No one wants a dull landscape — not in the dead of winter and certainly not in the middle of spring. Fortunately, with a little planning and the right mix of seasonal plants and flowers, you can avoid a lackluster garden all year long. This guide will walk you through the best seasonal plants and flowers for a colorful garden bed, helping you prioritize plantings that keep your landscape looking like a showstopper through every season.
Spring Flowers & Plants for Your Garden Bed
After a long winter, there’s something magical about seeing the first signs of green pushing through the soil. This is the season when your garden bed has the opportunity to make its grand comeback, setting the tone for the rest of the year. To make the most of this, choose seasonal plants that awaken early and stay strong into summer.
Great Lakes Landscape Design’s Favorite Spring Blooms
Some of our favorite spring blooms for a colorful garden bed include:
- Salvia: This aromatic herb has spike-like flowers that vary between blue, purple, red, and white. It is great for border planting, ground cover, or as an accent. It’s even a popular choice for attracting pollinators and its blooms can continue into summer.
- Diervilla: This remarkable perennial shrub is hardy and requires little maintenance. Its striking inflorescence, lush foliage, and elongated yellow tubular flowers that attract pollinators make it a standout choice.
- Geranium: An incredibly durable, compact-growing perennial with evergreen foliage, this plant spreads readily and often has rosy to purple five-petaled flowers.
- Nepeta: This drought-tolerant perennial has coarse gray-green foliage and abundant lavender-blue flowers. It also has a long bloom period and is loved by pollinators.
Other Seasonal Plants to Consider for a Colorful Spring Garden
Looking for more ideas for your garden? Try some of these national favorites:
- Crocus: Among the first to bloom, crocuses are cheerful purple flowers that often emerge while snow still lingers, providing a much-needed pop of early color.
- Tulips: With a wide variety of colors and heights, tulips are perfect for creating visual layers in a spring garden.
- Daffodils: These sunny yellow blooms add a whimsical charm to any flower garden and signal the arrival of spring.
- Hyacinths: Known for their rich fragrance and vivid hues in purples, pinks, and whites, hyacinths are a true staple of spring garden beds.
- Pansies: Pansies come in a range of bold colors and are ideal for adding contrast to foliage. It’s also helpful to note that these flowers thrive in cool spring temperatures.
- Hostas: Give your garden bed a bit of contrast and texture with the blue and green foliage of hostas.
- Bleeding Heart: With elegant, heart-shaped pink blooms that dangle from arching stems, this plant introduces a romantic flair.
- Peony: Robust and fragrant, peonies deliver lush blooms that can set the stage as spring deepens into summer.
Summer Flowers & Plants for a Colorful Garden Bed
Summer is the season when gardens truly come alive, and choosing the right seasonal plants and flowers for a colorful garden bed can elevate your entire yard. In fact, with careful planning, your garden can move from the subtle pastels of spring to the bold and saturated tones of summer, embodying the bright and carefree nature of the season.
Our Favorite Summer Plants
Some of our favorite flowers for a colorful summer garden bed include:
- Agastache: This is an upright aromatic option with flower spikes in shades of purple, pink, orange, or blue. The plant is very attractive to bees, butterflies, and humming birds, helping your garden burst with life.
- Allium: Known for its globe-shaped flowers in purples, pinks, or whites, this plant is a great accent and border choice, adding whimsy to summer gardens and pairing well with lower-growing companions.
- Astilbe: With compact, glossy-green foliage, this plant is known for its fluffy flowers that come in a variety of colors from pinks, white, and reds.
- Eupatorium: This plant is a magnet for butterflies and bees and has coarse upright stems and massive clusters of pinkish-purple and white flowers.
More Summer Flowers to Consider
Homeowners throughout the region also like to build out their gardens with these summer blooms:
- Zinnias: Zinnias are a must-have in the summer garden. Their fiery reds, oranges, and pinks bring energy and draw attention. They also attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, which help the rest of your garden thrive.
- Dahlia: Another showstopper is the dahlia. With their dramatic, layered petals and endless color options, dahlias offer both beauty and variety.
- Coneflowers: Purple coneflowers have tall, upright blooms that work beautifully as backdrops or centerpieces. They also withstand summer heat and are fairly drought-tolerant, making them as practical as they are pretty.
- Black-Eyed Susans: Black-eyed Susans shine like mini suns throughout your garden, providing rich yellow tones that last for weeks.
- Lavender: Lavender adds a soft purple hue and delightful scent to your garden bed, making it a unique sensory escape.
- Daises: For a touch of elegance, consider Shasta daisies. These dependable flowers bloom repeatedly through the season and pair beautifully with ornamental grasses or foliage-heavy plants like coleus.
Autumn Flowers & Plants for Your Garden Bed
Can a garden be just as colorful in the fall as it is in spring or summer? Absolutely! Autumn offers a whole new palette of rich, warm colors, giving your flower beds the opportunity to echo the beauty of the season.
