How to Plant a Flagpole Garden

My family likes to joke that I use “The Force” in gardening. I like to consider it just plain old common sense. Lets take my flagpole garden. Common sense dictates that the tallest plants are those closest to the pole itself while the shorter plants are the ones that edge this particular garden area.

You don’t need a diagram or some fancy plan. If you use plants that thrive in your area and that you like, it’s a quick and easy garden to plant. It’s also a garden that once established is virtually carefree and will give you many years of pleasure.

The plant selection is always the hardest part for me. I love plants and if I could I would have 10 of every plant on earth growing in my garden! I can’t so I struggle to pick plants whenever a new plan forms in my mind.

I have a red, white and blue flag flying proudly atop my flagpole but this plan would work for the flag of any colors given a few changes. If you are at a loss for a plant of a particular color, feel free to comment and I’ll be glad to recommend a few for you.

I decided to go with a red, white and blue theme around my flagpole. The first question I had to ask myself was if I wanted the red on the inside or the outside. The next decision was to determine if I wanted a border around the Red, white and blue or if I wanted the blue to be the border. Once I decided on that, the rest was easy. Planting took less than an hour.

I prepared a circular bed 10 feet by 10 feet around the already placed pole. I added a layer of compost in early spring, about 6 weeks before I was going to plant. By the time I was ready to plant the compost had worked itself into the soil and it was a great place to plant.

I started with two climbing vines. I placed one on either side of the pole. I went with a “Red Cardinal” Clematis. This fast climbing vine is covered from flowers from late spring until the first hard freeze. In my area that means I have blooms from about late March until November. This variety of Clematis is not only very hardy it is also a true deep red. There are no orange overtones to it the way there are with many red vines, such as the trumpet vine.

My next planting was the white. Finding pure white flowers that will consistently bloom throughout the growing season is not as easy as it seems. I ended up choosing the reblooming iris. Interestingly enough, the variety that has the best pure white blooms is called “immortality”. Rather fitting for a flagpole garden. I planted a dozen of them all the way around the flagpole.

The blue was easy. In fact, it was why I went with a red center in the first place. I chose the Delphinium in “Butterfly Blue”. This is one of my favorite garden plants. The deep blue flowers begin in late spring and continue until the first freeze. At times you cannot see the leaves through the blue. I planted 20 of these in a big circle around the reblooming iris plants.

No, I’m not done yet. I decided to edge the entire flagpole garden with a ring of hosta. I needed 30 of them and couldn’t resist one I saw their name, “Revolution”!

It seems like a lot of plants to have gotten planted in so short of a time, but they were all either small bulbs or very small plants. They go in quickly and grow fast. After everything is planted water well but don’t saturate.

One of the best things about this garden is that is all dies back in the winter making garden cleanup a snap.

Happy Gardening!