I plan to start working on my yard for the first time. Need help?

Question

1) What are the best annuals to plant along the edge of my yard, I live in a suburb of detroit, MI? (I am looking for something bright colored)
2) What are good perenniels to plant that would provide color and cover in an area of my yard that is uncovered?

Answer 1

Petunias for summer annuals that are easy to care for and colorful.
Madness Series petunias or 'Purple Wave' (an All-America Selections winner) blooms all summer without being pinched back. Purple was the first color of the series, but now there is pink, lavender, lilac, and blue versions as well.
Easy Wave Series; they grow 8 to 10 inches tall and about 3 feet wide. But it's the new Tidal Wave Series that I like. Their 2" blooms just shrug off summer showers instead of folding up.

Hybrid Millifloras, a new class of dwarf petunias, forms mounds 6 to 8" high x wide, they need no pinching to keep blooming. Small flowers come in every color except yellow. Fantasy Series are perfect for containers and hanging baskets.
Supertunia and Surfinia Series. Used in beds, they grow practically flat; they're wonderful cascaders when planted in containers. Both come in a full range of colors and never require pinching.

Other Annuals For Sun
Lantana: particularly lavender popcorn
Coleus: The foliage is as colorful as any flower and some prefer shade, others sun.
Star Hybrid zinnias: Mounds of blooms soften border edges.
Melampodium: cheerful, bright green foliage and is profusely covered with 1-inch yellow, daisy-like flowers sporting darker centers, give dappled shade in the afternoon if sun to hot.
Persian shield: large silver viened plum colored leaves
Salvia: old-fashioned blue 'Victoria' salvia.
Larkspur: this is a delphinium but not touchy like some.

Self-seeding annuals are particularly attractive: They sow themselves and sometimes make perfect pictures but other times grow where you wish they hadn't.
Shirley poppies (Papaver rhoeas) pop up in pale pinks, roses and chiffon-thin whites, bloom for about a month and leave decorative little seed heads for next year's crop. Danish Flag poppies (they have clear red flowers)
Inter-plant both poppies with blue bachelor's buttons, so you'll have everything you need for Fourth of July bouquets.


Buying roses is not hard. Look for three good canes larger than a pencil. Anything less than three is not worth buying. More is ok but not necessary.
My favorite rose breeders are Dr. Griffith Buck, Tom Carruth, David Austin, and Ralph Moore. Look at Carruth's 'Night Owl' 'Ebb Tide' 'Raven' 'Midnight Blue'
Austin I have 'Jayne Austin' 'Anne Boleyn' & 'Pat Austin' but I want 'Molineux'
Look for Moore's Halo series of miniatures.
For cold survival Buck's roses are the best. 'El Catala', 'Enchanted Autumn', or 'Blue Skies' fragrant and fairly blue in color for a rose.
Consider these roses;
'Sally Holmes' or 'Iceberg' or 'Gourmet Popcorn for white disease free plants listed in order of flower size.
Rosa glauca may only bloom once but the foliage is stunning, I just planted a Clematis viticella 'Margot Koster' to climb up it for a second season of bloom.
'Red Sentsation' is a fragrant mini.
There are roses that change color as the flower ages.
'Mutabilis', 'Flutterbye and 'Joseph's Coat' are mine.
Hybrid Musk roses will even tolerate less sun than others.
Try 'Ballerina' or 'Sally Holmes'
For a very pliant rambling rose that is easy to train try 'Phillis Bide' another Mulitcolor; Yellow, Pink, Salmon, Cerise, Apricot, small, muddled but, sigh, not fragrant.

Monks hood Aconitum carmichaelii `Barker's Variety' blue autumn flower for sun
Hosta `Blue Moon' blue green leaves, morning light aft. shade
Phlox divaricata `Blue Perfume' spring flowers for sun
Spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana `Caerulea Plena' blue, summer
Oriental lilies like the Madonna lily, or Lilium henryi very fragrant, mid summer, many pale colors
Angelica archangelica, self seeds, fragrant and tall
Heliotropium arborescens-Cherry Pie, Common Heliotrope
Hemerocallis 'Kathy Rood' from Dan Trimmer is by far the most fragrant daylily. Daylilies come in single or double bloom form with many warm colors & some have very long bloom periods.
Giant lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum) Towering 5-12 feet, scented
Hostas only some varieties are strongly fragrant. 'Fragrant Bouquet' and 'Guacamole' are the ones I grow.

