How to put your design to bed
By Gabrielle Stannus
Bedding out is temporary and labour intensive. So why should we do it? What are the pros and cons of this type of design and the plants used to fulfill its intent? Jeremy Critchley from The Green Gallery took time out of his busy schedule overseeing the construction of a new, large, high-tech wholesale production nursery at Mangrove Mountain north of Sydney to answer my questions.
What is a bedding plant?
Bedding plants are typically grown and used for seasonal decorative displays in garden beds, borders, containers, or hanging baskets. These plants are typically short-lived (annuals, hardy biennials, or tender perennials grown as annuals), mass-planted for colour and visual impact, and replaced each season to maintain continuous blooms. Bedding plants are fast-growing, produce bright, showy flowers or attractive foliage, and thrive in specific seasons, e.g., summer or winter bedding plants. Bedding plants can be grown from seed, bought as young seedlings (plug plants), or purchased as pot grown specimens. Mostly, they are sold as seedlings or small potted plants for easy transplanting.
Using bedding plants in the landscape or garden
Bedding plants provide lasting colour throughout the growing season, most typically through floral display, although foliage plants can also be used for a similar effect. The Floral Clock in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens is a well-known example of what is called carpet bedding. Most bedding is done in traditional garden beds, i.e., in the ground. However, sometimes a similar impact can be achieved without ‘soil’.
Jeremy has worked with Botanical Traditions over the last few years to bring a touch of seasonally appropriate colour to the streets of the City of Sydney: “Sometimes our clients do want to make an impact for a short period of time. In spaces light on soil, temporary installations featuring bedding plants provide instant greenery and colour to an otherwise concrete jungle. We install 1m x 1m crates, each one containing 25 x 25cm pots, into these public spaces. These plants are kept in pots mainly for vandalism. If people sit on them or take them, they can be more easily replaced than they could be if planted in the landscape.
When selecting bedding plants regardless of the growing situation, all the usual ‘rules’ of landscape and garden design apply1. Firstly, make sure you know your site conditions including its climate, soil type and pH. In Jeremy’s words: “You just do not want to put plants in spots that they are not meant to be in. There is no point putting petunias in the shade just because you want some flowers, because you are just going to fail. Also, the designer must choose what is more important, the longevity of the flowering or the amount of flowering at once for a given time. Then start selecting plants that will cope with this environment, and that will provide the desired colour effect.”
My advice (Gabrielle): Avoid too many different varieties of plants unless you really want to make a statement à la Dubai Miracle Garden, where the use of bedding plants is taken to a whole new level! Allow the beds to breathe a little by planning for the mature sizes of the plants, thereby preventing crowding. Select for a continuous sequence of flowering times throughout the growing season in focus at that time.
Types of bedding plants
Traditional summer bedding plants include New Guinea impatiens, begonias, petunias, marigolds, lobelias and zinnia. Winter bedding plants include pansies, violas, primulas and polyanthus.
New disease resistant and weather tolerant varieties of these bedding plants are continuously making their way onto the market, including the so-called “bounce back” petunias, e.g., Durabloom ® from Dummen Orange, that are quick to recover from rain and wind events. “Thanks to climate change, the world is experiencing more extreme weather events so we need plants that can tolerate harsher environments, be that heat, cold or drought tolerance,” says Jeremy, “Petchoas have the floriferousness of a petunia, with the weather tolerance of a calibrachoa. Notable cultivars include SuperCal.”
“Self-cleaning flowers are another huge breakthrough in bedding plants that breeders are focusing energy on. Traditionally you would have to go and deadhead plants to focus their energy on producing more flowers. However, people just do not do that consistently in the landscape.”
New impatiens hybrids are being developed to thrive in both sunny and shady situations. Impatiens ‘SunPatiens’® is a cross between traditional New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri) and wild impatiens. Developed by Japanese breeders Sakata, this plant can be grown as an annual in cooler climates, making it suitable in a bedding plant scheme2.
Bedding plants for shadier situations typically include begonias, especially Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum hybrids, and New Guinea impatiens, with other plants like Streptocarpus spp. (Cape Primroses), Crossandras and Lady’s Slipper (Impatiens balsamina) sometimes getting a nod. Jeremy says breeding in this space is just getting better, with New Guinea impatiens cultivars, featuring larger plants, larger flowers and better performance in part shade areas than the popular standard impatiens (Impatiens walleriana).
Ornamental and edible
Bedding plants can also include foliage plants, both ornamental and edible.
