Periwinkle is a Perpetual Flower That Can Bloom throughout the Year

This is also called “Myrtle” this popular ground cover, about six inches tall, sends out runners over the soil surface that root where they touch ground. The handsome, dark green leaves are about an inch long, and the April blooming flowers a cheerful blue. You can find varieties that are white or purple, but I like the old fashioned “Periwinkle blue” the best. There’re also some varieties with variegated leaves. Periwinkle is probably the best all-purpose ground cover around and is hardy to at least Zone 5. Though the plant is said to be native to the West Indies, it first was described in Madagascar. The periwinkle is a perpetual herb with flowers that can bloom throughout the year, but heavily depending on the climate.

How to Grow Periwinkle

You can grow periwinkle in sun or shade, though some shade is preferable, especially in hot climates. Although it is not fussy about soils and will grow even in poor ones, it likes soil that is moist and slightly acid. I value it for its rather open growth habit, which allows me to interplant it with spring bulbs, but it can be sheared to promote denser growth. Source: Charismatic Planet

Cyclamen Flower

Cyclamens are beautiful plants. The flowers hover above the leaves like moths, on long wavy stems. The leaves are heart shaped and often handsomely variegated. Most are dormant in summer. The florist’s cyclamen, “Cyclamen Persicum” thrives out doors in places like California but is grown as a winter blooming houseplant north of Zone 9. Its flower is as large as four inches across and rather flamboyant in shades of pink red, lavender and white; often they’re fringed or double. The plant books from late fall to early spring and grows about a foot tall.

Several cyclamen species are hardy in the north. They’re shorter four to five inches tall with pink, red or white flowers about an inch across and marbled or mottled leaves. Many gardeners find them even more charming than their more tropical relatives. C. coum blooms in early spring. C. europaeum (C. purpurascens) and C. neapolitanum (C. hederifolium) are fall blooming and fragrant. They’re all hardy to about Zone 5 but may survive farther north with winter protection. I think they look best in an informal, woodsy setting but only if they are not overshadowed by larger, bolder plants. 

How to Grow Cyclamen

Cyclamens grow from corms and are planted while they are dormant, usually in midsummer, about two inches deep and about a foot apart. (Plant florist’s and cyclamens outdoors in fall in Zone 9 and 10). They like soil that is rich and moist but not cold or wet. Give then part shade outdoors indoors; give them indirect, bright light. 

Rosaceae Rosa

Attractive and formal, rosette shaped flowers, the petals recurving back later in life. It is very much of an Old Rose in character.  Its fragrance is strong and of the true Old Rose type.

Sweet Dreams

This rose is called SWEET DREAMS,  a floribunda patio rose, there are twelve open roses and twenty four buds, apricot peach colour, beautiful light fragrance, bred by FRYER of UK, rose of the year 1988.

Large-flowered Rose 'Candy Stripe' has a compact growing habit

Large-flowered Rose 'Candy Stripe' has a compact growing habit with an abundant flowering of large striped double flowers and dark leathery leaves. They flower from June to November with an exquisite fragrance. ‘Candy Stripe’ is perfect for rose beds but is also very elegant planted alone! The lovely deep rose-pink and cream flowers are also ideal for cutting.

Pachysandra (Pachysandra Terminalis)

Few ground covers make such a thick, dense evergreen bed as pachysandra. It doesn’t do its job overnight but just wait, for as the saying goes, the first year pachysandra sleeps, the second it creeps and the third it leaps. It is hardy to at least Zone 4, and is an excellent solution to the problem of what to plant right around tree trunks where sunlight is scarce and mowing is difficult. It grows up to a foot tall with attractive, dark green, tooth edged leaves arranged in whorls. The white flower spikes in spring are neither numerous nor conspicuous; even less noticeable are the whitish berries that follow. The variety “Variegata” has white-edged leaves and can effectively lighten up a dark, shaded area. Source: Charismatic Planet

How to Grow Paschysandra

You can grow Pachysandra in full or part shade, but make sure to avoid sunny sites. Not only will the leaves yellow in the sun, but grasses will come up amongst the pachysandra, and they’re very arduous cult to eradicate. Any ordinary soil will do, but it should not be too dry and should be on the acid side. Plant pachysandra deeper than it was in the flat, so more roots will form along the stems. It roots very easily from cuttings.

