Create a harmonious, eye-pleasing landscape by following these arrangement guidelines for flower beds or containers.
Get a balanced look in your garden by arranging your plants by height.
This tried-and-true method works wonderfully in beds with a distinct front and back.
The tropical leaves of cannas shout “bold” in the rear of this garden, a fitting backdrop for the brazen colors of the marigolds along the front border.
Then stair-step the plants outward, placing the shortest ones along the pot or bed edges.
When selecting plants, keep them in scale with their surroundings.
Once you’ve selected the tallest plant, stair-step the rest of the heights downward.
A general rule is to step the heights down by half.
So underplant a 6-foot-tall ‘Pretoria’ canna with a 3-foot-tall orange-flowering zinnia.
Purple-toned ageratum or aGomphrenathat tops out at 18 inches strikes a pretty pose next to the zinnia.
To supersize the planting, place an even taller castor bean or sunflower behind the cannas.
Luckily, it’s easily remedied.
it’s possible for you to always pull and replant, or add midsize plants between the two.
Less-forgiving scale mistakes occur when choosing an arbor or sculpture.
Trailers as Groundcovers
When you gotta cover ground, consider trailing plants.
Good choices include spreading petunia (such as Wave),Bidens,creeping zinnia, and purple heart.