Coleus and Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) are notably strictly ornamental examples in this space, as are Heucheras, all of which can work well in informal, mixed bedding schemes where foliage colour and texture play a key role. Attractive herbs and vegetables can also be incorporated into bedding schemes. Look for interesting growth forms or coloured foliage. Jeremy says that growers are now breeding highly ornamental varieties of chilli that are edible. New ornamental sweet potatoes with improved edibility are also on the market, such as Ipomoea batatas ‘Treasure Island Manihi’. Specialist growers and nurseries have many heirloom varieties that could perform well as a bedding plant. Some of the foliage plants will provide winter appeal, e.g. kale and cabbage cultivars. There are also many heirloom varieties of lettuce and amaranth with huge ornamental appeal.
Another plant that Jeremy suggests for its edible and ornamental attributes is red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus). Its ruby-patterned leaves provide an eye-catching addition to a herb garden, vegetable plot or ornamental display. Baby leaves add a splash of colour and a tart kick to salads. It forms a low, ground-hugging, spreading clump, and is often used as an edging plant. Sorrel is a member of the Amaranthaceae. The amaranth family includes both annual and perennial, herbaceous or woody plants, with inflorescences in terminal or axillary panicles or spikes. I recently saw a picture of another amaranth, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) growing in a plantation near Lake Titicaca in Boliva and was amazed by its ornamental appeal. This summer/autumn flowering annual may be a little too tall to be used as a traditional bedding plant; it grows between 1.5 to 2.5 metres. However, there are many other (inedible) amaranths such as Cockscomb (Celosia plumosa) that are much shorter and provide a similar effect closer to the ground. Then again, maybe I am just throwing a challenge out there to some grower!
Another amaranth with aesthetic but not edible appeal is the native spring/summer flowering Ptilotus exaltus ‘Joey’. Whilst best suited to xeriscapes, native garden borders, and container displays, rather than a traditional high-density bedding scheme, Ptilotus ‘Joey’ can work as a bedding plant in warm, well-drained locations where it gets plenty of sun. Other native cultivars more commonly used as bedding plants include bracteantha and scaevola varieties, many of which many have been bred overseas in high nutrient regimes. Most Australian native plants have evolved in low-nutrient conditions. However, they do not necessarily receive the same treatment during the breeding and propagating processes, receiving more food and water than their ‘compatriots’ in situ in their native landscape. “These new varieties are used to having wet feet and fertiliser, so you can put these scaevolas and brachyscomes with petunias because they have all essentially come out of the same ‘breeding facility’,” says Jeremy, “So long as you match up their flowering times. You cannot really have a spring flowering native in an autumn bedding plant bed.”
Environmental concerns
The development of native plants in this way does pose a tricky environmental question or two. “Breeding houses in Europe and the Americas commonly use peat as a material in potting culture,” says Jeremy, “They are selecting for bigger and better flowers, yet they are also non-selectively selecting for plants that grow better in peat, which is not very sustainable really.”
Continued formation of peat, mostly sourced in the northern hemisphere, is threatened by climate change, as well as extensive mining, since drying out of the top layer kills the sphagnum moss layer above the decomposing material3. In Europe, peat layers grow only 1-2mm per year, meaning it takes thousands of years for peatlands to develop4. Because it takes such a long time for peat to form, mining it means depleting an almost non-renewable resource. Peat’s extraction also generates greenhouse gas emissions. Change is afoot in this area, with the European Union to include peat extraction in greenhouse mitigation targets as part of the category “wetlands” from 2026 onwards5. National political strategies to reduce and phase out peat use in horticulture have been engaged in some European countries, including Germany.
Some bedding plants have become weedy in certain environments. Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales, where it threatens the integrity of some stands of endangered littoral rainforest, and as a “sleeper weed” in other parts of Australia6[GS6] . Seeds produced by non-sterile hybrids can quickly germinate and populate natural areas. Plants are spread through the dumping of garden waste as they can regrow from small pieces of stem7. Alternatives to Impatiens walleriana include more traditional Bedding Begonia (Begonia semperflorens) and New Guinea Impatiens (Impatiens ‘New Guinea Hybrids’) or the native Cut-leaf Daisy (Brachyscome multifida), Everlasting Daisy (Xerochrysum bracteatum), Fan Flower (Scaevola aemula) or Native Violet (Viola hederacea).
