Looking for easy pretty flowers for 1st time gardener

Shrubs you say. I put my money on 3-4 season shrubs, what is that you say, they are shrubs that have visual interest in 4 seasons. The fourth could be simply the bare branches are pretty such as the dogwoods. Some viberumns give a decent 3 season appeal, with scented flowers, and with the berries for the birds. Ahhhh you say, the birds did not think to incorporate plants/shrubs the birds would like. And the butterflies. Then I would get the best of both worlds, a pretty shrub that attracts birds and butterflies, how wonderful.
There are books out there of how to plant your garden for the birds and etc. worth the look.
My gardens are 25 years old, and I am still learning.

 

Do you have a £ shop nearby? They sell shrubs and, at first, they may look a bit ... incy! But, give them a year or two and they do flourish (but do be choosey about the specimen you buy: it needs to look healthy first and foremost!)

I arrived at my present location (almost 4 years ago) with a 1/4 acre to tend to and the plants I bought from the £ shop, in my second year, have really come into their own the past year! Worth a thought

Sunflowers will always get my vote! They do like a good drink while they are growing, but that is the case for most plants. I like to grow sweet peas up my sunflower stalks too (some people grow their beans up theirs). Sunflowers will also bring in natures 'nectar hunters' such as bees, butterflies and lacewings. Seed is usually easily obtainable (and, these days, often sold as "child friendly" meaning 'easy' .. so, go for it!).

If you go the "supermarket" route, by far the best quality in my opinion is Morrisons - I have had no failures from their plants/shrubs.

As an after thought:
What type of garden do you aspire to? Yes, I do appreciate you are a beginner and want to cut your teeth on something easy ... but, with "easy" comes a slight warning: sometimes, because the plant is "easy" to grow, it can mean that it can also spread like weeds! Likewise, when someone asks for a "fast growing" climber, they forget that because it does grow fast, that means extra maintenance to keep it manageable! Do you see what I mean?

If you have an overall "theme/idea" of what you would like to achieve in say, 1 year/2/5/10 be it cottage/exotic/contemporary ... or even just a good idea of the usage you will get from the garden (quiet relaxation time/entertaining/child friendly/privacy enhancing etc.)

Equally the type of soil you have will have a bearing on how successfully those 'easy' plants will flourish/fail/over run.

Annuals will give you quick results (the sunflowers, sweet peas, nasturtiums etc)
Shrubs may take a season or three to establish themselves (depending on the price/size you purchase).
Seeds for *this* year would need to be annual (biennial you would sow this year to get flowers next year) and perennials would grow this year, next year and ... looked after ... every year!

You have a great space there: have a good thunk on how you would most like to use it and then from that, give thought to your plants

 

Thanks so much does anyone know about persian shield i cannot find seeds for it anywhere

 

I want a nice family friendly nature friendly cottage look . As my house indoors is very cottagey . I love the contrasts of purple on whites and greens . Im from burnley lancashire so the soil is very clay like around these parts and watering is not an issue as it rains quite often

 

Time to call in Our Mandy, Aye!

@ARMANDII You hoooooo!!!!! Family/nature friendly cottage look required! Advise please

 

How about a some of the evergreen herbs? Many of which flower in shades of purple, pink or blue, or white, with of course green foliage (many shades of green). Oh, and there's purple sage, which has purple foliage. Herbs fit in well with the cottage garden theme and being herbs, they are 'family friendly' (some cottage garden plants most certainly are not family friendly - foxglove for example is a cottage garden favourite, despite being extremely toxic).

Apart from the foliage of herbs, some of the flowers are every bit as impressive as some ornamentals that people grow. For some reason my sage has refused to flower this year and last, but usually sage produces great spikes of purple/deep pink flowers that last right til the start of winter. In late spring/early summer, rosemary is decked out in blue, pink or white flowers (usually blue round here, don't know if soil type affects the colour like it does with some plants).

Herbs aside, for some low maintenance perennial blooms, I think it doesn't get any easier than leucanthemum, which just keeps coming back to produce giant daisy flowers.

There's loads of choices

 

Rosemary is (traditionally) bedecked with blue flowers - this tone of blue is attributed to the cloak of Jesus' mother Mary and is synonymous with Easter (That's my understanding, anyway )

 

But Mary being a woman will have had numerous different coats in many different styles and colours. Most of which will of course remained in the wardrobe, never worn. I think she only used her blue, pink and white cloaks.

 

http://www.cooltropicalplants.com/Persian-shield.html

Is this the plant you mean? I can't find any seeds for it on the internet but it would probably be too tricky and too late anyway to grow them from seed. Big suppliers like B&Q will probably have trays of them any time over the next month or two, so you may be able to find them at around £3 a tray. They look like a good choice because they are very striking and will fill out well to fill up the space.
They will be killed by frost so you would have to buy again next year.

 

Ninny! That was Joseph!!!!

 

You need a nice apple tree in the middle of that lawn and a path to and from it the blossom on my new apple tree is out now and it is so pretty!

 

Ooh and definitely trellis along that wall with a couple of nice clematis

 

You can't go wrong with Buddleias IMO...fast growing,not expensive and give a good cottagey feel,smothered in butterflys in the sumer too

 

Thankyou so much ive got a good amount of plants to go through there . Any advice on turning up soil or any great products i could use i also have the front of mt house to do which has a 10 inch wide bed for plants thats just been weeded and also a place for bedding ill post a photo soon thankyou again