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Planning and Planting an English Border Flower Bed
The English Border Flower Bed Plan
Follow the directions on how to plant flowers in repeating sequences and grow a classic herbaceous English border flower bed with this planting plan.
You’ll place tall flowering foliage shrubs the rear of the bed to frame the border. Next, you’ll plant the background area in front of the shrubs with tall perennial and annual flowers, repeating groups across the bed’s width.
The middle-ground area of the bed comes next, with mid-height flowering plants. Again, groups of species and carefully selected flower colors make up the planting. Most English borders use groups of three to five plants, clustered or in wavy lines that grow in with soft edges between them and the next group.
The front planting uses short species with bright flower colors. They mask the foliage of the layered plants behind them. To the eye, the finished border looks like it has irregular steps, along with occasional tall plants spiking over lower species.
Follow this sample English border bed plan, then use the experience gained to plan colorful designs of your own.
About the Plan
English border plantings traditionally derive from gardens and plant species common in the United Kingdom. Today, the same carefree abandon that so charmed Georgian and Victorian gardeners can be yours by choosing plants that bear lush, fragrant flowers, regardless of your climate and conditions.
Border plantings are a good match to homes with Tudor, Cape Cod, Queen Anne Victorian design aesthetics, and to other frame or stone-faced houses, including Craftsman and Georgian architectural styles.
Sun exposure is important for planting the border plan shown here. Choose an area that receives sun in the morning or eventing, but remains exposed to open or partial shade during the hottest hours of the day.
If your site has more sun, substitute plants with similar heights, forms, and colors, but with greater heat tolerance.
About The Plants
Knowledge of the culture needs, flower color options, soil requirements, hardiness, and special needs of each plant in the English border are important to growing a successful bed.
Use the plant listings shown here and in the Plant Selection and Planting Guide sections of this website to obtain information about each plant used in the plan. The listings here are linked to the plant guide pages, and their label matches the legend on the plan diagram.
Visit your local garden store or nursery. Each plant shown is commonly available in many different cultivars or varieties, each with distinctive appearance and growth habit. Match plants available based on how they are used in the plan.
After making selections, read the plant care tag carefully for exact spacing requirements and obtain the right number to fill the bed in your landscape. Because each home’s garden is different, adapt the planting plan to the length, width, and overall size of your planting area.
Staff at your retailer will gladly help you make substitutions or replacements.
The Plant Palette
D2. Petunia
Petunia (Petunia X hybrida) Mixed planting of ‘July Fourth’ and ‘Apple’ or similar cultivars.
F. English Lavender
English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) or similar pink- to lavender-colored cultivar.
G. Foxglove
Common Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) ‘Leopard Purple’ or similar multicolored-pink cultivar.
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