If you’re planting some you have dug up at a friend’s house, and are dismayed by all those long, tangled stems, separate them and tie each one in a knot, then plant them. We always mulch newly planted pachysandra although once established it won’t need mulch because it grows so thickly. If you have problems with leaf and stem blight, which begins with brown blotches on the leaves and spreads to the stems, don’t use heavy mulch, and rake fallen leaves and any diseased plants out of the bed. Euonymus scale is occasionally a problem with pachysandra it is best dealt with by pruning out infested plants and spraying the others with dormant oil in early spring before growth starts.

Fritillaria Imperialis A commonly Grown Plant in Gardens

There’re two types of fritillaries, very commonly grown in gardens, and they’re like Mutt and Jeff. Fritillaria meleagris (checkered lily) has flowers shaped like little hanging bells, in muted, neutral tones like gray, purple, brownish and white with an odd, checkerboard pattern. They normally grow at most to 12 inches, bloom in MindSpring, and often self-sow prolifically. They’re best seen close up, in a natural setting, and are hardy to Zone 3. F. Imperialis (Crown Imperial) sends up a three foot stem topped by a huge cluster of hanging bells in shades of red, yellow and orange often two shades together and the leaves stick up in a tuft on top of the flower. It is grow it in a clump by itself or behind shorter bulbs. Combining it with yellow daffodils and red tulips could be interesting (though it doesn’t produce the subtlest of effects). It is hardy to Zone 5 to 6. 

How to Grow Fritillaria Imperialis 

Give fritillaries a gritty, humusy, moist but extremely well drained soil. It is ought to be fairly rich. They grow well in full sun or light shade. Buy them as soon as they become available and plant them immediately; their bulbs should not be allowed to dry out. Crown imperial bulbs should go at least eight inches apart and six inches deep measured to the top of the large bulbs). Checkered lilies should be three to four inches apart and three to four inches deep. Its division is possible but not essential in fact the bulbs seem to do better if left alone.

Source: Charismatic Planet

Grape Hyacinth or “Muscari” Flower

We can count on this bulb to bloom at the same time as my daffodils and tulips and provide me with some blue accents for my bouquets. The stems are just long enough to be stuck in among the larger flowers, and the small spikes of tiny blue balls are a good contrast to the rounder shapes of the daffodils and tulips. They’re best grown in a spot where you can admire them up close, because the flowers are small because blue flowers are hard to see at a distance. They’re lovely in rock gardens. 

Most of the hybrids sold are derived from Muscari armeniacum, which has large flowers, and grows up to eight inches, or from M.Botryoides, which is a little taller and usually deep blue. There’s also a white variety called “Pearls of Spain”. M. Tubergenianum grows up to eight inches and is light blue at the top of the spike and darker blue at the bottom. These rugged little bulbs are hardy to Zones two to four depending on the variety those derived from M. botryoides are the hardiest. Foliage sometimes appears in fall and winter over. 

How to Grow Grape Hyacinth

Grape hyacinths like full sun or part shade and an average, well-drained soil. Well, plant three inches apart, and three inches deep, in later summer or as early in fall as possible. You can propagate the species from seed and hybrids from offsets (new bulbs that form next to the old ones). Usually they will multiply well by themselves, but if you let them self-sow they may not breed true to color. 

“Glory of the Snow”, A Bright Blue Star Shaped Flower

These delightful bulbs have little bright blue, star shaped flowers and grass like leaves. They start blooming shortly after crocuses, which is handy, because the two look good together. They’re a good bulb for cool climates and are hardy to Zone 3, but they don’t do well south of Zone 8. Naturalize them around a tree in a rock garden, along a woodland path, or wherever they will best be seen. Chionodoxa luciliae grows up to six inches tall and is typically blue with a white center, but “Alba” is white, “Rosea” is lavender pink and the larger flowered “Gigantea” can be blue, purple or pink. Sardensis is dark blue without the white eyes. 

"How to Grow Glory of Snow Flower"

Full sun is best, but glory of the snow will take part shade and in warm areas actually prefers filtered shade. Plant in early fall about two to three inches apart and three inches deep a bit deeper in warm climates. They like a soil that is rich, moist but well drained and lightened with organic matter.

Source: Charismatic Planet