A great flower garden can be a joy and worth every ounce of effort put into it. You have tested your soil and prepared the bed. Now, what are you going to plant? This might not be a difficult question for an experienced gardener, although it can be if the avid gardener wants to try “something different.”

For the novice gardener, the wrong answer to this question can result in a grand disappointment. Choosing the wrong plants for soil and climate conditions can make a lot of effort go down the drain. The amount of sun and rain, temperature range, and soil type all need to be taken into consideration before choosing plants for the garden.

One initial choice will be deciding on planting annuals or perennials. As the names imply, annuals need to be replanted each year; perennials will regrow and bloom for several years. The beginning gardener might want to choose some of each. Annuals tend to bloom for shorter periods of time, but have more color. Perennials will grow and bloom throughout the growing season, but tend to have less color. A combination of both types of flowers will give a summer-long bed of beauty.

Finding the right type of plant at a greenhouse or nursery is usually pretty easy.

“When you go to the nursery you should be able to ask the employees where the perennials are for sun and for shade,” said Margaret Landis, sales manager of Country Colors Greenhouse. “They should be able to give you helpful information about the plants.”

By this time the soil should have been tested and the flower bed prepared. Because it’s known what kind of soil is available, plants can be selected that will flourish in that type of soil. Another consideration will be temperature range. The suitability of a plant to grow in a certain area with a certain yearly range of temperatures is quantified as the plant’s hardiness.

Plant hardiness zones divide the United States and Canada into 11 areas based on a 10-degree Fahrenheit difference in the average annual minimum temperature.

“An important factor with [plant selection] is to pick a plant that fits into our zone,” said Troy Cooper of the OSU Extension Office. “Central Ohio fits into the Zone 4 to 5 range, which indicates the plant’s hardiness.”

Local garden centers and greenhouses will have a stock of plants suitable for the local hardiness zone. Anyone who is going to be ordering seeds or plants from outside the area, be sure they are suitable for the zone. Most seed packets or catalog descriptions give this information.

Plant size can be another overlooked consideration when choosing plants for a garden or, especially, for landscaping. This applies mostly to bushes and trees. A bush or tree that has a mature span of, say 4 feet, will become a problem several years down the road if it is planted a foot from the foundation of a house. When the tree or bush matures and achieves its full-grown width and height, it can cause damage to the house’s foundation, roof and anything in between.

“The tags on the plants are also helpful. They will tell you the size of the plant and the time they will bloom,” Landis added.

Some plants do better in the shade and some like lots of sunshine. If a location for the garden has already been decided on, the homeowner should watch to see how much sun and shade it gets during the day. Then research what plants will do well under the conditions present in the garden.

If a location for the garden has not been set in stone, doing hardiness research on some favorite plants could play a role in deciding where to put the garden. Soil type, amount of rain fall, the existence of harmful insects and plant diseases in the area all combine to make a decision one of informed choice.

source : www.mountvernonnews.com