Planting a Spring Rainbow Garden
Even though spring seems far away at this time of the year, it is never too early to start getting new ideas for your flower garden before the ground thaws out. Instead of mapping out the same plot each year, go for something completely unique: a rainbow of color. The rainbow that the flowers are planted in do not have to be one straight line, they can be planted in a curve, as in a traditional rainbow, or a zigzag or even an “S” shape elongated in form. The traditional colors of the rainbow can be used or you can go for a pastel version using pinks, pale yellows, peach, pale blue, and lavender flowers to create the final effect.
When springtime comes after the ground thaws from the last frost in your planting region, prepare the garden soil as you usually do each year, making sure the soil is well drained. Using a stick, draw the desired design you want to make with your flowers, with each color following its own line close to the one next to it. Leave enough space for growth, especially the larger ones like tulips and hyacinths. You can even create a little path separating the rainbow pattern in order to make weeding easier.
Create a “carpet” of color by combining several different flowers of the same color together. Keep those flowers of a similar height together, with the taller ones behind the lower ones.
Here is a list of some flowers you can plant in your rainbow garden:
Red flowers: flame anemones, tulips, pansies, carnations, snapdragons, verbena, sweet peas, dianthus.
Orange flowers: daffodils, tulips.
Yellow flowers: daffodils, tulips, snapdragons, lilies, carnations, crocuses, freesia, sweet peas.
Green flowers: ferns, moonwort (any non-flowering green ornamental plant can be used for this stripe of your garden rainbow).
Blue flowers: Irises, pansies,hyacinths, bachelor’s buttons, petunias.
Purple flowers: pansies, tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, irises, petunias.
For a pastel rainbow:
Pink flowers: pansies, hyacinths, tulips, carnations, snapdragons, orchids, sweet peas, dianthus, petunias.
Light yellow flowers: snapdragons, pansies, orchids, potentilla, verbena.
Peach flowers: snapdragons, pansies, gladiolus, carnations.
Light green plants: moonwort, small grape fern, shining clubmoss.
Light blue flowers: columbine, delphinium, wild lupine, monkey flower.
Lavender flowers: pansies, petunias, irises, verbena.
Once your garden is planted, you can add some finishing touches around your rainbow garden. Low shrubbery can be attractive and can create a border if you wish to have them outline the garden plot. Another alternative is to outline the rainbow with a variety of white flowers, such as hyacinths, tulips, lily of the valley, spring cress, carnation, pansies, portulaca, lavatera, and clematis, to name a few. Your rainbow garden is complete!
Image Credit: Lankiveil/Craig Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons.
