Mixed Borders
Mixed flower beds of arbitrary width and configuration. Most often they represent a strip broken along the wall of a house, garden path or hedge. - Soliters
Beds, united by any general principle: color, height of plants, the shape of their leaves, etc. As a rule, they are placed in isolation, where they are best viewed. - Rabatki
Long, relatively narrow beds( ratio of length and width of about three to one), plain, or decorated with geometric patterns. Often included in the complex flower beds of perennials. - Borders
Narrow( 10-50 cm) solid strip of compact, short plants. Often used to border the individual parts of a complex flower garden. - Rockeries
Flower gardens in which plants and stones are combined with each other. Otherwise known as stone gardens. - Alpinaria
These are flower gardens, which are based on alpine and subalpine plants planted on an elevation.
Grouping of plants
There are hundreds of species of perennial plants in the world, and all of them have different requirements for growing conditions: some are unpretentious - some need regular maintenance, some require abundant watering - some do not tolerate excessive moisture. ...Therefore, in order to care for some plants not to destroy others, group them correctly! Also consider your employment. Consider how much time you are willing to devote to your floral arrangements.
In general, according to exacting requirements, perennials are divided into three groups: unpretentious, moderately labor-intensive and labor-intensive.
- group. Perennial unpretentious flowers for flowerbeds
This is a group of plants that are not demanding to light, humidity and soil type. They are resistant to diseases and pests, for many years they grow well in one place without a transplant, they are not afraid of cold weather. To maintain the beauty of the flowerbeds, planted with unpretentious perennials, a minimum of time and effort is enough - watering during dry periods and annual spring processing.
There are a lot of plants in this group. These are aconite, brunner, gelenium, geraniums( meadow and flat-leaved), gentian, doronicum, goldenrod, musk mallow, stonecrop, physical strategy, chistets, some types of poppies, etc. - group. Moderately labor-intensive flowers for flowerbeds
This is a group of plants that do not require daily care, but need special growing conditions, as well as perennials that should be planted every two to three years.
The second group includes aquilegia, armeria, arabis, cornflower, carnation, gailardia, geranium, gentian, lily delphinium( various hybrids).This also includes iris, clematis, mackley, chamomile, large-flowered, bell, polyanthus rose, phlox, sage, echinacea. - group. Labor-intensive flowers for flowerbeds
These are cultures that require painstaking daily care, difficult agricultural practices, and special growing conditions. Plants of the third group are prone to disease, afraid of cold and various pests.
This is the majority of bulbous flowers, lilies, roses, almost all gladioli, hyacinths, dahlias and chrysanthemums, begonia, campers, primrose, and others.
decorative form, and the plants themselves - to receive the required amount of sunlight without competing with each other. Therefore, before planting, group all the plants by height - take each group its place:
Read also: Garden arch design ideas If you arrange an oval or round flowerbed of perennials, then the tallest plants can be planted in the center. Plant them around medium height. Few fill the empty places. If we are talking about planting type mixboard, then high plants are planted in the background, and low - in the front.
If desired, bring a few tall plants to the foreground or move them to one side for a single show. They will become the nodal points of the ornament. Avoid straightness. Experiment!
Planning work. Scheme flower beds of perennials
Before you begin planting plants, you must draw a scheme of a flower garden on paper. Properly designed perennial flower beds are half the success of the whole event!
- The size of the flower bed
Begin with the allocation of free area. Think about how much space you are ready to take under the flower bed. If you wish, use the “classic” proportion, according to which about 13% of the area should be set aside for a residential house and outbuildings, 20% for an economic yard and garden paths, 12-15% for a flower garden, 33% for a garden and 23%under the garden. - Flowerbed contour
Decide on your desired shape and draw the outline of a flower bed on the outline. - Placement of high and low plants
Mark on the drawing a place for high( 80-150 cm), medium( 40-70 cm) and low( up to 30 cm) plants. - Distance between plants
When drawing up a plan, keep in mind that the majority of perennials grow in one place over the years, which means that they need to leave free space “for growth”.In order for the flower garden does not seem empty, you can temporarily fill the gaps with beautiful annuals. - Color gamut
In order to choose the right color gamut of a future flower bed, use pieces of colored paper, according to the tone of the corresponding color of the selected plants. If you do not want to cut and lay out the paper “bushes” - paint the scheme with colored pencils. - Transferring the “in-kind” scheme
It will be easier to transfer the design of the site “in-kind” by breaking the paper scheme into squares, and then, taking into account the accepted scale, to “square” and the ground area. You can ground the earth with a sharp peg or lime powder. After that, transfer all the lines of the scheme to the ground is not difficult. It remains only to outline the points at which, according to the plan, certain plants will be located.
Read also: Affordable Exotic for Your Gardens - Goji Berry 
Colors
When creating flower arrangements, do not forget about the basic rules of color harmony. It is not for nothing that they say that the image of one or another garden is 99% determined by color.
