Plants are perhaps the most prominent part of a landscape. But for your landscape design to be successful, it’s important to choose the right flowers, trees and shrubs.

Plants add color, texture and balance to your landscape. They also have practical functions, such as providing shade, screening, and food, as well as controlling erosion. By choosing landscaping plants that are appropriate for your site and climate, you’ll be one step closer to having a beautiful home landscape.

Planning a Landscape

Gardening involves more than just picking up a few attractive plants at a nursery and placing them in the ground. To create a visually striking and useful landscape, it’s important to begin with a plan that considers factors such as:

• Maintenance: How much time and money are you willing to devote to maintenance?
• Energy and water savings: Choosing plants that don’t require significant supplemental watering can help you save on water bills, while strategic placement of trees for shade or windbreaks can create energy savings.
• Purpose: Will your landscape need turf areas for children’s play? Do you plan to grow a vegetable garden?
• Seasonal variation: You will likely want to choose plants that provide visual interest throughout the year, not just for a few months or weeks at a time.

When choosing landscaping plants, you will also want to consider factors such as:

• Drought resistance
• Moisture tolerance
• Soil type needed
• Whether they need sun or shade.

It’s also helpful to know which planting zone you are in. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has divided the country into 11 different plant hardiness zones. Each zone is 10 degrees warmer or colder on average in the winter than the neighboring zones. However, the USDA zone map tends to be more accurate for the eastern half of the United States than the western half. If you are gardening in the western part of the country, you may need to do additional research to determine which plants will thrive in your particular area.

Choosing Garden Plants

After you’ve developed a landscape plan, you can choose specific plants for your site. By keeping the basic principles of design in mind, you can select plants that will work with your landscape. Design factors to consider when choosing plants include:

• Balance
• Color
• Form
• Texture.

You’ll also need to decide between annuals (plants that will need to be replaced every year) and perennials (plants that will survive for at least several years). In addition, you may want to consider how your plants will work in your landscape years from now. For example, how will a small tree look in your landscape once it reaches its full height? If you need assistance selecting specific plants, it’s always a good idea to speak with staff at a nursery or garden center, who can help you decide what plants will thrive in your landscape.