Garden Flowers Information

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Overview

Garden flowers all belong to the group of plants called angiosperms, which employ sexual reproduction, including male, female and androgynous flowers that need pollination to produce seed and fruit. Some use wind pollination, but many attract bees, butterflies and birds to help with the job.

Annuals, Biennials and Perennials

Annuals accomplish their lives from seed to bloom and back to seed in one growing season. Biennials last for two seasons, and perennials last for three seasons or more.

Perennials and Biennials as Annuals

Some perennials and biennials can be grown in places where conditions aren't as favorable as in their native habitat. They can be treated like annuals, which are replanted every year.

Cut Flowers

Cut flowers are best taken from annuals and other flowering plants that actually do better when blooms are thinned. When the flowers are cut, an annual blossoms even more.

Distancing Flowers

Space flowers according to their height at maturity. Space tall plants with few stems about one-quarter of their height from one another, tall bushy plants about half as much as their height apart, and rounded plants at a distance about equal to their height.

Edible Flowers

Some flowers aren't just to look at---they can be eaten, too. Borage flowers, for instance, taste like cucumbers. Impatiens, daylilies and roses are also edible. Don't eat flowers that have been sprayed with pesticides.

References

A Garden of Your Own; Michael O'Brien; 1993
Virginia Cooperative Extension: Planning the Flower Border
Iowa State University: Edible Flowers

Keywords: garden flowers, angiosperms, edible flowers, annual flowers

About this Author

S. Johnson is a freelance writer and editor of both print and film media who specializes in making the complex clear. A freelancer for over 20 years, Johnson has had the opportunity to cover many topics ranging from construction to music to celebrity interviews, learning a lot and talking to many interesting people.