Perennial Flower Garden Layout??

[steve-in-kville]

Bare with me.... we are converting some of our beds to flowers this fall and next spring. I bought bulbs: tulips, hyacinths and some iris's. I have a bed that is about 30' long and 4' wide, almost full sun. I was gonna plant in blocks, leaving room for annuals in the spring. So if I plant in blocks, do I plant a block of all tulips? Or mix it up and plant tulips and iris's and the hyacinths? If I understand right, they all bloom at different times.

Thoughts on this?? I also have a big bag of perennial wild flower seed that I plan to sow in the spring in this same bed.

[JimFoxvog]

I think it depends on your own sense of esthetics. I would mix them up to give a somewhat natural impression. You'd have a more formal, maybe neater look if you had blocks all the same. Either could be beautiful.

[steve-in-kville]

Just thought about this, I have some dwarf willow bushes I started from cutting back in the spring. Maybe I could incorporate one or two of those in there. Also have some clumping bamboo that I need to take divisions from.

I have a feeling I'll be making things up as I go...

[KingdomBuilder]

I think a repeated sequence of block would be nice.
Maybe something like this:

T-H-C-A-C-H-T

??

[temporal1]

I think a repeated sequence of block would be nice.
Maybe something like this:

T-H-C-A-C-H-T

??

bulbs do wonderfully in blocks. blocks can have curved lines, they can be diagonal ..
i would try to think of bloom times, and heights, of flowers, to space out the display, keep it attractive for as long as possible.

the first year should bring blooms, later years they should get better+better, eventually, some thinning of bulbs will be needed.

quite a project!