Mixborders from perennials: diagrams and names

Content

1 Important points when planning
2 Plant selection
3 Stages of creating a mixborder
4 Ready-made schemes
5 Conclusion

Mixborders are flower beds on which ornamental plants are planted that complement each other. They can become a decoration for a park, home landscape, or garden. Perennial and annual herbaceous plants, flowers, shrubs and even small trees can be used to fill flower beds. Mixborders made from perennials are especially popular because they are able to delight with their beauty year after year without requiring special care.

There are special ready-made planting schemes developed by landscape designers with zoning of the flower garden and selection of plants. Even a novice gardener can implement such pre-designed mixborder schemes.

Important points when planning

A beautiful mixborder is a harmonious composition of plants planted in a certain order in compliance with some general rules:

Mixborders can be one-sided or two-sided. One-sided flower beds are placed along footpaths or trails, behind them there may be a building wall or fence. A double-sided flower garden requires paths or viewing points on both sides.An example of a one-sided and two-sided mixborder is shown in the photo:
When creating a one-sided mixborder, tall plants and shrubs are planted in the background, low-growing or creeping perennials and lawn grass are planted in the foreground.
When creating a double-sided mixborder, tall plants should be planted in the middle strip, and low-growing perennials should be placed closer to the edge of the flower bed.
When placing perennials in one flower garden, it is necessary to use the multi-tier principle. In this case, the plants will not shade or drown out each other and will fully demonstrate their beauty.
Flower arrangements, like paintings, should be viewed at some distance in order to appreciate all their beauty, which is why mixborders are recommended to be placed at some distance from the viewing point. The distance from tall plants should be no less than their height.
Mixborders made from perennials have a peculiarity - in the first years after installation, the composition is not lush enough, since the plants must grow. At this time, it can be supplemented with annual flowers.
When placing perennials in flower beds, you need to remember that they will grow over time, so you don’t need to plant the plants too close to each other.
Mixborders can be created with a certain semantic load, for example, by placing a flower garden at the entrance to a building or on the shore of an artificial pond, you can advantageously emphasize the landscape of the site and the design and architecture of the building.

The shapes of mixborders can be different: regular, curved, intricate. Thus, landscape designers recommend placing compositions at a certain angle for a better view from anywhere in the garden.An example of such a flower garden can be seen in the photo:

Plant selection

Having decided on the location and shape of the mixborder, it’s worth thinking about its contents. When choosing perennials, you need to consider some nuances:

Plants in the same flower garden should have the same photosensitivity, shade-loving and light-loving crops cannot be planted nearby. The choice of certain plants depends on the illumination of the area where the mixborder will be located. The same rule applies when choosing plants taking into account the moisture and composition of the soil;
The root system of all plants should be closed, extending vertically downwards.. Plants with a creeping and horizontally spreading root system will eventually destroy their “neighbors”.
Flowering perennials should be selected in such a way that periods of their flowering smoothly replaced each other. This will allow you to get a mixborder of continuous flowering. It is also necessary to exclude the situation when, after withering, the plant loses its decorative qualities, it must be cut off, and the cut site remains an “empty spot” on the flower garden. In this case, perennial plants of the lower tier with a later flowering period or annuals can be used as cover;
You can make a beautiful mixborder from perennials using plants with decorative leaves. Thus, heucheras, hostas, and ferns can be included in the composition.

Thus, when selecting plants for mixborders, it is necessary to take into account their tallness, type of root system, need for sunlight, soil nutrition and humidity. Of course, you shouldn’t forget about the color of plants. So, flower beds can be:

contrasting, with a combination of red and green, purple and yellow. Such compositions are more suitable for creating compact, low mixborders;
monochrome. To create them, flowers are used in calm, delicate shades of pink, yellow, purple;
variegated, combining various bright colors. An example of a variegated mixborder can be seen in the photo below:

When creating a mixborder from shrubs and perennials, the following are popular:

Barberry and spirea They are distinguished by their unusual leaf color and exhibit their decorative qualities throughout the season. By trimming boxwood, you can create beautiful green barriers or unique landscape shapes.
English aster, mallow, rudbeckia, phlox and some other tall flowers can be used to create the skeleton of the display. You can see them in the photo:
Among plants of medium height, to create a second line of mixborders, you should prefer lilies, peonies, chrysanthemums. Their height will approximately range from half a meter to a meter.
Perennials up to half a meter are most popular when creating mixborders. They are suitable for both single-sided and double-sided compositions. Among these flowers we should highlight multi-colored primroses, bergenia, tulips, daffodils.
Low-growing flowers, up to 25 cm high, should also be included in mixborders. As a rule, they are used to border paths and paths. Landscape designers often use for such purposes pushkinia, galanthus, muscari and some other plants.

All of these perennials have a modest, vertical root system and can complement each other in flower beds.They bloom at different times, some of them can grow in the shade, some prefer sunny areas of the ground, so each gardener must combine perennials himself in accordance with existing conditions and personal wishes.

