I'm often asked what are my favorite types of flowers or which types I would likely recommend to other gardeners. This is so tough because I have noticed as time goes by, my tastes change and I always discover new favorites along my gardening journey. Since there are literally thousands of types of flowers it's rather silly to think my favorites would also be yours. So I'll include some of my favorites but I'm also going to include tips to find the perfect flowers for you.
To be perfectly honest, I have found that I am turning out to be more of a foliage girl drooling over conifers, hostas, ferns, grasses and dramatic purple leafed plants, but there are some bloomers that will never leave my heart.
Types Of Flowers I Love
Hibiscus - tropical or hardy if you want a real showy bloom than these are the flower to add to your landscape.
Roses - I know this might surprise some people because I don't do fussy plants but I love roses. I bought many for $3 last year, so even if they only lasted a season, it was a wonderful bloom for the price of an annual.
Larkspur - Yes, this is an annual flower but it self seeds. I look at this more as a blessing than a curse.
Poppies - These flowers add so much of splash of color to the landscape and they self seed for even more color next year.
Coneflowers - Coneflowers are the type of flowers that add a one, two punch. Not only they are attractive in the garden and come in array of colors, but they are also beneficial to wildlife. Birds love to feast on Coneflower seed.
Phlox - Long lasting bloomers that attract butterflies. What more could you ask for in a flower?
Now when deciding on what types of flowers you should grow you might want to ask yourselves a few things:
What zone am I?
Hey I don't believe in being captive to a certain zone. By all means experiment, but if you want to grow types of flowers that do well in your climate find out what zone you are in. Gardening Zones
Perennial, or Annual
Do you want your garden to include the types of flowers that come back every year or plants that need to be planted every spring? Annuals might require more work but they add a lot of color to a gardenscape.
Garden Conditions
Sun, shade, dry, moist. What are your growing conditions? Most types of flowers require full sun and moderate soil conditions. If you have more shade than sun you might want to grow types of plants that have beautiful foliage rather than boisterous blooms.
Here are a few websites to guide you during your search of types of flowers that you might want to grow.
BackyardGardener.com Plant Encyclopedia, Plant Search - comprehensive database of over 38,000 plants can be searched using common plant names, botanical or plant details (flower color). Detailed plant care sheets include information on growing conditions, common pests and diseases.
Dave's Garden PlantFiles - your plant identification database
PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS - the United States Department of Agriculture plants database.