Growing a Backyard Bouquet

Flowers add color, cheer, and a sweet aroma to your garden. Being able to have fresh-cut flowers straight from your own garden throughout the season takes planning, but it is worth the investment. Flower bouquets are the perfect gift for special occasions, to lift the spirits of someone who needs some cheer, or to provide natural color in your own home. 

Every Portland landscape has the potential to be a breathtaking scene of color and texture. Our climate allows for lush greens and bright colors to fill the yard all year long. We live in the GREAT Northwest! However for some, choosing which flowers to grow can be intimidating. We have so many great plants to choose from!

Below is a comprehensive list of trees, shrubs, and perennials that produce excellent flowers. It is possible to have fresh flowers in a Portland landscape all summer long when you incorporate some of the plants listed below.

If you have questions about where to get these flowers, call or visit us at our Portland garden center.

 

Cercis Redbud

Cercis Redbud trees yield absolutely beautiful flowers

 

Trees

  • Cercis – Redbud
  • Cornus – Dogwood
  • Crataegus – Hawthorn
  • Forsythia – Forsythia
  • Prunus – Flowering Cherry
  • Salix – Willow
  • Syringa – Lilac

 

 

Berberis Barberry

The Berberis Barberry produces this vibrant red color. Isn’t it beautiful? Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia

 

Shrubs

  • Berberis – Barberry
  • Buddleia – Butterfly Bush
  • Callicarpa – Beautyberry
  • Caryopteris – Bluebeard
  • Cornus sericea – Red osier Dogwood
  • Corylus – Walking Stick
  • Cotinus – Smokebush
  • Exochorda – Pearlbush
  • Hamamelis – Witch Hazel
  • Hydrangea – Hydrangea
  • Ilex – Winterberry
  • Salix – Willow
  • Sympor. – Snowberry
  • Syringa – Lilac
  • Rosa – Rose

 

Achillea Yarrow

Achillea Yarrow

 

 

Perennials

  • Achillea – Yarrow
  • Aconitum – Monks Hood
  • Agapanthus – Lily of the Valley
  • Agastache – Hyssop
  • Alcea – Hollyhock
  • Alchemilla – Lady’s Mantle
  • Alstromeria – Mugwort
  • Anemone – Anemone
  • Aquilegia – Columbine
  • Artemiesia – Mugwort
  • Aster – Aster
  • Astilbe – Astilbe
  • Astrantia – Masterwort
  • Baptisia – False Indigo
  • Boltonia – False Starwort
  • Catanache – Cupids Dart
  • Centaurea – Bachelors Button
  • Centranthus – Red Valerian
  • Chrysanthemums – Mums
  • Campanula – Cup and Saucer
  • Coreopsis – Tickseed
  • Crocosmia – Crocosmia
  • Delphinium – Larkspur
  • Dianthus – Pinks
  • Dicentra – Bleeding Heart
  • Digitalis – Foxglove
  • Doronicum – Leopards Bane
  • Echinacea – Cone Flower
  • Echinops – Globe Thistle
  • Engeron – Flea Bane
  • Eryngium – Sea Holly
  • Eupatoium – Mist Flower
  • Euphorbia – Spurge
  • Gaillardia – Blanket Flower
  • Gaura – Windflower
  • Geum – Lady Stratheden
  • Gypsophilia – Baby’s Breath
  • Helenium – Helen’s Flower
  • Helianthus – Sun Flower
  • Heliopsis – Ox-eyed Daisy
  • Helleborus – Lenten Rose
helleborus-lenten-rose

These beauties flower early in the Spring, and their nodding blooms are sublimely beautiful. A few of our favorite varieties for Portland landscaping are Ivory Prince, Pink Frost, Double Queen & Royal Heritage.

  • Heuchera – Coral Bells
  • Hosta – Hosta
  • Iris – Iris
  • Jean May Camellia
Jean May Camellia

This Camellia has soft pink flowers and deep green glossy leaves. It is a brilliant flowering shrub that can be used as a backdrop in landscaping or as a hedge/screen

 

  • Knautia – Knautia
  • Lavendula – Lavender
  • Leucanthemum – Shasta Daisy

 

Shasta_daisies

This is a classic shasta daisy that doesn’t need staking and is generally trouble free. It offers a lovely pop of white and is such a happy flower!

