Whether subtle or over the top, Independence Day offers a chance to showcase the celebration of freedom. Incorporating the garden into the display lends versatility and creativity. Planting designs blend vibrant colors and textures with classic and creative elements and accessories in the spirit of the Fourth of July.
From plant pairings in containers to waves of colorful annuals and perennials in a patriotic flower bed, splashes of red, white, and blue commemorate the day. Using existing garden elements and structures provides a showy backdrop to customized accents. Bring in simple touches for a look that welcomes the season.
Show Big Color With Flowering Annuals
Create a patriotic display with red, white, and blue annuals.
The showiest way to convey patriotic themes is through a colorful display of red, white, and blue blooming plants. Annuals give high color throughout the warm season for lasting interest and long blooming. Use them solely in the tones of Independence Day or blend them among other hues for all-season appeal. Accenting with accessories makes them tailor-made for the holiday.
Annuals add instant color to a patriotic flower bed, from lining a border to dotting a vibrant container. They quickly convey a theme, whether in large-scale plantings or small. Depending on your garden style, the display can be an overflowing red, white, and blue infusion or a simple arrangement.
Here is a sampling of annuals with numerous varieties in red, white, and blue shades. These plants bear tough qualities in addition to their profuse flowering in the ground and containers. They withstand a variety of summer conditions across growing zones.
Annuals
| Common Name | Scientific Name | Color |
| Fan Flower | Scaevola | Blue, purple-blue, white |
| Geranium | Pelargonium | Red, white |
| Lantana | Lantana | Red, white |
| Lobelia | Lobelia | Cobalt blue, lavender-blue, white |
| Million bells | Calibrachoa | Red, violet-blue, white |
| Petunia | Petunia | Red, violet-blue, white |
| Verbena | Verbena | Red, blue, white |
Design a Schematic Perennial Bed
Perennials offer enduring color and texture for seasonal garden themes.
Annuals aren’t the only way to show bold color. Incorporating complementary or contrasting hues through perennial plantings is a lasting way to reflect the spirit of the season. For a natural blend, go heavy on the blues and add a splash of red. Or, use silver and white flowers and foliage for a bright arrangement and punctuate with red and blue shades. Rely on warm reds to infuse energy into the scheme.
Cool Blue Perennials
Blue perennials bring tranquil elegance and harmonize beautifully with other hues.
Blue hues are gorgeous any time of year. They cool down a display and evoke a calm, peaceful aesthetic. In classic Victorian-era style, blue perennials in various hues blend seamlessly into silver and white foliage along with leafy greens for a tapestry of soothing waves.
Blues complement various other flower colors, from vibrant red to pastels. To create a flag of colors, dot a blue display with bold reds, bright whites, and silver tones.
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ | Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ |
| Catmint | Nepeta spp. |
| Hardy ageratum | Conoclinium coelestinum |
| Liatris | Liatris spp. |
| Salvia ‘Blue By You’ | Salvia nemorosa ‘Blue By You’ |
Shining Silver and White Perennials
Create a serene white garden with silver accents and subtle contrasts.
White gardens are another Victorian-era inspiration that is well-adapted to contemporary gardens for fresh, cooling effects on festive July evenings. Rely on plants with silver and white characteristics in flower and foliage and a backdrop of green foliage and dark purple for contrast—accent with blues and reds for customized interest.
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ | Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’ |
| Blue fescue | Festuca glauca |
| Hosta ‘Patriot’ | Hosta ‘Patriot’ |
| Muhly Grass ‘White Cloud’ | Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’ |
| Russian sage | Salvia yangii |
Red Hot Perennials
Red perennials inject vibrant energy into summer landscapes.
In color theory, red tones infuse a space with high energy and vibrancy. They make the perfect opposite of blue tones and clear whites, which bring cooling effects and a place for the eye to rest. