Adding color to your landscape can be a relatively easy and enjoyable experience. My earliest memories of gardening include stunning colorful flowers in my grandmother’s yard. This was something I always wanted in my own yard. With some forethought and garden design you can add color to your yard, attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Phoenix Arizona Flower Garden: Types of Flowers
There are three different types of flowers:
- Annuals (example: petunia)
- Perennials (example: iris)
- Biennials
Annual Flowers
Annuals are flowers that last one year. They are grown from seed each year and then they bloom. Once the season is over you’ll have to replant them. Many annual flowers in Phoenix will bloom just about all year, although I have a hard time keeping any of my annuals looking well in July or August.
Perennial Flowers in Your Phoenix Arizona Flower Garden
Perennials are plants that flower and return each year, usually undergoing some type of dormant period. A perennial is a plant that doesn’t have to be planted each year, but rather lives from year to year.
Perennials can include flowers, herbs, trees, shrubs and vines.
When choosing perennials look for varieties that offer different bloom times and interplant to create a colorful garden no matter what the season.
Your vision of a perfect flower garden doesn’t happen overnight. The first year your garden will not look like the photos in the gardening magazines. Don’t worry by the second year your plants should have filled in and out and you’ll have learned something on this journey as well. Some of those plants won’t make it, or you’ll decide you don’t like there placement and you will probably rearrange some plants.
By the third year you and your garden are like old friends and your time and energy is rewarded with an incredible display of colors and textures. Mix up your flower garden with both annuals and perennials to enjoy year round color.
There is a gardening saying: The first year a garden sleeps, second year it creeps and the third year it leaps.