COLUMN: Planning the flower border

The first step in planning the plants for an all-season, mixed border is to select key plants for line, mass, color and dependability.

A mixed border, containing shrubs, perennials, bulbs, annuals and ornamental grasses, is one of the delights of any garden. With such a diversity of plants the border garden offers the greatest possible variety of color, contour, texture, season of interest and design.

The first step in planning the plants for an all-season, mixed border is to select key plants for line, mass, color and dependability. Line is the silhouette or outline of a plant mass and its shape or denseness and dependability refers to its ability to remain attractive with minimum of maintenance.

The most attractive mixed border is those located in front of a suitable background such as a fence, walkway, tree line or building. In some cases, tall flowers such as hollyhocks or sunflowers can be used in a border and as background plants. Also, annuals and perennials of medium height may serve as background plants for a short border planting.

A general rule is to avoid a ruler-straight front edge. A gentle to boldly sweeping curve is the best even along a fence. The border can taper as it recedes from the main viewing point if an effect of distance is desired. A good example of this is a border is wider at the entrance of the building but tapers off the farther the border gets from the entrance.

The plants should be established in groups large enough to form masses of color and texture. As a rule, five to seven plants (odd numbers work best) will create the desired effect. Use a random collection of different small- to medium-sized plants to present a disorganized, checkerboard appearance. Each group of flowers or small shrubs should have an irregular shape. These masses of color or texture should blend into a pleasing pattern of color harmony. Dwarf flowers, low-lying shrubs and short ornamental grasses may be used as a continuous edging or border along the front of the bed.

Borders may be of any width, depending on the space available. In a small yard the bed may be 2 or 3 feet wide. In spacious locations, the border planting may be as much as 6 to 8 feet. If the border is quite deep, a pathway of stepping stones may be helpful as a means of walking through the arrangement enjoying all of the design or allowing a way to work among the flowers.

Tall plants should be selected for the back part of the bed with medium-height species in the middle and dwarf varieties along the front as edging plants. This is easily done because the height of all varieties is stated in the catalogs or on the plant tags.

Plant height is best limited to two-thirds the width of the border. For example, no plants should be taller than 4 feet in a border 6 feet wide. Height lines should be broken up by letting some tall plants extend into the medium height group, with a few recessive clumps or drifts leading the eyes back into the border. This gives a more natural effect than the old step profile. Try to vary heights, but in general, keep taller plants in the back and shorter ones toward the front.

The enormous color range in shrubs, perennials, annuals and ornamental grasses give the gardener greater latitude in choosing and combining colors. A border in tones of the same color can be effective, or several closely related colors may be used. Another look may be made exciting with the border planted in a vast variety of color hues in one or more seasons. The objective is a balance composition in every season with no plant selection being at any time too heavy weighted with one color. Also, the colors, whether from blooms or leaves, should be so distributed that it always makes a pleasing pattern throughout the bed.

Jim Coe lives in Lawton and writes a weekly gardening column for The Lawton Constitution.

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