Flowers can become a living sculpture instead of a mere splash of colour. Think about colour scheme, graduating heights, volume, and texture. Design a symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangement.
First begin with colour. Decide if you want to go monochromatic which means you will use a variety of tones of the same colour, or if you would like to use complimentary colours.
Complimentary colours are colours that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel. Examples of complimentary colours are: yellow and purple, blue and orange, red and green. You can use a range of tones from your complimentary colours to incorporate into your design.
You should choose plants that will offer graduating heights and a variety of textures. Choose a low ground cover flower like Alyssum or a cascading flower like Bacopia that is 4-8” high for the front of your arrangement. When choosing a second layer think about body as well as adding another texture and height. Choose a plant that grows 8-12” high. Try Verbena 8-12” high and/or Salvia which has low foliage and tall flowers up to 12” high. Angelonia is also very beautiful and has foliage that creates ground cover with flowers that stand 8-12” tall. Keep in mind that you want a variety of leaf and flower petal shape and texture.
Last but not least you need to choose what to put in the center. You can use a flower like Osteospermum which has daisy-like flowers and grows 12-18” high, or you could choose a plant like Echinacea that grows 24-30” high. Choose a plant that has larger flowers than those of the rest. The graduation of the scale of the blooms is just as important as the graduating height.
Using large deep pots and planters allows plants and flowers to grow larger, so choose a big container! When you go to the garden center or nursery be sure to read all of the info on the plants you are considering. Play with your plants before you but them. Try arranging them in different ways on the garden cart. Doing this is extremely helpful!
Buy a bag of organic rich dark soil to pot your plants. Once you have potted them water them well. When you are working in containers and fresh dirt every year you really do not need to use fertilizers because there are plenty of nutrients in the soil.
For optimum growth water your flowers every three days and use scissors to cut off dead or wilting flowers. Cutting off flowers that are going to seed is often referred to as “dead-heading” and it promotes new growth and new flowers!
