Bedding Plants at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Bedding displays can be simple or elaborate according to taste, and the patterns may be given permanent form by being edged with small shrubs such as box or lavender.BEDDING OUT means putting plants in the garden for a limited period only, while they are able to contribute most to the display, and then replacing them with other plants. Spring bedding plants are those that make their display from early to late spring; summer bedding plants are those that are at their peak from early summer to early fall. Beds can be filled with a number of plants of differing habits and, usually, mixed colors. Carpeting plants are used as a base planting, with taller plants employed to produce a second or third tier of flowers.

BEGONIAS used in bedding displays are from the semperflorens hybrids (zlO), fibrous-rooted perennials grown as half-hardy bedding annuals. This type is particularly suitable for bedding displays because all the plants in the group have a neat habit and continuous flowering. They have a succession of small white, pink, or red flowers and green or bronze, slightly fleshy leaves. "Organdy," with green leaves, and "Coco Mixed," which has bronze foliage, are good varieties to give a contrast of colors.

Garden trees; Hedges; Shrubs for year-round interest; Rhododendrons; Climbing and screening plants; Clematis; Colorful perennials; Annuals and biennials; Bedding plants; Fuchsias; Bulbs; Rock-garden plants. Climate, more than any other factor, determines the success or failure of the gardener. A garden requires adequate sunshine and rainfall if plants are to thrive in it, but it also needs protection against extremes of weather.