  • Liatris – Gayfeather
  • Lilium – Lily
  • Limonium – Statice
  • Lupinus – Lupine
  • Malva – Mallow
  • Monarda – Bee Balm
  • Kalmia latifolia – Mountain Laurel

 

Kalmia_Latifolia

With its glossy leaves and cheery flower clusters, Little Linda is a great addition to any landscape! It is a dwarf plant reaching its maximum size at just 3’ x 3’ making it easy to use in smaller residential lots.

 

  • Nepeta – Catmint
  • Papaver – Poppy
  • Penstemon – Beards Tongue
  • Peony – Peony
  • Perovskia – Russian Sage
  • Platycodon – Balloon Flower
  • Phlox – Phlox
  • Physostegia – Dragons Head
  • Rudbeckia – Black Eyed Susan
  • Ruta – Rue
  • Salvia – Flowering Sage
  • Scabiosa – Pincushion Flower
  • Solidago – Golden Rod
  • Stokesia – Stokes Aster
  • Thalictrum – Meadow Rue
  • Trollius – Globe Flower
  • Veronica – Veronica
  • Zanteaeschia – Calla Lily

A lifelong Oregon resident, Drake has been passionate about plants since childhood, beginning with propagating and growing flowers at his grandfather’s nursery. He opened Drake’s 7 Dees in 1974, while earning degrees in Business and Horticulture from Oregon State University. He later expanded into the design/build side of the industry, allowing him to combine his passion for plants with his love of family by maximizing the quality of family time spent outdoors.

Drake is co-founder of the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association and is a Landscape Industry Certified Manager (LICM)—a designation that less than two percent of landscapers have attained. Additionally, Drake serves on the Board of Directors for the Portland Japanese Gardens, widely regarded as one of the seven best Japanese gardens outside of Japan.

Drake is married to former Oregon Speaker of the House, Lynn Snodgrass. Together, he and Lynn received the Farm Bureau President’s award in 1999 for their service and dedication to agriculture in the state of Oregon. Drake and Lynn have two wonderful daughters, two talented son-in-laws, and seven grandchildren. In his spare time, Drake enjoys camping, water and snow skiing, reading, and of course, gardening.

Born and raised in the Portland Metro Area… Tim has had an appreciation for the outdoors from a young age.  Inspired by our local beauty ranging: the Mt Hood National Forest to salty, sea spray of Cannon Beach, the arid high-desert of Central Oregon to the rugged terrain of Steens Mountain – Tim sought higher education at the University of Idaho in their Landscape Architecture department.  Graduating with honors in 2004, he returned home to establish his professional career.

Now making his home in Sandy, Oregon – Tim and his wife [Nicole] are raising two happy and healthy kiddos and 4 fur-babies.  Between soccer, football, cheerleading, girl scouts and other extra-curricular activities… the Sellin family are heavily involved in their community and church family.  Since college, Tim has spent 13 of his 17 years with Drake’s 7 Dees and has ‘set roots’ in anticipation of long-term growth at the family-focused company.  Having spent his time away from Drake’s in a ‘boots on the ground’ capacity, Tim has fostered a love for the operational/production side of landscape business, as well as the design/sales.

His goal in life as well as business is to put others first.

Bachelor of Science Landscape Architecture, BSLA… 2009
California Polytechnic University, Pomona… Cum Laude
American Society of Landscape Architects – Honor Award

Steven has 15 years of experience in the residential landscape design/build and garden center industry, including 9 years with Drake’s 7 Dees. Steven also has experience working with the National Park Service in Yosemite on sub-alpine restoration projects, as well as volunteer experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer serving the community of Zaouiat d’Ifrane in Morocco.

Together, Steven and his wife Anna have four lovely children, all 5 years old and under! In his (very limited) spare time, Steven enjoys camping, hiking, archery hunting, and cooking. Steven’s passion for his work lies in helping others, through design to envision a more beautiful space that, once built, becomes a reality that improves their quality of life.