101. WHAT IS A BEDDING PLANT?

Annual flowers are often planted in specially prepared garden beds for a seasonal display. For this reason, they are called bedding plants. Home gardeners in the United States do not use the term bedding plant, but it is a handy way to describe the planting of fast-growing plants in flower beds to create colorful and temporary displays. Low-growing annual flowers, tender perennials, and succulents such as sedums can all be used for this purpose.

“Bedding” may be associated with elaborate public gardens, but the name can be applied to any decorative flower bed. This includes street planters, hotel lobbies, median strips, or even small front yards where a decorative punch is desired.

Bedding displays of annual plants are often changed two or three times a year. Professional gardeners may plant in late spring for summer shows, and then plant in early autumn for winter and/or spring displays. You can do this in your garden, too. First plant tulip bulbs in fall, then follow it up with pansies and sweet alyssum in early spring, and then plant late-blooming annuals or dahlias for late-summer interest—all in the same flower bed! I like planting angelonia, annual blue salvia, gomphrena, or zinnias for summer and/or fall color in a bed. It requires planning, but bedding-plant succession ensures a constant floral show outdoors.

Multicolored gomphrena are planted in beds in the traditional carpet bedding that was popular in Victorian times. This is at Mohonk Mountain House, a hotel in New Paltz, New York. Deer resistant.