Landscaping with and Growing Tall Flowers
Designing and landscaping your garden requires you to consider all different kinds of elements, like color and texture as well as matching plants to growing conditions. It’s easy to look mostly at the horizontal space in the garden when landscaping, but don’t forget vertical space. By designing beds to have a variety of plant heights, you’ll enhance the dimensions of your garden. Use flowers with height to anchor a space, serve as a backdrop for shorter plants, as privacy screening, and as borders.
Ideas for Tall Flowering Plants in the Garden
Whether you want perennials or annuals, shade-tolerant flowers or full-sun plants, there are plenty of flowers with height to make a statement in your garden.
Foxglove – This pretty perennial produces spikes of funnel-shaped flowers in pink, white, and violet. Foxglove plants grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.
Joe Pye Weed – Don’t be fooled by the name. This is a striking wildflower that can grow up to 7 feet (2 m.) tall. As a bonus, joe pye weed flowers attract butterflies.
Sunflowers – The type of flower most people think of when choosing something tall, sunflowers are annuals and can top out at 10 feet (3 m.).
Hollyhock – Hollyhocks are perfect for a cottage garden. They are as tall as 8 feet (2 m.) and produce striking, large flowers beloved by bees and hummingbirds.
Love Lies Bleeding – This evocative name describes the unique, hanging, blood-red flower panicles of Amaranthus. The love-lies-bleeding plant is an annual that can grow up to 5 feet (1.5 m.) in height.
Cosmos – These delicate, daisy-like flowers are annuals that come in a range of sizes. Look for varieties of cosmos that grow up to 4 feet (1 m.) tall.
Delphinium – Delphinium varieties grow tall, up to 6 feet (2 m.), and are loved for their stunning and dramatic flower spikes in all shades of blue and purple.
Bugbane – For shadier areas, try bugbane, which can grow up to 4 feet (1 m.) in height. You’ll enjoy both scented white flowers in the summer and striking red-to-purple foliage as the blooms fade.
Desert candles – These flowers get their name from their appearance: a cluster of pretty flowers grows atop a stalk with no leaves, resembling a candle. Desert candle needs protection from strong winds or staking.
