Victorian Carpets

The polishd elegance of a Victorian carpet will give your landscape a finished, well-cared-for look. These classic flower-beds -- geometric forms with patterened plantings around a centerpiece -- make elegant front lawn focal points and can liven up dull corners. Victorian carpets are also the ideal way to show off a statue or fountain.

Planning and choosing plants

Because Victorian carpet is a patterned planting, planning on paper is definately recommended. Simply draw out a pattern you like on paper and plan for maximum color contrast. Try planting blue and yellow next to each other. Or lay out purple next to orange or red next to green. The brighter, the better. Consider the blooming season of each plant, as well -- you don’t want you yellow blooming long after you blue has faded. You may also want to choose plants to give you different seasonal patterns - a and b for spring color, x an y for summer, etc. Unless your bulbs are quite large, you can plant most annuals over them.

We've modified the concept in our plan: The crocuses will bloom first, followed by the hyacinths and daffodils together. As they're finishing, the tulips will start to peak. This way, the bed maintains some color throughout the spring. After the bulbs are finished, it's time to plant for summer-long show. You can plant most of the annuals right over the top of the bulbs. The one exception is the cannas. Canna rhizomes grow large over the course of the summer and can crowd tulip bulbs. So either plan to replant new tulips each fall. Or allow the tulip foliage to ripen, then dig the bulbs to store until fall, when you can replant them and dig and store the tender canna rhizomes. Sping: Plant Name No. to Buy A Tulip Tulipa 'Coleur Cardinal' 24 B Daffodil Narcissus 'Rip van Winkle' 40 C Crocus Crocus chrysanthus 'Elegance' 65 D Hyacinth Hyacinthus orientalis 'Bismarck' Summer: Plant Name No. to Buy A Canna Canna 'Florence Vaughn' 6 B Coleus Solenostemon scutellarioides 'The Line' 28 C Trailing lobelia Lobelia erinus 'Sapphire' 47 D Cockscomb Celosia argentea 'Olympia' 12 E Cockscomb Celosia argentea 'Fire Chief'

The centerpiece

Almost anything taller than your flowers and relatively narrow will work as a centerpeice. From purely decorative accessories like statues, gazing balls, or more functional Are you working on a bird or butterfly garden? Birdhouses, baths, and feeders all work as centerpieces, and the flowers in the Victorian carpet can provide additional food. If you decide on a functional centerpiece make sure you can still reach it without stepping on your flowers. Of course, you're never stuck with any one centerpiece. Why not change the centerpiece every year, taking a statue that's been hidden in a corner of the back garden and putting it in the spotlight in your front yard.

The border

While a border is optional, traditionally Victorians carpets were bordered by an edging plant. A good edging plant will be low-growing and compact. Lobelia, sweet alyssum, chartreuse coleus, golden feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum') would be a good alternative. The ideal border plant will have a long blooming season (unless you plant a mix of flowers in you border) its color will complement all the colors in the carpet. For easier maintenance, you can use a non-organic border like bricks (if your Victorian carpet is small, try burring them so that the narrow side shows) or decorative stone.

Planting

Once you've prepared the soil for you Victorian carpet, mark the lines of your design. String, rope, or a tape measure can be used to out-line the outer edge and flour (because it stays where you sprinkle it) to mark the plant color-lines. Draw out the lines for the whole bed before you set any flower containers on -- it will make the layout job a lot easier.

With Victorian carpets, the trick of leaving plants in their containers while you move them around until you get the plancement you want is espcially useful. When you've settled on a design, plant your flowers according the instructions. Depending on the size of the Victorian carpet you're working with, it may be best to start from the center and work outward -- rather than doing all of one type of plant at once -- to avoid trampling any plants.

Maintanence

These beds, like any other patterned planting, require regular trimming. Check every week for plants straggling outside their limits and clip them back into line. If you plan to incoperate plants with large bulbs that will have to be removed to make way for your annuals, or you simply prefer to store your bulbs indoor, this will also be extra maintenance.

Unique Victorian carpet ideas

Corner carpet
Looking for a solution to a dull-looking corner that's a pain to mow? Putting in a corner Victorian carpet can both brighten up the corner and save you a lot of effort -- utimately trimming the carpet plants will be easier than getting the area perfectly mown. Place a statue, windmill, or other centerpiece in the back of the corner and plan a fan-shaped carpet around that. Take care not to make the carpet so large that you can't reach the plants in the back, though.

Seating carpet
For a large carpet with pathway to seating (aromtic flowers), You can build the path from a single direction, have one or two bisecting paths. This will work best with smaller seating like a bench or small swing. With larger seating the carpet will be overwhelmed.

Herb carpet
Edible and decorative -- a combined Victorian carpet and herb garden. If you're creating your Vitorian carpet with herbs you can choose the herbs either for the flowers they bear or for their foliage alone.

Irregular carpet
Why be square? Or circular, for that matter? The modern Victorian carpet can be star-shaped, heart-shaped, butterfly-shaped, or an irregular wavy shape to suit the style of your landscape. Or what about two or more connected circles and a "center"-peice in each circle -- use one larger main centerpiece and two or more complementary ones. Just be sure to plan it out and set things in place in the garden before you plant or install anything in order to be sure effect of your centerpiece won't be lost.