5 Beautiful Flowering Plants

Flowers add so much to a home. Over the last 7 years we’ve cultivated a few gardens in our yard and I’m excited to share 5 beautiful flowering plants.

The warmer days and nights mean our garden is bursting with beautiful blooms and lovely fragrances. I’m so delighted to share 5 (of my favorite) beautiful flowering plants with you.

When we first moved into our home 7 years ago, the yard was a blank slate. There were a few hydgrangeas bushes and a rose bush but other than that there was just lots of grass. Since then we added a she shed turned pool house, a pool and created raised beds and are working on a cut flower garden behind the pool house.

Before I go any further, I’m NOT a gardener. I simply LOVE flowers and have learned what works by trial and error. Saying that, I’ve gotten a lot better with gardening over the last 7 years. I thought I’d share what works for us in our New England garden.

Let’s start in our front yard. We created this paver walkway and made a little garden to enter our backyard and pool. I wanted it to feel like a secret garden 😊 even thought it’s in our front yard. I’ve loaded this area with peonies, false indigo, lilies, and flanked the entry with vanilla strawberry hydrangeas. We used crushed shells instead of mulch which our plants seem to LOVE!

5 Beautiful Flowering Plants

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.”

– Buddha

Peonies

My peony bushes are about to pop! The one pictured here just opened this week. It’s a sorbet peony.

• When to Plant – Fall
• When they bloom – spring into summer depending on your location
• Ants are important – you may see ants walking across your peony bloom these are important they rid peonies of pests and also help the blooms open.
• Lovely cut flowers – peonies make lovely cut flowers. They have a gorgeous fragrance. They can last up to a week in water in your home.
• They need support – the peony flowers can become very heavy so it’s important to support the stalks. I have rings around all our peonies.
• Other facts – peony petals are edible. You can use them on salads or garnish on ice tea. They are said to symbolize a happy life and a happy marriage.

You can grow peonies from root but I haven’t had luck doing this. All our peonies were small plants. Some were transplanted from our backyard – they were originally in the shade and didn’t get enough light. Now they’re thriving. We also have the Karl Rosenfield Double Peony in the front yard. They have deep fuchsia petals.

In the back yard we have Coral Charm peonies which are brand new this year. My mom gave them to me Mother’s Day weekend. We planted them shortly after and they seem to be doing very well.

They start out a gorgeous pink / peach and then fade to the most glorious pale blush.

Here you can see the support and the faded hue:

You can see how the peonies in the front yard are more established. The peony bushes will retain the dark green leaves all summer and then they completely die back in winter to regrow in the spring.

Clematis

Inside our pool gate we have two types of clematis growing on our trellis. The purple clematis currently flowering is multi blue. It flowers all summer. Growing up higher is sweet autumn clematis which flowers in September and looks like snow! Sweet autumn clematis smells heavenly. You can read more about that here.

• When to Plant – Fall
• When they bloom – spring into summer depending on your location
• Cool roots – it’s important to keep the roots cool, but the stems in full sun.
• They need support – they need a trellis or something to grow up. The variety mentioned above grows off old growth.
• Other facts – The word clematis comes form the Greek word for climbing vine. Clematis belong to the buttercup family.

False Indigo

We have two False Indigo plants – one in our front garden and one in the back. This is the one in the front and it’s smaller and less established.

The one in our backyard is huge and thrives every year. To give you an idea of the resiliency I’ll tell you a little story – It was gift from our old neighbor when we first moved into our home 7 years ago. I’d always loved it in her yard. When we put the pool in very heavy diggers and equipment drove over the plant when it was dormant, I was so worried it would have damaged the plant. This little plant used all its might to push through the hard-packed dirt. That year there weren’t very many flowers but the plant survived and thrives once again.

• When to Plant – Fall
• When they bloom – spring into summer depending on your location
• Native to – Prairies of southern North America
• Easy to care for – this plant is resilient and easy to care for.
• Other facts – One of the oldest perennials known. A native plant of North America that the Europeans used to pay the Americans to grow this plant for the dye hence the name false indigo. It attracts butterflies and is attractive in cut flower arrangements.

Knock Out Roses

We have two of these beautiful bushes growing in our pool area. We have the Double Pink Knock Out Rose. They were a gift from my parents when we first moved in. They’ve really grown quite big in 7 years!

What I love is that they are so easy to care for and they bloom ALL summer! I just deadhead them.

• When to Plant – Late winter to spring
• When they bloom – spring and summer. They bloom all summer.
• Easy to care for – this plant is resilient and easy to care for. I just deadhead the roses. They like full sun.
• Other facts – Knock Out got their name by being resilient to pests, like black spot mildew. The name was patented. It has superior drought tolerance once established.

Reblooming Lilac

I bought these lilacs at WholeFoods about 5 years ago for our anniversary. At the time I didn’t know they rebloomed. How delighted I was when I found them blooming during the summer.

• When to Plant – Any time except winter.
• When they bloom – Bloom in spring along with traditional lilacs but rebloom all summer.
• Easy to care for – this plant is resilient and easy to care for. Blooms grow on new and old growth.
• Other facts – this plant is deer resistant and attracts butterflies. The flowers are smaller and more delicate than traditional lilacs and has a lovely fragrance. It is beautiful in cut flower arrangements.

I clipped some and made used them in my fragrant lilac mantel which you can see here.

Well, I hope this gave you some ideas for beautiful flowering plants for your yards! I thought it would be perfect to share as part of my friend Jennifer’s cozy living series. Here you can see more of our garden below. If you enjoyed this post you might also like this one on making elderflower cordial.

Be sure to visit all my friends below for more cozy living ideas:

Creative Cain Cabin / Making It in the Mountains / Town and Country Living

Duke Manor Farm / Finding Silver Pennies