Home Garden Pond

 

Easy Care Flowers for the Beginner Gardener

Not all Garden  flowers are created equal there are some easy grow easy care flowers that go above and beyond the call of duty, blooming for months at a stretch . Every sensible Gardener should try to make  these easy care flowering plants the foundation of his  flower garden. When you have areas of color you can rely on each season, you have time to invest in feature or specimen flowers, that often require more specialized attention  Here are some  tried and tested long blooming easy care  flowers for your  home garden.

Iris flowers

The Bearded Iris

flowers in the spring ,it can grow up to four feet tall with and spreading to as much as two feet wide. Though the iris flowers in early spring like many bulb plants, most but not all Iris’s grow from rhizome systems.

There are some iris flowers that grow from bulbs, Such as the Siberian Iris, Caesar’s Brother and a smaller version Little Caesar is one strain that I particularly favor for its unique shade of blue flowers. You can get a wide variety of flower colors: blue, violet, yellow, purple, red, white and pink in either bulb or rhizome variety of iris which ever you decide to favor both types of iris flowers  are easy care  low maintenance flowers, requiring very little time spent on them . They will reward you with spring and early summer beauty. Be sure and allow for good drainage to prevent rhizome rotting, and for the same reason do not plant them too deeply, mine prefer sitting in the top 2 inches of soil. For more detailed information please visit my Iris flowers page

Rudbeckia Flowers

(some times referred to as Black-eyed Susan) Perennial Flowers
USDA Zones: 3 – 9 – Bloom Span: 3 Months Mid Summer- Mid Fall
Full Sun-Partial Shade

Rudbeckia  flowers make themselves at home anywhere and many are native to many parts of North America you often see their bright yellow flowers growing along the banks of highways. They like well-drained, somewhat poor soil and full sun. Deadheading will extend blooming period also a bonus is the fact that cut Rudbeckia flowers will last a long time in water so make excellent cutting flowers for the cutting garden and to bring into your home for vase displays. their flowers  are the epitome of the easy care flower attractive to butterflies and bees and their seeds can be eaten by birds during the winter months . they are relatively long lived plants that require very little maintenance a true easy care flowers ,Rudbeckias can be easily multiplied by division.Thier are many varieties of hybredized Rudbeckia flowers but my favorite and most hardy is  Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm”
which are native North American wild flowers. Plants form  upright bushy clumps offering a very generous display of brown-eyed, golden-orange daisies from midsummer through the fall. Plants may be easily divided in early spring and transplanted to other garden areas where their bright cheery flowers may add color to a more dreary spot

Veronica spicata

(Spike Speedwell) Perennial Flowers
USDA Zones 3 – 9 – Bloom Span: 3-4 Months

These flowers start blooming in the spring and keep going all the way to the first frost. The genus speedwell  includes a broad range of flowering  plants, but Veronica. spicata is the most popular form chosen for most garden environments. It forms a low growing dense mass of dark green foliage from which arise its flowers in narrow upright spikes ,many varieties available bearing  flowers in shades of blues, reds, pinks, whites and purples.Removing faded spikes will keep the plants flowers in bloom for much longer . A Drought tolerant easy care plant , Veronica prefers a well-drained soil,excellent for cutting,the flowers are a favorite with  butterflies. Clumps should be pruned hard if they get floppy and divided if they become bald in the center, time to divide these flowers is in the fall or early spring.
GOOD CHOICES: Veronica ‘Sunny Border Blue’

Nigella

(Love-in-a-Mist/love in a puff)

Annual Flowers

The Nigella flowers are delicate, feathery, often blue-flowers but can be obtained in shades of pink, purple, white an annual displaying delicate fern like foliage and attractive unusual eye catching seedpods. It self-seeds easily and this to my mind is the feature for which this flower deserves inclusion as an  easy care low maintenance flower .It Comes into bloom very quickly,if successive sowings are made every two or three weeks in the summer months  by saving some of the previous years seed rather than allowing them all to self sow and merely scattering on the seed on the soils surface.  you will  ensure a continuous supply of beautiful and unusual flowers  does well in warm or cool areas but prefers a slightly moist soil. you could not find an easier to grow flowers I seldom rave over annuals to tell the truth there are only a few  a give garden space to but love in a mist is one of them its a must have for any new gardener.

Daylily

Tiger Lily/Ditch lily/Hemerocalis fulva

The omnipresent Day Lily, found almost everywhere in North America,or at least it is if you live here in Ontario as it is one of the most beautiful of Ontario’s wild flowers.a profuse propagator by means of tuberous roots. Transplanting is best in spring or fall,water generously after transplanting .They do not mind overcrowding, as a matter of fact these flowers look their best when in bloom in a large, close knit groups planted enmass forming  patches of bright orange flowers here and there, dotted around the garden  These wild flowers are  incredibly  easy care and  grow freely  just try and stop them. They are at home in nature, or as a back drop or foundation  flowers for your home garden.These Day lily’s require little to no  attention.they provide summer and fall interest and once established are a tall impenetrable ground cover I under plant and inter plant mine with other bulbs that display their flowers when the Day Lily is not blooming ,they prefer moist to wet soils,but will grow anywhere only two years ago I established a large patch in what was largely gravel just off my back patio That’s why they grow so well in and near ditches. Fertilizer is not needed, except in the poorest of soils.These flowers do not need winter protection and once established,  thrive and increase year after year.

Lamium maculatum

Varieties  White Nancy  and Beacon Silver Lamium

Is one of the best choices for a tough yet showy perennial ground cover.

If You are you looking for a shade loving plant? Try out the Lamium in a shady or partially shady portion of your garden.  Lamium will provide great ground cover throughout the spring, summer and fall.

Lamium forms a spreading patch of small silver leaves with a narrow green edge. Clusters of pure white flowers appear in the spring, then continue off and on until fall. once established it is fairly tolerant of dry shade, trim back in late winter to promote bushier growth the next season. Stems will easily root into the ground where they touch, and  new plants will form ,which can be easily moved in spring or fall.Lamium is an  easily divided. evergreen plant.

Lamium comes in a couple of different varieties,  White Nancy and  Beacon Silver, a creeping perennial woth heart shaped leaves,the flowers bloom in little clusters and come in white – White Nancy and pink (purple?) – Silver Beacon. Plant lamium in moist  soil.  .
Lamium grows in partial shade and can produce plants from 4 to 6 inches tall. The Lamium is a  slow creeping plant and can spread to 2 feet or wider.You may want to divide every three years It makes an excellent border plant. The flowers bloom all summer long and the plant requires little care. Keep moist during extreme dry periods.