Garden Design Ideas: Epcot Flower and Garden Festival
I presented at the "Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival" this year and brought back many beautiful garden design ideas to share with you!
Take a look.
Container Garden Ideas
A simple planter filled with a combination of magenta and purple colored pansies gains dimension by adding terracotta pots filled with annuals.
I see pink geraniums and nicotianas in pink and red cascading from the containers.
These containers are made in Siena, Italy from a distinct clay that imparts the orange color to the vessels.
I was captivated by the sea of pink geraniums dotted with white alyssum.
Fluted terracotta pots rise above the floral mass and contain the same combination.
Notice the added style when containers are incorporated into the planters.
One of the most practical secondary uses for cement blocks are as planters!
Cement blocks can be stacked to create vertical gardens that take up little floor space.
I would stack a few blocks and spread them out in different parts of the landscape to separate and mark different areas.
The blocks are filled with sedums, kalanchoe, agaves and echevarias.
This is more contemporary in style than the terracotta gardens which lean towards antique and rustic in feel.
Planting Schemes
This "bird garden" designed by nature experts at the National Audobon Society is full of jewel-toned annuals.
I've never been much of an "annual color" gardener but this display garden attracted so many birds and butterflies, that I was won over!
Birds houses, bird baths and nesting material provide an added attraction for our feathered and winged friends.
Plants include magenta dianthus, blue and purple pansies, white alyssum, sunflowers, nicotianas and more.
The goal is to reduce the size of the lawn but be aware that some of these annuals require regular watering until established.
Large-scaled planting like the flower tapestry at Epcot is commonplace at Walt Disney World and no one does it better!
Sections of the patterned garden beds are drawn on the ground with chalk or string and filled in with different annuals.
This particular garden is changed at least two times during the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival starting with cool-season plants transitioning to warm season annuals around April or May.
Red, glass poppies shimmer above the garden bed near the "Land of Oz" display at Epcot.
From a distance, I was curious as to what these large flowers were, not thinking that they were glass flower sculptures!
I was inspired to add glass sculpture to my garden, just have to find the right one now!
Lastly, a river of yellow pansies evokes a feeling of movement in an otherwise static garden.
Get away from planting your annuals in straight lines or uninspired blocks of color, if that is your custom.
I'm going to experiment with interesting patterns and start painting with plants!
Have you attended the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival before?
What inspired you most in the garden?
