• Pond Professor
• Water Garden Landscaping
• Solar Garden Lights

Create Your Wish List Of Flowers and Shrubs for Your Dream garden

Here's a way to get going on what can be a mammoth task. Think of which flowers you like best, which ones remind you of happy moments (your wedding day, your child's birth a favourite tune or melody for example). Consider your favourite colours and form and what you'll want to do with the flowers once they bloom.

Take a catalog or search the web for seed catalogs and you'll be more than inspired by what's out there. Here's a site with a great range ... Wonderful online source for massive range of low cost plants

There is an over-riding consideration which might just dash your plans ... you must ask the question ... Will this flowering plant grow in my area? And unfortunately many will not unless you're blessed with a climate that does not suffer from frost, excessive droughts, continuous wet weather or other extremes of climate.

Your best clues at to what will grow is to take a walk in your neighborhood and just look at the gardens in bloom, go the local park, visit shopping complexes with outdoor gardens and of course visit your garden center or local nursery.

You'll probably find this shrubs directory site useful in selecting specific plants to suit specific areas in most gardens. For example you can view plants by colour or whether they have berries etc.

In the USA a considerable amount of information in terms of climate zones is readily available on the web. Here's a table extracted from that source

Always bear in mind that local plants are almost always the toughest. It's important to consider heat zones as well as hardiness zones.

Check Your Growing Zone

Click on the hardiness map below to see a larger image

Cold Hardiness Ratings for Selected Woody Plants ...

Representative plants are listed under the coldest zones in which they normally succeed. Zone Ratings -- Average Annual Minimum Temperature Range

Normally you will succeed in growing plants that appear in their own zone as well as 2 or 3 higher zones. For example if you live in Zone 4B you can grow plants in zones 4A, 3A 3B, 2A 2B but you may well have difficulty trying to succeed with

Zone 1

Below -45.6 C

Below -50 F

Betula glandulosa (Dwarf birch)

Empetrum nigrum (Crowberry)

Populus fremuloides (Quaking aspen)

Potentilla pensylvanica (Pennsylvania cinquefoil)

Rhododendron lapponicum (Lapland rhododendron)

Salix reticulate (Netleaf willow)

Zone 2

-50 to -40 F

-45.6 to -40 C

Betula papyrifera (Paper birch)

Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry dogwood)

Elaeagnus commutata (Silverberry)

Larix laricina (Eastern larch)

Potentilla fruticosa (Bush cinquefoil)

Viburnum trilobum (American cranberry bush)

Zone 3

-40 to -30 F

-40 to -34.5 C

Berberis thunbetgii (Japanese bayberry)

Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian olive)

Junipercus communes (Common juniper)

Lonicera tatarica (Tatarian honeysuckle)

Malus baocata (Siberian crabapple)

Thuia occidentalis (American arborvitae)

Zone 4

-30 to -20 F

-34.5 to -28.9 C

Acer saccharum (Sugar maple)

Hydrangea paniculata (Panicle hydrangea)

Juniperus chinensis (Chinese juniper)

Ligustrum amurense (Amur River privet)

Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)

Spiraea x vanhouttei (Vanhouffe spirea)

Zone 5

-20 to -10 F

-28.9 to -23.3 C

Cornus florida (Flowering dogwood)

Deutzia gracilis (Slender deutzia)

Ligustrum vulgare (Common privet)

Paithenocissus tricuspidata (Boston ivy)

Rosa multiflora (Japanese rose)

Taxus cuspidata (Japanese yew)

Zone 6

-10 to 0 F

-23.3 to -17.8 C

Acer palmatum (Japanese maple)

Buxus sempervirens (Common boxwood)

Euonymus follunei (Winter creeper)

Hedera helix (English ivy)

Ilex opaca (American holly)

Ligustrum ovalifolium (California privet)

Zone 7

0 to 10 F

-17.8 to -12.3 C

Acer macrophylium (Bigleaf maple)

Rhododendron Kurume hybrids (Kurume azalea)

Cedrus atlantica (Atlas cedar)

Cotoneaster microphylla (Small-leaf cotoneaster)

Ilex aquifolium (English holly)

Taxus baccata (English yew)

Zone 8

10 to 20 F

-12.3 to -6.6 C

Arbutus unedo (Strawberry tree)

Choisya temata (Mexican orange)

Olearia haastii (New Zealand daisy-bush)

Pittosporum tobira (Japanese pittosporum)

Prunus laurocerasus (Cherry-laurel)

Viburnum tinus (Laurestinus)

Zone 9

20 to 30 F

-6.6 to -1.1 C

Asparagus setacous (Asparagus fern)

Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian blue gum)

Syzygium paniculatum (Australian bush cherry)

Fuchsia hybrids (Fuchsia)

Grevillea robusta (Silk-oak)

Schinus molle (California pepper tree)

Zone 10

30 to 40 F

-1.1 to 4.4 C

Bougainvillea spectabilis (Bougainvillea)

Cassia fistula (Golden shower)

Eucalyptus citriodora (Lemon eucalyptus)

Ficus elastica (Rubber plant)

Ensete ventricosum (Ensete)

Roystonea regia (Royal palm)

Have you asked these question?

• Why am I creating this design, do I really want a flower garden or maybe a vegetable garden? Alternatively you might have a desire to create a specific type of flower garden for butterfly attraction as an example. Maybe your idea is for a beautiful rose garden to give scented areas or blazes of colour or maybe you want to cut the roses for indoor use. People create spring gardens or autumn gardens or Japanese type gardens ... there is an endless list of shrubs and flower garden possibilities so try to focus on one or 2 main ideas. You may even have ideas of creating a water garden