Dear Need to Know,
Thanks for writing back! now that you garden plot is ready to go, the next step is going to be planning which plants you’re going to plant.
Planning Your Plants
Think about the plants you want to start with. You don’t have to fill up every inch of your garden space now. If you can be patient, you can buy smaller size plants to begin with for less money and let your garden fill out as your plants grow and spread. Look through garden magazines, view your neighbor’s gardens, and visit our greenhouse at Koopman Lumber to get ideas of the type of plants YOU want in your garden. Keep a list of flowers you especially like and consider these features as you choose your flowers…
Sunlight 
Your plants will do their best if they get the right amount of sun they need. Read your plant labels and look online to see what each or your plant choices needs. Typically, plants are listed as such:
| Full sunlight: 6+ hours of sunlight per day |
| Partial sun: 4-6 hours of direct sun per day |
| Partial shade: 2-4 hours of direct sun per day |
| Shade: less than 2 hours of sun per day |
Color
Are you bold and adventurous or are you more traditional and subdued? Let your garden show a bit of your personality. You can blend plants of similar color together or pair plants whose colors contrast. And when you think of color, don’t forget the foliage of your plants. The leaves and stems of your plants can add just as much variety to your garden as the blossoms.
Size
When placing your plants in the garden, note the full height of a mature plant and arrange them like you are taking a family photograph. Tall ones in the back, medium in the middle, and shortest ones get the front row. Check spacing requirements also. Some plants spread, some will bush out, and others will remain fairly stable in size. Be sure your plants have wiggle room as they grow.
Blooming time
The trick to creating a magnificent perennial garden is to choose an assortment of flowers that will bloom and provide color from spring to fall. I have included this chart from Gardening Basics for Dummies to help you think about blooming times.
When Perennials Bloom
| Blooming Time | Description | Examples |
| Spring bloomers | These babies are quick studies. They tend to emerge with the bulbs, generating colorful flowers early in the growing season. Afterwards, the foliage may remain for a while or die down completely until next year. | Basket-of-gold, bleeding heart, columbine, forget-me-not, hellebore, lady’s mantle, and Solomon’s seal |
| Early summer bloomers | Plant these plants to bridge the gap that sometimes occurs between the first splash of spring and the full-on summer flowers. | Peonies and poppies |
| Midsummer bloomers | The glory of high summer! Midsummer bloomers begin growing with warm weather and finally show off their flowers when summer is in full swing. | Black-eyed Susan, crocosmia, daylilies, Shasta daisy, and hardy geranium. |
| Late summer–fall bloomers | These flowers are a welcome sight just when the weather seems too hot and the garden looks tuckered out. | Astilbe, Boltonia, and Japanese anemone |
| Fall bloomers | The gardening year’s last hurrah can be quite colorful, and if you have bright fall tree foliage, the combined effect can be really fabulous. | Aster, dahlia, goldenrod, mum, and sedum |
| All-summer perennials | If all the planning you want to do is for a show of long-term color, try planting all summer perennials. Mix and match various colors and forms as you like. Note that these plants tend to be sun-lovers, so prepare a spot in an open area of good soil, and take good care of them so they can do their best for you. | Bellflower, blanket flower, coneflower, coreopsis, daylily, evening primrose, gaura, hollyhock mallow, Jupiter’s beard, veronica, and yarrow |
With that, you should have everything you need to create the beautiful garden of your dreams! Don’t forget to stop by Koopman Plants for more great information!
Happy Gardening,
Flora Gardner