Before starting work, study various photos of perennial flowerbeds and evaluate your feelings. Remember how these or other shades affect the outside viewer. Count all the details and make your choice!
Caution! The names of popular plants and the color of their flowers can be found in table number 1.
"Seasons": a bed of continuous flowering of perennials
Unfortunately, plants that are fragrant all year round do not exist in nature. Therefore, for those who wish to create a bed of continuous flowering, it is necessary to use plants of various biological groups, clearly understanding which ones look when and most effectively. There are often difficulties with this. After all, if there are no problems with achieving the flowering effect in the warm season( tall, medium and short growing perennial flowers for the spring bed - in the summer period, any store is represented in the widest range), then picking flowers to decorate the beds during the cold seasondead end. There is an exit! We offer you our interesting variations on the theme "autumn-winter".Perhaps some of the ideas will find a place in your garden!
Read also: How to make a wooden flower bed with your own hands? Autumn
In early autumn, the garden will be decorated with middle and late varieties of phlox paniculate. Dropping phloxes in groups, and knocking them with bergenia, you will get a beautiful composition of perennials that require minimal care.
Extremely good in autumn flower beds and perennial bulbous: botanical tulips of various varieties and their hybrids. Year by year, they will grow, turning into large jackets.
Perennial plants for flower beds look very nice against the background of autumn foliage, matching the woody “cap”: lemon yellow goldenrod, orange rudbeckia, red-brown gelenium.
Tall new British asters - one of the latest colors, will form the basis of a garden composition in November. Due to the large number of "spare" buds in the inflorescence, they easily withstand light frosts. Red, white, blue and pink, asters will not lose decorativeness to the very snow.
Winter
Beautiful flowerbeds from the perennials of the “winter season” are not fantasy, but reality! There are really not so many plants that are resistant to cold, however, among them there are those that have the strongest emotional impact on a person!
For example, such as the "Queen of the East" chrysanthemums. Majestic, with bright terry flowers, they are famous for extremely long flowering. The latest varieties of chrysanthemum begin to bloom in September, and finish in the middle of winter( pictured: chrysanthemums in the snow).
When fluffy snow falls, crocuses and autumn crocuses will cling to themselves. Their colorful pink and lilac flowers withstand severe frosts. Powdered with snow, they only slightly adjoin to the ground, after which they straighten and stand again, as if nothing had happened.
In the mild winter from December to February cyclamens bloom. They are so beautiful that they even dedicated an annual festival in England.
Ornamental shrubs will become a real symbol of the New Year. Just imagine the attractive force of the red fruit of the cotoneaster on a white snow blanket, and you will definitely want to plant them in your garden. Successful creativity!
Video: how to make a mixborder do it yourself
Begin with the allocation of free area. Think about how much space you are ready to take under the flower bed. If you wish, use the “classic” proportion, according to which about 13% of the area should be set aside for a residential house and outbuildings, 20% for an economic yard and garden paths, 12-15% for a flower garden, 33% for a garden and 23%under the garden.
Decide on your desired shape and draw the outline of a flower bed on the outline.
Mark on the drawing a place for high( 80-150 cm), medium( 40-70 cm) and low( up to 30 cm) plants.
When drawing up a plan, keep in mind that the majority of perennials grow in one place over the years, which means that they need to leave free space “for growth”.In order for the flower garden does not seem empty, you can temporarily fill the gaps with beautiful annuals.
In order to choose the right color gamut of a future flower bed, use pieces of colored paper, according to the tone of the corresponding color of the selected plants. If you do not want to cut and lay out the paper “bushes” - paint the scheme with colored pencils.
It will be easier to transfer the design of the site “in-kind” by breaking the paper scheme into squares, and then, taking into account the accepted scale, to “square” and the ground area. You can ground the earth with a sharp peg or lime powder. After that, transfer all the lines of the scheme to the ground is not difficult. It remains only to outline the points at which, according to the plan, certain plants will be located.
Unfortunately, plants that are fragrant all year round do not exist in nature. Therefore, for those who wish to create a bed of continuous flowering, it is necessary to use plants of various biological groups, clearly understanding which ones look when and most effectively. There are often difficulties with this. After all, if there are no problems with achieving the flowering effect in the warm season( tall, medium and short growing perennial flowers for the spring bed - in the summer period, any store is represented in the widest range), then picking flowers to decorate the beds during the cold seasondead end. There is an exit! We offer you our interesting variations on the theme "autumn-winter".Perhaps some of the ideas will find a place in your garden! In early autumn, the garden will be decorated with middle and late varieties of phlox paniculate. Dropping phloxes in groups, and knocking them with bergenia, you will get a beautiful composition of perennials that require minimal care. Beautiful flowerbeds from the perennials of the “winter season” are not fantasy, but reality! There are really not so many plants that are resistant to cold, however, among them there are those that have the strongest emotional impact on a person! 
