Choosing Flower Garden Plants

When you're ready to start creating a new flower garden, or you simply want to plant new things in an existing or older flower garden, the first thing you'll need to do is research what types of plants you want to put there. If you've never put plants into a flower garden before, you'll need to know what grows well in your area. If you have already tried some types of flower garden plants, you may have an idea of some things that do well and some that don't. There are various factors that help make your chosen flower garden plants live and thrive though, so let's review some of those.

The first thing you'll need to know before deciding which flower garden plants to buy, is whether they will grow well in your area. And this can be a little trickier than it might seem at first. All plants and flowers are rated for growing zones. More tropical plants for instance, need to be in growing zones 8, 9 or higher. They won't survive in growing zones 2, 3, or 4 for instance, because those zones tend to be colder and sometimes wetter climates. The same applies on the opposite end of the scale: There are many plants which thrive in zones 2-5 for instance, but those same plants may struggle in zones 7 or 8, and may not live at all in higher garden zones.

The problem comes though, with some areas of the United States being rated as the same zone, but having some climate differences that really matter. Zone 7 for instance, covers the desert areas of New Mexico, which are very dry and have extremely hot sunlight during the summer. Zone 7 also covers most of North Carolina however, which may have similar temperatures but the humidity is much higher, and the sunlight is not nearly as strong.

So when you buy a flower garden plant which says it's rated for planting in zone 7, and does well in direct sunlight, it may or may not do as well as you expect it to. The direct sunlight of North Carolina may be ideal for the garden plant, while the New Mexico sun is too hot. Or the opposite can occur as well: New Mexico sun makes it thrive, while North Carolina sun is not enough for the plant to do overly well.

So, many times choosing plants for your flower garden can be a bit of a trial and error effort when you're trying new plants, or you're new to the area you're planting in. Thankfully the local garden centers and nurseries can help with this though. They often only sell plants which do well in your particular areas, and sometimes you can call local state offices to get additional advice and tips for planting specific flower garden plants.

Choosing native plants for your flower garden is almost always an excellent idea though. Most native plants are adapted to the specific climate of an area, and often they take much less water and care while still thriving naturally.

Other things you'll want to consider when choosing flower garden plants is: Color, size, and whether the plants will continue blooming for years, or only last for just one or two seasons.