I need expert flower suggestions

[.Poppy.]

Hey all. I'm new here, and hoping to tap into some expert opinions I'm a novice gardener; I grow a vegetable garden and some flowers, but am by no means an expert. I'm currently in the process of planning a small memorial garden, but don't know what would be best to plant!

Here are my qualifications. Hopefully they can all be met

> Must be a perennial.
> I am located in northeast Kansas, so it must be able to grow here.
> I need it to bloom in colors that are meaningful to the individuals, so it must bloom in red, pink, purple, and blue.
> It is FINE if I need to have four different types of flowers in order to get the colors I need.
> The garden is in an area that gets mostly sun, it only gets morning shade.
> Our weather can be hot, humid, wet, or dry so I'd prefer a plant that is pretty tolerant. Besides that, I am a novice so I don't want to have something I can easily kill.

Hopefully I'm not looking for the impossible here. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[ElizabethB]

Poppy - welcome to the forum.

Is this memorial garden on your own property or a public space? Will it have frequent attendance or must it survive mostly on it's own? What are your water resources? What about soil - clay, sandy, loam?

Pictures and a little more info would be helpful.

Glad you decided to join our little family of gardeners.

[rainbowgardener]

When you say morning shade, does your area get at least 6 hours of sun most of the year?


If you want things blooming through a long season, you will need to plant a variety of things.

Spring: columbine, some bulb flowers like tulips and daffodils (people think of daffodils as yellow, but there are some pretty pink ones), iris.

Summer: perennial salvia, hollyhocks (tall), primrose (very low growing), liatris/ gayfeather, purple coneflower

Fall: asters, chrysanthemum, sedum, colchicum/ fall crocus (low growing), monkshood (tall and beautiful blue-purple), plumbago (spreading ground cover)

It's nice to have a variety of heights, with the lowest things in front.

[.Poppy.]

Thanks for the answers. The garden is on my property, so it will get pretty regular maintenance, though I'd still like something that doesn't need constant care as to me that suggests something that is more sensitive and more difficult to care for, if that makes sense.

I'll provide pictures when I get a chance. The natural soil in the area is very rocky, maybe slightly sandy but not overly so. The garden in question has been filled in entirely with decorative stones for awhile, so I'm going to be building up a little wall and putting soil in myself. I may just add soil that we have in a pile from our pasture but I can always add different soil if need be, or a mixture or whatever works.

I love the idea of planting a variety, and I also love the idea of columbine. We have some in our flower gardens already, so I know how lovely it is, and it does a good job of coming back.

ADD: Oh, and it does get at least 6 hours of shade, year round. Morning shade is more prevalent there in late summer/fall, and is usually gone by noon at least.

[rainbowgardener]

RE: ADD: Oh, and it does get at least 6 hours of shade


did you mean 6 hrs of sun? My flower suggestions were for full sun- part sun.

Incidentally you are in zone 5, so these should all be hardy for you.

[imafan26]

know you said perennials, but unless you put in relatively large plants, perennials from seed will take about two years to bloom on average and the perennials I have are seasonal bloomers.

I like alyssum for rocky areas. It is not a perennial but it is a long blooming annual that reseeds easily. I prefer the white but it comes in purple (royal carpet) and a pinkish color the cultivar is called rosie o' day. It comes in other pastel colors as well. It can be sheared back as it has a mounding habit. I love lavender for the bloom and the fragrance but most lavenders are early summer bloomers except l. multifeda which will bloom most of the year but is a zone 10 lavender. (It is also the easiest one for me to grow). ice plant and portulaca also make good ground or rock covers and do not need a lot of water once they are established.

I do like the salvias and butterfly bush to attract pollinators. P.S. the alyssum is very attractive to bees too. If your border can take something tall, I love hollyhocks. People are always surprised when I plant them because they are an unusual plant to be grown here.

When you select your perennials try to vary the texture and color of the leaves to give off season interest and select plants so that something will be in bloom most of the year.

[.Poppy.]

Thanks. And yes, I did mean it gets at least 6 hours of sun daily, I don't know why I wrote shade

I mainly asked for perennials because to me, that means I don't have to go out and buy new flowers every year; they'll just come back on their own. Maybe I'm wrong in that regard.

These are all gorgeous flowers and it's good to know I have options.

[ElizabethB]

Poppy - you may want to incorporate a few Knock Out Roses. They get 3' to 4' wide and tall, come in a variety of colors, are long blooming and relatively low maintenance. They would work well in a perennial bed and give you color from spring through fall.

Good luck

[imafan26]

Some annuals at least for me since I am in frost free zone 12a on the new zone map are perennial or come back from self seeding year after year

Impatiens are perennial here. Nasturtiums, borage, alyssum, four o'c locks and sun drops are annuals or biennials that will drop seed and when the time is right the plants will emerge again. Nasturtiums come back around February or March and peter out in the heat. The seeds that are dropped in the summer will remain dormant until the weather changes again same with the borage. The alyssum and four o'clocks just keep dropping seeds all of the time so they appear to be perennial.

[Mhasan]

pink hybrid tea roses

scarlet hibiscus

I am by no means an expert like my mom. I like planting perrennials too. Unfortunately they do not always come back. Last year was my first garden year. This year I lost two roses, two oriental lilies, and the boxwood which I tried to plant as a hedge isn't doing very well. I just planted some lovely orange oriental lilies, and I like balloon flowers, I have both white and purple. Flox is very nice too, I have white and purple as well. Iris' are tall flowers and I have purple, lilac, and white. And peonies are lovely, they bloom in the Spring, they've just started blooming for me as winter was long this year. And don't forget roses. Several of my mini-roses came back this year, and the hybrid teas as well. Hibiscus tree gave me beautiful scarlett flowers last year. Basically the perennials are just starting to bloom except for the alliums, they've bloomed and are done. I've attached a few pics.