In the southern United States gardeners have the advantage of a longer growing season. Fall brings the opportunity to showcase the colorful flowers, fruits, pods, and foliage of cool season annuals, herbs, native wildflowers, shrubs, and grasses.
Public botanic gardens, trial gardens, and children’s gardens present a panorama of possibilities for homeowners to imitate or innovate in their landscape.
Alphabet Garden Layout and Design
One layout for arranging and featuring seasonal plants in a garden is the ABC or alphabet garden. A basic alphabet garden consists of 26 plants, one for each letter of the English alphabet. Modifications would have to be made depending on the native language of the majority of viewers.
Since Latin is the universal language of scientific nomenclature, the scientific name of plants would be the same no matter what the native language of viewers. Plants are usually labeled with common name and scientific name.
One design option commonly used for alphabet gardens is to site plants along a narrow property line, fence or garden wall displaying an alphabetical inventory or index of garden plants. Where space is limited two-sided zigzagging picket or split rail fencing accommodates the collection.
A second design option is to feature plants from A to Z in large rectangular or square raised beds.
Floral Fluency Through Signage
Floral fluency is enhanced through signage. Plant names engraved or painted on stone, woodburned or painted on wooden signs, or printed on metal markers with permanent pen helps the observer remember the plant and its name. Signage signals memory too.
Alphabet Gardens for Children
Children’s gardens across the US have incorporated alphabet theme gardens since the early 1990s. In the Alphabet Garden at the Carolina Children’s Garden in Columbia, South Carolina children chant the alphabet and the common names of flowers along a white picket fence.
ABC gardens are often paired with children’s alphabet books to stimulate interest in plants. Some of these books are:
- ABC Book of Flowers for Young Gardeners by JoAnn Stoker
- A Flower Fairy Alphabet by Cecily Mary Barker
- A Gardener’s Alphabet by Mary Azarian
- Allison’s Zinnias by Anita Lobel
- Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
- The Flower Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
Plant List for Fall Alphabet Garden
The following plants have cool season features especially suited to fall alphabet gardens. Common names are underlined; scientific names are italicized.
- Aster spp. starwort – daisy-like blooms bring glorious color
- Autumn Joy Sedum Sedum telphium ‘Autumn Joy’- pink flowered succulent
- Bachelor’s button Centaurea cyanus - thistle-shaped flowers make boutonnieres
- Beautyberry Callicarpa Americana – native shrub with clusters of purple berries
- Blue mist shrub Caryopteris x clarodensis – dazzling blue mist-like flowers
- Calendula officinalis pot marigold – the pot marigold is a halo of golden yellow
- Chrysanthemum morifolium mum – harbinger of fall
- Confederate rose Hibiscus mutabilis – giant rose mallow with huge pink fall blooms
- Dianthus plumaris pinks – small-fringed flowers resembling carnation
- Dusty Miller Senecio cineraria – silvery grey foliage is contrast for designers
- English daisy Bellis perennis – cold tolerant plants to 8°F
- Euphorbia x martinii ‘Tiny Tim’ spurge – compact spurge with chartreuse flower
- Fountain grass Pennsetum setasium – rose red flowers spikes and maroon blades
- Forget-me-not Myosotis sylvatica – shade loving true blue flowers for remembrance
- Goldenrod Solidago spp. – spectacular plumes of gold
- Gourds Lagenaria spp. – decorative fruit on the vine or off
- Helianthus augustifolius swamp sunflower – late blooming sunflower
- Iberis sempervirens perennial candytuft – glistening evergreen foliage
- Johnny jump-up Viola tricolor – cheerful smiling flower pops up easily from seed
- Kale Brassica oleracea – adds unique texture and color to fall garden
- Lobelia Lobelia erinus – vivid true blue gemlike blooms tolerate shade
- Love-in-a-mist Nigella damascena – called fennel flower for whorls of misty bracts
- Mexican tarragon Tagetes lucida – anise-scented leaves and golden nugget flowers
- Million bells Calibrachoa x hybrida– profuse flowering compact trailing plant
- Muhley grass Muhlenbergia capillaris – showy purple haze flower head
- Nasturtium Tropaeolem majus – old-fashioned long-lasting edible flower and leaves
- Nierembergia scoparia cupflower – feathery leaved mat-forming plant
- Osteospermum spp. African daisy - long-blooming 2” daisy-like flowers
- Pansy Viola x wittrockiana – familiar ‘face’ in window boxes and containers
- Pumpkin Cucurbita maxima – vine everyone loves in a garden
- Quaking grass Brizia media – flowers and seedheads quiver in the wind
- Radicchio Chicorium intybus – Italian red leaf chicory with tangy flavor
- Rosemary Rosemarinus officinalis – evergreen perennial herb with blue flowers
- Snapdragon Antirrhinum majus – flower towers of long-lasting cut flowers
- Stock Matthiola incana – spikes of spicy-sweet fragrant flowers
- Sweet alyssum Lobularia maritima – tiny mounds of sweetly scented flowers
- Tagetes spp. Marigolds - when everything else fails, try sunny marigolds
- Thyme Thymus vulgaris – an attractive aromatic culinary herb
- Ugni molinae Chilean guava – evergreen shrub with strawberry-scented red berries
- Verbena bonariensis tall verbena – 3’-6’ branching stems with bright purple flower
- Vinca minor periwinkle – perennial evergreen ground cover
- Wild ageratum Conoclinium coelestinum – fuzzy blue flowers on tall stems
- Wire vine Muehlenbeckia axillaris – creeping glossy evergreen ground cover
- Xeranthemum annuum immortelle – one of the oldest of cultivated everlastings
- Yarrow Yarrow millifolium – flat clusters of flowers and ferny green leaves
- Zebrina mallow Malva sylvestris – self-seeding French hollyhock heirloom
The alphabet garden is one way of organizing and featuring plants in the garden by season for young and old alike.
Sources
- Armitage, Allan M. Armitage’s Manual of Annuals, Biennials, and Half-hardy Perennials. Portland: Timber Press, 2001.
- Damrosch, Barbara. The Garden Primer. New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
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