One of Jeremy’s favourite bedding plants is Angelonia, a member of the Plantain family (Plantaginaceae). “I love Angelonia, they just keep flowering. They have all the qualities that I like in a bedding plant; long flowering and lots of it, self-cleaning, and then the ability to be cut back hard,” says Jeremy. I tell him that with their colourful spikes of single, two-lipped, trumpet-shaped flowers, Angelonias remind me of Foxglove, not surprising as they are in the same family. Foxglove is not looked upon favourably here in Tasmania, where it has infested many natural areas. The Tasmanian Government’s proposed declaration of Foxgloves (Digitalis spp.) as a weed, ultimately means that the sale and trade of all non-sterile foxgloves would be banned in this state8. Jeremy reminds me that the industry is aware of these issues and working towards the development of less invasive plants: “A lot of the new varieties of bedding plants that are grown from vegetative cuttings or tissue culture are sterile. If people wanted to do foxgloves, and they probably are a pretty dirty name down your way, you can select from the new Digiplexis and intra-specific hybrids which are sterile, so they will not set seed.”
Jeremy also reminds growers to be careful of pushing out plants onto the market that do not have broader appeal. Plants are being bred for uniform and early flowering with short internodes non-stretching habits that extend shelf life with minimal-to-no plant growth regulators (PGRs), benefitting the growers. “Ultimately everyone, the whole way down the supply chain, does and should have the same end goal, which is performance for the final consumer or the performance for the plant in the landscape. Sometimes, I think the crops are bred for the grower, you know those compact petunias that are bred just to grow nicely in a pot and flower at three inches tall. They are not as great in the landscape as some of the old school crops. They are just tiny little compact petunias which are good in containers; however, it means you need to plant lots and lots of them in the bed; whereas with the perennial petunias that I grow, each one can cover a whole square metre. So, you technically only need one plant per square metre, whereas with potted colour you might need 16 plants or more.”
Putting it to bed
“Everything we call perennial, or most things we call perennial, are grown as annuals in many parts of the USA. Plants like verbenas, gaillardias, petunias, calibrachoas and geraniums that live for years here in Australia, they generally only get one season out of them in the States because next thing you know, it is covered in two feet of snow,” says Jeremy. This does raise the question of why then would we grow these perennial plants as annuals in a bedding plant scheme in a manner which is more resource intensive? Growing and swapping out plants frequently costs time and money, not to mention the environmental impacts. Where do plants go once swapped out? Compost heaven?
Before speaking with Jeremy, I must admit I was quite dismissive of bedding plants. However, this conversation has reminded me that our public parks and gardens are essentially cultural landscapes. Do we expect to see the same canvases or sculptures each time we enter a gallery? Why shouldn’t we give space for experimentation with colour and form in our public places? We all need a little joy in our lives, and colourful bedding displays can bring just that. So, consider the use of annual bedding plants to create an impact in your next design, but do it with care and most importantly, love. And remember to throw a few edible varieties in too!
Gabrielle Stannus
Inwardout Studio
M: 0400 431 277
E: gabrielle@inwardoutstudio.com
References
- Landscape-Water-Conservation. (2019, July 29). Using Bedding Plants in the Landscape. U.S. Department of Agriculture. National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Retrieved February 6, 2025, from https://landscape-water-conservation.extension.org/using-bedding-plants-in-the-landscape
- North Carolina State University. (n.d.). SunPatiens Impatiens x hybrida SunPatiens®. Retrieved February 9, 2025, from https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/impatiens-x-hybrida-sunpatiens/common-name/sunpatiens
- Sustainable Gardening Australia. (n.d.). Should I use sphagnum or peat moss?. Retrieved February 11, 2025, from https://www.sgaonline.org.au/should-i-use-sphagnum-or-peat-moss/
- European Union. (2020). Peatlands for life. Office of the European Union. Luxembourg.
- Council of the European Union. (2022, May 18). Peat reduction in horticultural growing media – Information from the German delegation. Note 9219/22. General Secretariat of the Council. Brussels.
- Brisbane City Council. (n.d.). Balsam (busy Lizzie). Weed Identification Tool. Retrieved February 10, 2025, from https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/balsam-busy-lizzie
- Grow Me Instead. (n.d.). Balsam. Retrieved February 10, 2025, from https://www.growmeinstead.com.au/plant/balsam.aspx
- Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania. (2025, January 24). Proposed declaration of Digitalis species (foxgloves). Retrieved February 11, 2025, from https://nre.tas.gov.au/invasive-species/weeds/proposed-declaration-of-digitalis-species-(foxgloves)