Steps of Assortment Creation of Ornamental Herbaceous Plants

There is designed variety of assortment layouts of herbaceous plants  in Lithuania. Usually it is the plant lists in tables. Plants by bioecological floral groups are sorted alphabetically  in these tables, also are described plant morphology, bioecological characteristics and application possibilities in variuos type parterres.

Flowerbed designers should recognize plants, know their scientific names and be able to choose appropriate plants.

In our new assortment herbaceous plants are divided into two groups:

Main assortment (ornamental herbaceous plants with extensive use of opportunities and often used in flowerbeds in Lithuania.

Supplementary assortment (ornamental herbaceous plants used rarely with unique characteristics or newly introduced.

The main point of ornamental herbaceous plant assortment is flowerbed.

Plant search for desired flowerbed is implemented according to the following scheme:

  1. PARTERRE;
  2. GROWING PLACE CHARACTERISTICS;
  3. BIOECOLOGICAL FLOWER GROUP;
  4. PLANT HEIGHT AND HABITUS;
  5. BLOOMING TIME AND DURATION;
  6. BLOSSOM (LEAF) COLOR;
  7. ORNAMENTALITY DURATION.

Each link in the scheme subdivided into several positions

FLOWERBEDS

REGULAR (GEOMETRIC PLANNING):

  1. BORDERS;
  2. CLUMP, BEDS (MIXBORDER)
  3. FLOWERBED, PARTERRES
  4. PODS

FREE PLANNING:

  1. GROUPS
  2. ROCKERY, RETAINING WALLS

SPECIAL PURPOSE (COMPOSITE STRUCTURES):

  1. CEMETERY
  2. VANDENS TELKINIŲ IR PAKRANČIŲ;
  3. WATER BODIES AND COASTAL
  4. COMBINATION WITH WOODY PLANTS
  5. SOLITAIRE

GROWING PLACE CHARACTERISTICS

The flowers can be grown in different places. Growing place characteristics should be evaluated choosing plants. The flowers can be grown:

  1. IN WATER
  2. WET SOILS
  3. AVERAGE WET SOILS
  4. DRY SOILS
  5. ACIDIC SOIL
  6. CALCAREOUS SOILS
  7. HELIOPHILOUS
  8. HALF HELIOPHOBIC
  9. HELIOPHOBIC
  10. SOILS WITH SPECIAL CONDITIONS

BIOECOLOGICAL FLOWER GROUPS:

  1. ANNUAL (typical annuals; non-typical annuals).
  2. BIENNIAL;
  3. PERENNIAL (Short-lived (3-4 years); Intermediate type (5-6 years); Long-lived (>7 years).
  4. NO HARDY PERENNIALS (outdoor plants (beds); houseplants are grown outdoors in summer);
  5. BULBOUS
  6. CORM
  7. ROSES.

PLANT HEIGHT AND HABITUS:

  1. VERY SHORT (foreground plants) – till 20 cm height
  2. SHORT – 21-40 cm
  3. MIDDLE HEIGHT – 41- 60 cm
  4. TALL  – 61-80 cm
  5. VERY TALL – 81 cm and over
  6. FLOWER WITH EXPRESSIVE HABITUS, FOR DESIGN AS ACCENT
  7. FLOWER WITH NON-EXPRESSIVE HABITUS, FOR BACKGROUND

BLOOMING TIME AND BLOOMING PERIOD:

Marking months and decade.To make it easier using these parameters, plant blooming period are classified into flowering seasons:

  1. EARLY SPRING – March – April First Decade
  2. SPRING – April Second Decade –  June First Decade
  3. 1-ST HALF OF THE SUMMER – June 2-nd decade- July 2-nd decade
  4. 2-ND HALF OF THE SUMMER  – July Third Decade – August
  5. AUTUMN – September – October

Even better to choose plants according to the blooming range, which can be seen not only in flowering time but also its duration. This is especially important for perennial flowers, because their blooming is distributed throughout the growing season.

PLANT COLOR:

Ornamental herbaceous plants have colorful leaves and blossom. Blossom and leaves can be:

  1. WHITE;
  2. YELLOW, YELLOW TINTS;
  3. ORANGE;
  4. RED, RED TINTS
  5. VIOLET;
  6. BLUE, BLUE TINTS;
  7. GREEN;
  8. PURPLE;
  9. VARIEGATED;
  10. STRIPED;
  11. GREY;
  12. BROWN.

Plants blooming in different colors, are assigned to the same color group.

GENERAL ORNAMENTALITY AND GENERAL ORNAMENTALITY:

Decorative duration is determined by the following criteria: shrub, leaves, flowers, fruit ornamentally and flower decorations duration. Marked if decorative at any of the above criteria.

  • Dt1 – ornamentality  duration, 1 month.
  • Dt2 –  ornamentality  duration, 2 months and etc.

In order to distinguish the criteria leading ornamentality it is written near ornamentality index;

  • DtK – ornamental shrub;
  • DtL – ornamental leaves;
  • DtZ – ornamental blossoms;
  • DtZt – blooming duration determines the ornamentality duration;
  • DtV – ornamental fruits.

General ornamentality evaluated in points.

  1. NON-DECORATIVE: D= L + Z + V + K + Zt <6
  2. LITTLE DECORATIVE: D= L + Z + V + K + Zt = 6-11
  3. AVERAGE DECORATIVE: D= L + Z + V + K + Zt = 12-17
  4. DECORATIVE: D= L + Z + V + K + Zt = 18-23
  5. VERY DECORATIVE: D= L + Z + V + K + Zt > 24

 

There are presented main assortment plants for each assortment layout position, firstly, hereinafter is presented the assortment of additional assortment plants.

There is presented list of assortment plants in “Assortment of Ornamental Herbaceous Plants” page.  Plants should be filtered using criterions in right side of webpage.

1) Select type of parterre;
2)  Select Main or Supplementary assortment;
3)  Select other criterions and push button “Filter”.
4) Push on plant name for additional information. 
5) Push in criterion list and select “Choose…” in order to remove criterion from filter or push button “Clear”.