How To Choose The Right Flowers For Your Home
Decorating your home with flowers can make its value higher while aesthetically improving its appeal. You can add flowers to spice up your current decor or personalize your new home through imported plants. Whichever reason you choose for adding these to your residence, you may find it quite hard to choose the best flowers. If you think that you can plant any type of flower in your backyard or garden, then you may want to think again.
You may need to consider your home's design and color, the lifespan of the flower, and other factors. That way, you won't have a home with scattered flowers that may or may not complement each other.
Thus, here are some tips when choosing the right flowers for your home:
1. Understand the Different Lifespans of Flowers
One important consideration when choosing flowers for your home is their life expectancy. When you know their lifespans, you can ensure that your garden is in bloom throughout the year.
Here are the three categories of flowers according to their life expectancy:
- Annuals:
As its name suggests, these flowers only live for one season. If you're enthusiastic about gardening from year to year, then annuals may be best for your home. They'll bloom all season long, making them cheaper flowers than the other categories.
If you want to have seeds you can plant for the next year, choose self-seeding annuals. That way, you won't have to buy new seeds from time to time. Simply save these seeds so you can plant them when it's their season. With annuals, you have many choices to make your flower beds colorful, such as the following:
- Sunflower
- Zinnia
- Strawflower
- Snapdragon
- Petunia
- Milkweed
- Marigold
- Helenium
- Cosmos
- Begonia
- Biennials:
Biennials can last for two years. They won't bloom for the first year, but their stems can grow. After one year, their flowers will bloom. Similar to annuals, some biennials are self-seeding, too.
Although they have a two-year lifespan, climate can affect their growth. Extreme temperatures can shorten their lifespans, making them become annuals when grown in places with drastic season changes.
While it may take two years before you can see their beauty, your patience may be worth it. Many biennials are beautiful when they're in full bloom.
Here are some popular biennials worth waiting for:
- Wallflower
- Sweet William
- Stock
- Foxglove
- Canterbury Bells
- California Poppy
- Black-Eyed Susan
- Perennials:
Generally, flowers in this category can still grow until they reach maturity. Thus, it can last longer than biennial and annuals combined. Perennials regrow every season, which is perfect for saving time from gardening now and then. You may want to add spring tulips to your home as an example of perennials. Whether you're looking for seeds or a bouquet of tulips, you can find many online stores catering to deliveries. That way, you can start beautifying your home with these blossoms.
What you should note about perennials is that they have subcategories according to the dormancy period. Depending on the time and climate, their dormancy usually occurs during fall and winter.
One perennial type is the herbaceous perennials, wherein the dormancy phase makes them die back to the ground. The reason behind it is their less, softer fibrous stem. However, the bulbs and roots underground can regrow and survive. For example, Luna Hibiscus will regrow in the springtime after it dies back to the ground in winter.
Another perennial subcategory is the deciduous perennials which don't die back to the ground. They keep their structure and branches during their dormancy period through the winter. Other deciduous perennials can bloom all year when grown in places with mild winters. But if there is frost, these flowers may die.
2. Matching the Colors of Your House and Garden
Another consideration you need to take when choosing the right flowers is the color of your house. It may be best to coordinate the hues of the flowers with the palette of your home for a cohesive and artful design.
If you have a newly painted home, then check that you choose shades of flowers that you can repeat. That way, your house can provide a backdrop for your garden.
When matching the colors of your house and flowers, be careful to choose the right ones in the same family. Starting with the most straightforward color palette may help if you're a first-timer. Though simple schemes work better, you can choose dramatic, natural, or sophisticated shades depending on your taste and preferences. You may want to use a color wheel so that you can choose the hues that can harmoniously impact your garden.
Here are some examples of matching house and flowers:
- Having a brick house can do well with flowers with hot colors since bricks are usually yellow, red, and orange, which is the 'hot' side of the color wheel. You don't even have to match the hue of your flowers with the brick shade as long as they're both in the same family.
- If you're looking for a more versatile backdrop, houses with grey in their pigment or muted shades are good choices. With muted tones, you don't have to match the paint and color of the flowers exactly. That's because they can coordinate well with differing hues.
- When your house color has bright paint, it may be best to have flowers with similar spectacular hues. You may want to repeat the shades of your house when choosing flowers.
- Moreover, you may find it easier to integrate beiges, browns, and greens into your gardens. These colors can blend well with the garden and use vibrant flowers to add contrast.
- Natural landscapes can also do well with pastel-colored houses. With this, you can use shades that can either contrast or relate to your home's paint. You can use warm hues of flowers when you have an apricot, pink, or yellow house. That way, the flowers, and paint can combine harmoniously. For cool tones of flowers, they're perfect for purple, green, and blue pastel houses. If you want to make things livelier, you can provide maximum contrast by choosing opposite hues on the color wheel.
3. Time to Plant Flowers
When you're planting flowers, it's also best to choose the ones that are made to be planted during that season. Some plants may not grow when planted in the wrong season. Others may develop at an inappropriate time, and their growth may be stunted.
Thus, your location can be a factor when starting to plant specific flowers. Generally, February is the best time to start growing when you're living in warm areas. These flowers will then begin to bloom by early spring.
Warmer months are also the best times to start planting when you live in colder areas. That way, they can bloom by late or mid-summer. You may even want to plant them indoors during colder months. Then, replant them outdoors when warm seasons start to kick in.
4. Determine Your Garden's Size and Shape
Also, you may want to consider the shape and size of your garden or where you wish to place your flowers. Don't just plant them anywhere, as it may destroy the design of your landscape. When planting them, check your flower bed's sizes. Ensure that you can reach each flower to avoid planting them in areas you cannot reach.
Thus, it's best to start small when you're a beginner. Then, go bigger after knowing how it can look when flowers bloom.
When you're using pots or planters, you may want to choose sizes and shapes that are appealing. That way, when they bloom, you can transfer them to your porch, windows, and even inside your homes. With such in mind, use pots that may do well inside your house.
5. Adding Grasses for Texture
While focusing on flowers is vital to make your home vibrant, it's also recommended to add other plants, like grass, for extra texture. Many ornamental types of grass are some of the plants that can fit even in your living room, backyard, porch, and front yard.
By adding these grasses, you can add visual appeal, contrast, and texture to your landscape. What's even more interesting is that these grasses are easy to grow. You no longer have to spend much time tending them as occasional watering will do. Thus, making it perfect for starters.
With ornamental grasses, they can be your flowers' backdrop. They can even act as decorative barriers in your garden while giving your garden a 'nature' vibe. Moreover, these grasses can survive the winter seasons, so your garden won't look too empty.
Conclusion
Flowers can do wonders to your home; they can bring life to your garden while giving your joy when looking at them. Instead of having a boring house, flowers can bring more life to it. You can create one that looks professionally done, especially if you plan your garden's layout well.
Choose the categories of flowers in your garden. Mix annuals, perennials, and biennials in your garden, too. As for the color, it may be best to follow a palette that will work well with your home. Don't forget to add ornamental grasses, as these can also bring more life to your home.