Our Designers’ Favorite Fall Blooms
At Great Lakes Landscape Design, we recommend the following flowers and plants for your fall garden bed:
- Anemone: Known for their abundant poppy-like flowers in white, pink, or purple and an elegant growth habit, this plant is great for border planting or for cut flower gardens.
- Butterfly Bush: This fast-growing shrub with cone-like shaped flowers comes in a variety of bloom colors varying from purples, pinks, and white. It is extremely attractive to butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, which means your fall garden will be bursting with life late into the season.
- Calamintha: This low-growing, fragrant perennial has small delicate flowers and is the perfect touch for a fall garden bed. It even has a long blooming period and is loved by pollinators.
- Phlox: This plant has a wide range of colors and is great for mass and border planting. The vibrant clusters of flowers add striking contrast to a fall garden.
Other Popular Plants for Fall Gardens
Do you want even more ideas for your fall garden? You might love these national favorites:
- Chrysanthemums: Chrysanthemums are fall’s poster flower, and for good reason. Their dense, pom-pom-like blooms come in almost every autumn hue imaginable, from deep burgundy to burnt orange to golden yellow. Pair them with ornamental cabbage and kale for texture and unique shapes.
- Asters: Asters also thrive in cooler fall temperatures. Their star-shaped flowers bloom in purples and blues, making them a perfect contrast to the warm tones of mums and foliage.
- Autumn Joy Sedum: Sedum, especially varieties like Autumn Joy, have soft pink blooms that gradually darken as the season progresses, adding depth and interest to your beds.
Winter Flowers & Plants Perfect for Colorful Garden Beds
You might think of winter as a time when your garden hibernates, but that doesn’t mean it has to lose all color. Even in the coldest months, you can create visual interest and pockets of beauty with the right selection of winter-friendly plants and flowers, such as:
- Evergreens: Holly and dwarf spruce provide structure and rich green tones while also serving as a backdrop for seasonal accents. The red berries of winterberry holly offer a striking contrast against snowy landscapes, and the silvery foliage of dusty miller can add softness and light at the beginning of the season.
- Christmas Roses: Hellebores, often called Christmas or Lenten roses, bloom when most other flowers won’t. Their creamy whites, purples, and pinks emerge even through the snow, bringing beauty to your garden in a characteristically colorless season.
- Camellias: Camellias are another wintertime treasure. These glossy-leafed shrubs bloom in cooler months with bright pink, red, or white flowers that stand out against the season’s neutral tones. Plant them strategically for maximum impact near walkways or entryways.
- Snowdrops: As the winter season bleeds into spring, you can see snowdrops begin to bloom, even when there’s still snow on the ground. The delicate white flowers are a promise of the new season of growth ahead.
Tips for Growing & Maintaining a Colorful Garden Bed Throughout the Year
Choosing your favorite blooms for each season is only the beginning of planning a colorful garden bed. You also need to keep the following in mind:
- Plan for All Four Seasons: Before planting, map out your garden design with bloom times in mind. Aim to have different plants flowering in each season so there’s always something in bloom.
- Choose the Right Plants for Your Zone: Know your USDA Hardiness Zone and select plants that thrive in your climate.
- Incorporate a Mix of Perennials and Annuals: Perennials provide long-term structure and color, while annual plants can be changed each year for a fresh look.
- Add Evergreens: Evergreens ensure your garden has color and structure, even in the winter months.
- Invest in Regular Deadheading and Pruning: Removing spent flowers encourages new growth and helps keep your plants looking tidy and vibrant.
- Feed Your Plants: Use the appropriate fertilizer based on plant needs and soil conditions to boost health and color intensity.
- Water Consistently and Wisely: Avoid under- or over-watering by learning the needs of each plant type.
- Mulch for Moisture and Weed Control: A good layer of mulch not only locks in moisture but also keeps weeds at bay and improves the overall appearance of the garden bed.
- Monitor for Pests and Diseases: Regularly check your plants for signs of trouble and act quickly to address issues before they spread.
- Rotate and Refresh as Needed: Some plants won’t return or may not perform as well each year. Don’t hesitate to replace them to keep your garden looking its best.
Need Help Establishing a Colorful Garden Bed? Call Great Lakes Landscape Design!
Do you dream of having a garden that thrives season after season but aren’t sure where to start? Whether you’re starting from scratch or enhancing what you already have, Great Lakes Landscape Design offers all the solutions you need to establish and maintain a colorful garden bed year-round.
From landscape design to garden maintenance, we take the guesswork out of plant selection and care so you can sit back and enjoy a showstopping garden any time you look at the window or step outside the door. Contact our team today to learn more about how our team can transform your spaces and lives using nature and innovative design. Call us today — one of our designers would like to meet with you!
