Beginner Gardening: Beautiful Flowers and Plants , 5 by cathy166

cathy166 wrote:
Check out
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/72/
which has the flowers open

and
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/120819/
which shows the unopened buds and why it is called balloon flower.

Plant them once and after a year or two they will make a nice showing. Just make certain you plant at least 3 or 4 plants strategically, and they will fill in nicely. They grow to be about 30-40 inches.

The first photo is platycodon/balloon flower. I like blue the best, and they grow among the purple coneflowers. They are fullest in July and August. Most of mine were here when we moved in, but I think they spread slowly, and for me they are not invasive.

The second is a bit unusual, nasturtium. Unusual foliage but not rare in any way. Third is an ensata iris, a little different than what most people expect and make a beautiful show. I think they were out in early to mid- July and put on a magnificent show. Each stem had 3-5 buds that tend to bloom one at a time.

Fourth and fifth are peonies. Fourth is a tree peony. This one happens to be bicolor, but tree peonies are definitely unique. They tend to bloom early to mid-May.

The fifth is a single peony. You are probably more accustomed to seeing full, double peonies that have heavy blooms. There are a number of single-type/Japanese/bombe that are delicious. Their bloom time is generally late May to early June.

Except for nasturtiums, which are pretty much annuals, these plants are all perennials and come up every year and seldom need much care. You will find that perennials tend to bloom only once or possibly twice in a season.

The payoff on annuals is that they tend to bloom (or stay colorful) all season long once they become mature.

There are variants in there: bulbs that go dormant, etc., so I don't want you to think that is all there is.