Fall fragrance look to Clerodendrum trichotomum called Glory Bower or Peanutbutter shrub to 10 feet
Clematis ternifolia the Sweet Autumn Clematis - last clematis to bloom

For a winter garden try Hamamelis mollis, called Witchhazel I have 'Arnold's Promise' as it is smaller than 'Jelena'. Yellow flowers in Mar. Very fragrant shrub
Chimonanthus praecox Wintersweet can be harder to grow than Witchhazel.
Carolina allspice or sweetshrub Calycanthus floridus. Winter fragrance in the garden can renew anyone.

Leaves like Artemesia, borage, mint, eucalyptus, or burnet, can be touched to release scents.
Eriostemon myoporoides-Waxflower - Fragrant dark green small leaves with a fresh scent when crushed.

For a moist site try Melianthus major, peanut butter scented leaves. Dramatic shrub with large, blueish, serrated leaves and tall purple flower spike.
What about night blooming plants like Hemerocallis citrina, also fragrant.
If so other night blooming plants include; Daphne, Nicotiana alata - Flowering Tobacco, Oenothera - Evening primrose, Mahonia - Oregon grape (smells like lily of the valley in March), & Night phlox - Zaluzianskya ovata

Companions to daylilies - purple Catawba Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica `Catawba`)
-or on the sunny south sides of Nikko Blue Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla `Nikko Blue`) then underplanting with daffodils is particularly effective because the daffodils display early then fade as the daylily appears. Alliums also work well inter planted with daylilies.
Agapanthus x `Monmid` with gold daylilies
Crocosmia (MONTBRETIA) 'Lucifer' with yellow daylily cvs, Kniphofia (with yellow cvs.)
Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) - a bright orange wildflower late summer
Cleome spinosa (Spider Flower) Adds height and keeps blooming until frost
Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' (Bronze Fennel) tall backdrop for orange daylilies

Small clematis only 6 1/2 feet to climb a mail box, down spout or a small tree;
'Edourd Desfosse', 'Corona', 'Westerplatte' (only 3 1/2 ft), 'Minister', 'Ice Blue'
Clematis florida "Alba Plena' or 'Sieboldii'
There are many small herbaceous scramblers but you would have to tie them to climb a post or let then run through other plants. My favorite clematis are the viticellas.
Lee Valley sells a trellis for posts or down spouts.

Answer 2

plan your beds and amend the soil first. add some compost and/or peat moss where you want to plant. stay away from chemical fertilizers: after a while, they leave concentrated salts in the soil that will actaully prevent healthy growth - don't feed your plants! feed the soil and let it feed your plants.

about 8 years ago, I started preparing my gardens. I live in the desert Southwest. The soil here is almost bare sand and if left unimproved, will hold no water and almost no nutients at all. I collect all the leaves and grass I can and compost them. I have hauled literally dumptruck loads of hay, straw, woodchips and manure into our backyard! I what used to be a patch of sand covered with grass is now almost a farm here in the city. I have fruit trees, berry bushes and vines, grape vines, tomatoes, squash, cukes, lettuce (i picked my wife a salad this morning, perrenial and annual flowers and herbs and mushrooms even come up here! (it's a desert - i done good) i can grow almost anything in what used to be sand.

I never use chemical fertilizer. I give my plants some superthrive for vitamins and the rest of the nutrients in my soil come from compost. garden organically if you can - it's worth the little extra effort.

Answer 3

Yes... it's literally my career now. But I take particular enjoyment in the "house" yard and garden. We just moved all the perennials from the green-house to their planting beds around the house... planted our 5 acre veggie plot... and tomorrow I will mow the 3 acres of actual LAWN around our house and Pub / Guest Inn. Speaking of "water" - one of my most rewarding projects was installing cisterns that trap our rain coming off the roof of the house and now the Pub to water our lawns. The lawns couldn't exist without watering, and it would be too much cost to operate the well... so the cisterns let us keep actual lawn in Summer while ALL other grass on our 500 acres is dry and yellow.

Answer 4

It sort of depends on how tall you want them to be, and how often they will be watered, as well as how much sun they will receive. For low growers, if there is sun you might try Sweet Alyssum. For more height, there are a number of options - Marigolds, Petunias, and Geraniums all offer plenty of color, and if you keep them deadheaded they should bloom all summer. For colorful perennials, you could try carpet phlox, blue veronica, or one of the low growing spreading thymes.

Answer 5

good perennials are daylillys, cone flowers, Dasie's, roses are nice all of them give color for a long time also columbine they are nice tic seed , lavender, for annuals try marigolds ,snap dragons, pansies ,

Answer 6

Pansies are pretty. You can get them in all colors.