Notes

The Garden Plants Awards: The Top, Worst, Or Weirdest Things We've Seen
Four Seasons of Garden Plants

Pick the herbs and vegetables your family enjoys eating. You should think about growing vegetables that thrive well in shade, like kale and spinach.

If you know the botanical names of the plants, you can tell them from one another. Understanding their life cycle will help you plan and care for your garden.

Small Ornamental Trees

Trees add a sense scale to a garden and can provide visual interest throughout the year. They are a great source of vibrant spring blooms, attractive autumn foliage, berries or seed pods. They also can create privacy and shade for a patio or entryway. Ornamental trees are great as a focal point. They can also be planted in small groups to form a small grove, or as part of an ornamental flower or shrub border. Smaller ornamental trees are available pre-pruned to tree form at nurseries, or they can be purchased as bare roots and trained as needed. Many large trees can be cut back to a smaller ornamental tree forms too, including viburnums, late lilacs, and winged euonymus.

If you have an outdoor garden in an area that is hot and sunny that is well-drained the blossoming trees will attract butterflies and other pollinators. For example the crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) is a southern favorite due to its long bloom time of purples and pinks from summer until fall. Its leaves turn from yellow to red in autumn and its bark becomes attractive in winter. This plant is robust from zones 5 to 9.

The heptacodium miconioides or seven-sons tree produces small white flowers from late summer to early fall. It can withstand full sun. Once established, it's a great method to add height to a deck that is too small. It is hardy in USDA zones 5 through 9.

The golden Irish yew is a great choice to add shade to the shadier areas of your garden with its green and blue-green leaves. It is slow-growing, takes pruning well and grows easily in full shade or partial shade. The compact, fastigiate form of this plant makes it an the ideal choice to plant in tight spaces.

Flowering Vines

Flowering vines can be annuals for a single season or perennial plants that provide color in the landscape over many years. Some of these plants require an sturdy trellis that can be climbed. Others can just sprawl on the ground. Most quickly fill in vertical spaces, adding beauty and interest to the garden. Vines are available in a diverse variety of colors and bloom times, with plants for every USDA Hardiness Zone. There are many varieties of climbing vines, from woody or clinging varieties, such as English ivy, to non-woody or herbaceous varieties, like morning glory and nasturtium.

Flowering vines are complemented by a few types of flowers. The Susan with the black eyes Susan produces a large number of flowers in bright yellow, orange, or white with dark centers. This quick-growing annual is an excellent choice for a sunny trellis and can be used in containers too. It is also a popular choice for hanging baskets, as it can be twisted around the supports.

Try clematis if your looking for something more durable than the black-eyed Susan. This perennial is widely available in a variety of colors, including yellow, pink, and white. Certain varieties of clematis, such as Duchess of Edinburgh and Josephine, have large fragrant flowers that bloom in the springtime; others, such as Sweet Autumn, bloom throughout summer and fall.

Carolina jessamine is an additional evergreen flowering vine. This native of the southern United States makes a beautiful addition to a garden or container with its golden yellow trumpet-shaped blooms. raised garden beds can grow to astonish heights if unpruned and given sufficient support, making it a great plant to screen a view or shaded corner of a yard.

Container Plants

Container plants can provide instant the color of your garden without the hassle of planting plants in raised beds or in the ground. They can also be a wonderful focal point at the entrance to a house. They're also a fantastic way to grow flowers, herbs, or vegetables at eye level to make it easy to pick or cook. Containers can be anything: barrels (even wooden half-barrels) and baskets, buckets containers, window troughs, boxes and even bath tubs or urns.

The most important thing to succeed in container gardening is knowing your plants and giving them the proper amount of attention. Container plants dry out more quickly than those in the ground, so they require more frequent watering when essential. Early morning watering is ideal, as this gives them enough moisture to last through the hotter midday hours. It also keeps leaves dry in the evening that can lead to diseases.

For a container garden Choose plants with trails with bright flowers or fun foliage. Coleus is a great choice for pots. It comes in a variety of varieties of colors and leaf shapes that include dark green and variegated. Geraniums with ivy flowers are another appealing option. It's a classic plant to use in sunny containers, and it is self-cleaning so that you don't have to deadhead.

If you are looking for a taller potted plant for your outdoor space, you should consider the Japanese pieris. It has stunning red, pink and salmon-pink blooms in spring and summer. This deer-resistant shrub will dress up any corner in shade or in the sun. Papyrus is also a fantastic filler for large containers, and its tufts with brightly colored leaves look gorgeous draped over the sides. Another option is golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia Numularia 'Aurea' Zones 4-8). It's a great trailing plant that looks fantastic in containers with brighter light. The yellow, coin-shaped foliage is a great match for a variety of shades.

Mid-Sized Trees

There is room in the garden for flowers that don't reach towering heights. These beauties add visual texture and form, and are a source of all year round interest. Their colors, flowers, and scents can also bring the garden to life. These trees are small enough to add a splash of color to a smaller garden , or in the front yard, or as an accent.

Crape myrtles are a species of flowering trees, are the most well-known. Breeders have developed many colors, ranging from lilac-purple flowers like Muskogee crape myrtle, and the fantastic hot pinks of Strawberry Dazzle crape myrtle, to the rich reds of Dynamite and the beautiful white of Natchez crape myrtles. These trees are fast-growing and bloom all summer. They can last up to 40 years with proper care.


Another stunning deciduous flowering plant is the serviceberry (Melancholia x lucida). This native tree has stunning white flowers in spring followed by tasty dark blue berries and finely toothed leaves. It also offers red and yellow autumn colors and a light brown winter bark. It is easy to cultivate Serviceberry in full sun and well-drained soil. Once established, it will be drought-resistant.

If you are looking for a small tree that will never die, try swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor). This fast-growing and disease-free tree grows in wetlands where other trees are not as adaptable. It can tolerate some flooding, and is a good option for areas that are flooded. It can eventually grow to 50-60 feet with the form of a rounded head. It is a good choice for clay and soils that are wet. It is also drought tolerant once established and resists air pollution.

Light Requirements

When you look at tags on plants, you will see many references to "full sun," "partial sun" and even "part shade." These terms aren't always clearly defined. Plants that require full sun need at least of six hours of direct sunlight per day. The sun's rays reach their peak between 10 am and 4 pm, so plants that are full sun must be protected from the harsh afternoon sun.

Most fruiting and vegetable vegetables need full sun, but some will do fine in moderate shade. This is also true for leafy green vegetables, however it could take longer for these crops to mature and produce when they are in shaded locations.

Partial sun is a term used to describe garden locations which receive between three and six hours of direct sunlight per day, however the rest of the time, these areas are moderately shaded or have diffused sunlight from shadows of trees and leaves. The east-facing side of your home is the best location for partial shade/partial sun. This will provide cool morning sunlight and early afternoon shade for many sun-loving plants, like azaleas, rhododendrons and macrophylla Hydrangeas.

Full shade refers to extremely dark areas that do not get direct sunlight. These locations may be covered by tall evergreens, overhanging structures or simply enclosed passageways or gardens between houses. These are not easy to establish a garden in due to the encroachment of water by tree roots and an overall lack of light. If you find that a plant or flower fails to thrive in this type of shade, you can try moving it to a different spot and add water as needed. Shade-loving plants include astilbes golden Hakone Grass, goatsbeard and a variety ferns.

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