Choosing the Right Plant for Your Location

How to choose plants that will thrive in your garden.

Cerastium tomentosum
Item # 32570 		Cerastium tomentosum
Snow-in-Summer

each $5.49
3 to 6 plants $5.29
7 or more $4.99
Iris pallida 'Variegata'
Item # 61007 		Iris pallida 'Variegata'
Variegated Sweet Iris

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
  • Topic: Plant Selection
  • Author: Mary Ann Walz
  • Keywords: plants, perennials, correct plant, selecting plants,
  • Date: January 2006

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Two ways to select new plants for your garden—

  1. Peruse our catalog or visit a nursery, look at plants blooming in a garden setting, and select those you like best.
  2. Examine your garden and find spots that could use new plants; then select plants that would be appropriate for the space.

I use both approaches, but must confess I’ve had fewer ‘mistakes’ with the second approach. Either way, you must be conscious of a plant’s growth habit, season of bloom and cultural requirements including—

  • cold hardiness zone
  • sunlight requirements
  • preferred soil type
  • water requirements

Remember to consider the mature size of a potential new plant to make sure it won’t be too big or too small to blend in with its companions.

Selecting Sites

When the garden is dormant, I brave the cold and take a walk among the planting areas and observe what I already have, noting a few things I will remove or relocate in spring. I also study the open spaces for new plants I might like to try.

No doubt when looking through the High Country Gardens catalog, you’ll see all kinds of new perennials. But how do you decide what’s right? Unfortunately, at my high altitude climate in zone 4 eliminates some choices, but even with fewer choices, I still pay attention to color and bloom time.

Consider Color and Texture

What color would go well and which season could I use additional bloom? Early Spring is pretty well taken care of in most beds, but the transition times to summer and fall could always use more color. The Pelargonium endlicherianum will be one of my ‘must have’ plants for the border in the front of the house this year. Iris pallida ‘Variegata’ will not only add fragrance and color but will provide interesting leaf texture throughout the growing season. I’ll add Gaillardia grandiflora ‘Arizona Sun’ to my mound garden to compliment some existing Gaillardia, Sedums, and Cerastium tomentosum.

Another Way of Choosing Plants

See what’s growing wild around you. I am blessed to have abundant numbers of Oenothera caespitosa growing wild in the horse pasture. It’s wonderful to see the blooms on a moonlit night or in the early morning. This plant was the inspiration for my mostly white moonlight garden.