Perennial Garden Flowers in Theme Gardens

Recently there has been much interest in using perennial garden flowers in theme garden designs. For those who are not acquainted with the term, a theme garden is a garden that is developed around a certain idea or design. Some theme gardens concepts are well known (such as "English Cottage"), while others represent the unique interests and quirks of a particular gardener (such as a themed garden centered around garden trolls, or biblical plants).

Many perennial garden flower theme gardens are centered around a historical period (Victorian, colonial, medieval are popular historical themes), a region (Japanese, French culinary, old English and so forth), or even a color (a monochromatic color scheme, for example).

Using a theme can help you focus and select your perennial garden flowers. Often one can be a bit overwhelmed by the perennial garden flower choices that are available, but if you are only focusing on, say Japanese cultivars, your selections will be much more focused. You will probably also learn a lot about the theme you have selected to focus your perennial flower garden around, making your gardening experience both fun and educational!

Shade Perennial Garden Flowers

Recently I posted several articles on shade perennial flowers that readers may find of interest. Perennial garden flowers can bring brightness to almost any shady garden situation - as long as you pick the right combination of flowers for the shade conditions in your garden. If you are unaware of how to classify the shady locations in your garden, I recommend you take a look at my article "How Shady is Your Garden? Defining Shade Categories" to help you figure out the shade level your garden.

Once you know how to classify your garden in terms of shade, the next step is to choose perennial garden flowers that are suitable for that location. There are a series of articles I have written that you may find helpful. First, take a look at my overall top picks in the article "Top Five Shade Perennial Garden Flowers." You also will want to look at my list of top picks according to shade levels as well, and you can find these by reading "Light Shade Perennial Garden Flowers", "Medium Shade Perennial Garden Flowers" and "Full Shade Perennial Garden Flowers" (forthcoming). Finally, you may want to take a special look at a very popular shade perennial garden flower I have profiled, the Bleeding Heart (Dicentra).

With this information in hand, hopefully you will be well on your way to creating a beautiful shade garden using fabulous perennial garden flowers!

Photo: Foxglove (Digitalis)
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