Garden Plants and Flowers

Learn how to discover which plants underscore and help define a specific garden design style.

Asian Courtyard Garden

Asian Courtyard Garden With Potted Trees and Artwork

This lush courtyard garden includes potted Japanese dwarf maples and a weeping evergreen, among other gorgeous plants. Asian-style artwork featuring birds of prey is an unexpected outdoor accent.

Choose the right plants to pull off a perfect garden design. It sounds simple enough. But the reality is that matching garden plants with garden design styles requires a little homework—or at times even a lot. For experienced greenthumbs, selecting the right garden flowers for their growing region may be a cinch. But plugging the right plant into the right garden style can prove tricky.

An easy—and mostly goofproof—way to start the process is to focus on the design style name. In a Japanese garden, you can safely assume that garden plants like Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), Japanese water iris (Iris ensata) and Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica) belong.

But other garden plants, like dwarf mugo pine (Pinus mugo pumilio), hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) and flowering almond (Prunus glandulosa ‘Rosa Plena’) also complement Japanese garden style, introducing beautiful symbolism with roots in the Shinto religion. Sometimes to learn what kinds of plants suit a certain garden design, you can't beat old-fashioned research.

For a cottage garden, studying plant lists can help you perfect a proper plant mix, but simply reviewing photos of cottage gardens works, too. By examining photos, you can get a feel for the ways plants combine in this over-the-top garden. You’ll also spy certain blends of plants—classic roses, including Shrubs and Hybrid Teas, and familiar garden flowers like lavender (Lavandula spp.), shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum), forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) and peony (Paeonia spp.).

Airy plants play key roles in cottage garden designs, which is easily deduced from cottage garden photos. The see-through plant troupe includes tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis), baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata), Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and gaura (Gaura lindheimeri).

Many cottage garden flowers easily segue into English garden design, including daylily (Hemerocallis spp.), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Canterbury bells (Campanula medium) and larkspur (Consolida ambigua). Other great garden plants for English designs offer more formal growth patterns, such as boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’), privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) or wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys).

Vines also earn a spot in English garden designs, whether climbing roses or hummingbird-luring trumpet vine (Campsis radicans). To include annual flowering vines in your English garden, consider the more unusual cup-and-saucer vine (Cobaea scandens), black-eyed susan vine (Thunbergia alata) or moonflower (Ipomoea alba).

Visiting gardens that feature the design style you desire is another wonderful way to familiarize yourself with garden plants that suit the design. Many garden clubs sponsor tours of privately owned gardens, and that’s a great way to discover plant selections that perform well in your region.

Or you might plan a trip to public display gardens. If you visit in summer, you’ll probably encounter tropical flowering plants you might want to consider for your home garden. Many garden centers that offer landscape design showcase their wares in on-site display gardens. These gardens also provide a great place for inspiration. Take plenty of photos to record the plants and combinations you like best.

Next Up

Top Six Exterior Siding Options

Pull the look of your home together by choosing the right siding material.

How to Plant and Grow Marigold Flowers

Easy-to-grow marigolds add bright yellow, gold, orange and creamy-white color to gardens and containers from spring into fall.

How to Plan a Vegetable Garden

HGTV can make vegetable garden planning less intimidating with tips on garden design and suggestions on how to choose vegetables to grow.

Top 6 Roofing Materials

From wood shake to asphalt shingles, roofing material is an important consideration that contributes to the overall look and style of your home.

Planting and Growing Garden Phlox

Learn how to plant, grow and care for this perennial charmer in your garden.

Celebrate Birthdays with Birth Month Flowers

Like gemstones, birthday month flowers have different meanings. Which one is yours?

How to Grow and Care for Calibrachoas

Whether you call them million bells or baby petunias, easy-to-grow calibrachoas may be small, but they pack a big punch of color in the garden.

How to Grow and Care for Agapanthus

Learn how to successfully plant, tend and enjoy African lily from garden (or pot) to vase.

How to Plan and Design a Garden

Design a garden that will inspire you for years to come. Learn how to make a garden that works for you.

How to Plant and Grow Anemone Flower

Looking for brilliant blooms to take your garden from spring to summer to fall? Easy-to-grow anemones are the answer.

Go Shopping

Get product recommendations from HGTV editors, plus can’t-miss sales and deals.

On TV

Follow Us Everywhere

Join the party! Don't miss HGTV in your favorite social media feeds.