Stages of creating a mixborder

Creating a composition of perennials must be treated with special responsibility, because the result of the work should “please the eye” subsequently for several years. Experts recommend creating mixborders in stages, performing actions in a certain order:

Before planting perennials, it is necessary to set the shape of the mixborder and prepare the soil. If necessary, you can create a decorative border from stone or wicker.
Filling the flower garden should begin with skeletal plants - low-growing trees, shrubs (yew, Bergmann pine, conical spruce, barberry), tall flowers. It is recommended to place them without observing symmetry, since in this case the composition will look natural.
Medium-sized flowers and plants with decorative leaves (hosta, cineraria) should be planted in a second tier so that, if necessary, they cover the trunks of tall shrubs and the base of ornamental trees.
Empty spaces in the composition should be filled with medium and low-growing flowering plants, observing the multi-tiered principle. They should be planted in groups in order to fully reflect the beauty of the plants.
If necessary, in the first years after creation, mixborders can be supplemented with annuals. They will add additional freshness, brightness and make the flower garden full.

Important! When planting ornamental trees and shrubs, the spreading and tall nature of adult plants should be taken into account.

This will allow you to correctly select the optimal distances between them.

Ready-made schemes

In order to choose the right decorative perennials for a mixborder, an ordinary gardener may need a lot of time and literature, because finding information about the tallness, root system of the plant, its flowering period and preferences is not so easy. Comparing information about different plants and choosing “good neighbors” is even more difficult. In this case, professional landscape designers helped to alleviate the situation, who compiled and offered gardeners ready-made schemes for mixborders of perennials and the names of flowers, shrubs, and trees used in the composition. Photos and diagrams of some of them are given below.

Fragrant flower garden

This mixborder combines tall shrubs and fragrant, beautiful flowering perennials. You can create a flower garden on rocky, well-drained soil. This composition is one-sided, so it should be placed against the wall of a building or fence. It is perfect for a well-groomed, spacious yard or garden near a reputable cottage.

Filling the fragrant flower garden should begin with planting common juniper (3). You should not limit yourself to one plant; it is preferable to plant 2-3 conifers. Cinquefoil shrub (1) is also the “skeleton” of the flower garden. The plant should not be centered. In contrast to the cinquefoil, in compliance with conditional symmetry, you need to plant the saxifrage Ferdinand Coburg (4). This plant does not flower, but has beautiful decorative leaves.

Subsequent filling of the flower bed occurs in stages, observing the principle of mono-tiering and conditional symmetry. Plants are placed in groups. Under numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, various types of saxifrage are planted: hybrid, lush, wedge-leaved, paniculate, musky. Cirrus plumata (10) will add delicate colors and a pleasant aroma to the flower garden. The roofing (11) was young, a low-growing, but very original plant that will become the highlight of the mixborder.

It is recommended to bring Thunberg's barberry to the foreground of the composition (2). The plant is a low-growing bush with decorative purple leaves.

Thus, many different varieties of saxifrage are used to create an aromatic mixborder. These wonderful plants are unpretentious, have a compact root system, bloom for a long time and very beautifully, emitting a pleasant aroma. Barberry in such a flower bed acts as a beautiful border. Cinquefoil and juniper will add “growth” and chic to the flower garden.

Option for professionals

This ready-made mixborder scheme is one-sided. Such a flower bed can be placed against the wall of a building or, for example, against a fence. Creating such a lush composition is quite simple if you know where to start: the first thing to plant is boxwood (9), trimmed, in this case, in the shape of a cone. You should not place it in the middle of the flower bed; it is better to move it to the side to give it a natural look.

Clematis should be planted at some distance behind the boxwood (14). You can combine red and white varieties of this perennial. Beautiful clematis will be a wonderful backdrop for the flower garden as a whole.

The gap between clematis and boxwood should be filled with medium-sized plants: chamma (13), echinacea (12), decorative onions (6), verbena (8), Korean mint (11). The wormwood boxwood (10) with a decorative silver leaf will fill the composition with lightness and highlight it.

In the foreground of the mixborder you should plant fennel polygonum (7), shrubby cinquefoil (5), majestic geranium (3), Endress geranium (1), soft mantle (2) and coreopsis (4).

Such a beautiful, lush flower arrangement can decorate a yard with buildings in an eco, rustic or classic style. To decorate a yard with a large mansion, the mixborder should be expanded and more tall shrubs and ornamental trees should be used.

Flower garden for beginner gardeners

Even a novice gardener can implement such a ready-made scheme. It can be used both single-sided and double-sided. The skeletal plant of the flower garden is the tall mock orange (1). To the right and left of it it is necessary to place peonies (2) and phloxes (3). Lilies (4) and Mexican ageratum (5) can be used to create the next tier of medium-sized plants. Among the low-growing perennials, it is recommended to choose marine lobularia (7) and Turkish carnation (8) to create a composition.

Such a wonderful flower garden can be placed near the porch, gate, or along the paths. Mixborder will bloom continuously from June to September. You can see other examples and schemes of mixborders made from perennials, as well as learn some of the nuances of their creation in the video:

Conclusion

Every gardener can create a beautiful mixborder if desired.To do this, it is not at all necessary to resort to the services of professional designers, since you can use ready-made schemes with the optimal selection of plants. Having applied a little imagination and having found out and analyzed information about various types of perennials, it is not difficult to create a composition yourself or make changes to ready-made diagrams. A beautiful mixborder can always decorate a personal plot, highlight and emphasize the existing architecture and landscape.