If you want a nice bright bloom this spring, calendula might be a good one. You can count on them going from germination to bloom in 12 weeks. In your zone you could sow them now. They'd germinate and have no trouble handling any frosts that pop up. They'd also fizzle out when you summer heat hits. Still possible worth it because the spring flowering will be so abundant and bright.

In a large bed like that, close to the house, and with your zone I'd probably just load the bed up with four o'clocks and then also start a nursery section of hardy hibiscus. The 4s would give you huge mounds of greenery and flowers this summer and the most incredible night scent. There tubers would also overwinter in your zone so the plants would get bigger each year.

Since they only open at night I'd grow a bunch of hardy hibiscus too so that I had giant daytime flowers in the mix. Balsam impatiens (an annual) would also be a good choice for tons of blooms.

All of those plants are frost tender so with your zone I'd also want to add in some long blooming plants that laugh at frost. With something like helenium, malva zebrina or strawflowers in parts of that garden you could extend your bloom season all the way into December in milder years.

One other thing I'd do with the sort of layout you have is to mix some edibles in with my flowers. Bright sweet peppers would look great and be nice and handy for harvest. If you grow herbs for cooking it's nice to have them close to the house so you can harvest them as you do a quick garden stroll before dinner.

Blackberry or black raspberry bushes would be worth considering. They'd give you flowers, berries, and you can trim out older canes and root them up to make more berry stands around your land.

But if I did nothing else at all I'd load that area full of 4 o'clocks as soon as this year's risk of frost has passed. You can't beat the smell of 4's on a warm summer evening. Just amazing! I can't have too many of them - too bad my zone turns them into annuals.

Lynda

Lynda, I can beat the fragrance of 4:00 on a warm summer evening- nicotiana!
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When you say your calendula fizzle out in summer- do you mean they die or do they just pout and start reblooming in cooler fall weather? I've never grown them for that reason- figured they couldn't handle our hot humid summers.

Karen

Karen - the calendula fizzle is sort of a mixture of both. Depending on where they are in the garden they might die in the summer heat or just get ratty. Cutting them back hard as the summer heat comes in helps.

They also re-seed so freely and bloom so young that you can grow an early spring crop and those plants will self sow fresh plants for fall. Bloom will continue on after the first few frosts. And depending on what your growing conditions are and where you site them in your garden you might get summer blooming too. Floodthelast's calendulas never fizzle and she's not that much further north than us.

They are worth growing, especially for the intensity and amount of bloom in the spring. It's a nice sunny bright color when the rest of the garden is heavy on blues and pinks.

I still think the scent from my 4s beat your nicotiana. :) (Though that certainly is a mighty nice nicotiana you have there. It does not seem to be intimidated at all by all of your repeated threats to dig his roots out!)

Lynda

Calendula is a cool weather annual. I doesn't like a lot of heat. You can try planting it in mid/afternoon shade though.

I agree with nicotiana. Maybe some datura. The flowers are huge and it would be a nice thing to come home to in the evenings. I'd also look at hibiscus, orange cosmos, and some shasta daisies. Plant some large annuals like castor bean until the trees mature a bit more.

Masses of calendula for spring - maybe blue batchelor's buttons or blue Larkspur and something white for contrast? Four'o'clocks, Balsam impatiens and nicotiana for an abundance of fragrant flowers in summer, along with edibles and herbs. Hardy hibiscus. Helenium, malva zebrina, and/or strawflowers for late summer and fall.

I'm in awe. What great ideas (and I didn't think of ONE).

Questions: Why four 'o clocks? I don't know much about them. I have a few seeds from trades - broken colors, butter yellow, pink. Should I look for particular color(s).

Any recommendations about yellow flowering calendulas?

I did think about how to connect the long BES/rud driveway bed to the front bed so there is a continuous bed, with breaks to get between and through them. I thought about Lynda and how she designed her front and side yard beds - creating many beds with plenty of space between them.

But when I thought about what to plant, I went blank, then thought --poppies! THE END.

Hi Token: The front bed meanders along the front of the house and includes a mostly shady area. I've heard that calendulas don't do well here, except in cool weather. They may be fine until summer arrives, or they may do okay in the shady area. We won't know until we try.

I WS datura seeds but thought it was fragile. Would datura need protection from wind? Staking?
Can hibiscus stand alone or does it need to be staked?

How about cannas? (I have 100 canna seeds) When we lived at the cottage, I grew lots of cannas, but in an area protected from the wind. I've never grown them in a windy place.

I WS shasta daisies and had sprouts in 10 days.

I have a few red ÂCarmencita castor bean seeds. Directions say to DS outdoors after the last frost or WS 4 weeks before frost. Since I hadn't decided where to plant them, I was waiting until inspiration struck.

I vote for nicotiana too. I just love the flowers! I have some I need to sow.

Will gailardia work there? It just grew for me like crazy last summer and I WS'ed it.

Karen

Karen: I didn't think of gaillardia - thank you! I understand that is thrives in sun, doesn't fizzle in the heat. I have seeds for a golden variety. I'll check it out. Isn't that one of your favorites?

Pam

Hi I am in zone 5 and I have a place for my canna that is near the street and it has no side cover what so ever and it gets the full wind effect and there has been trouble with the cannas and the wind. So Cannas would be a good bet. But here I have to dig up them up in the fall. Not sure about your zone.

Also you might want to thing about coneflowers. When started by seed the coneflowers will take at least a year to bloom. But it would be worth it.

Paula

Yes Pam Gailardia is one of my favorites!!! Last summer once it started blooming it kept going (even after it started to get cold)

I have some extra seeds if you need some.

Most are the red/yellow color left though.

Karen

Hi Karen: I checked my seed stock, only had a few seeds of yellow so ordered Gaillardia 'Yellow Queen' and Salvia patens 'Patio Deep Blue' and 'Patio Sky Blue' from Hazzards. I've never planted these salvias but 'Sky Blue' is a Fleuroselect winner. Hibiscus seeds are soaking. Nicotiana is ready to sow. If all goes well, this should be a very cool bed. Thanks for the advice!

There's no need to soak hibiscus seeds. They'll germinate just fine. Some of mine already have. And yes, they survived the teens last week and the snow.

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Pam, the yellow and orange form of gaillardia grows wild on the sand dunes on the Outer Banks. I'm most certain that they would thrive at your place.

Luke

I can't wait to see pics Pam! I have the red/yellow Gaillardia left. I sowed an variety this winter I got from T&M called sundance I think. It was a brown/orange color. I hope they grow cause they are easy plants to harvest seeds from.

Love the house by the way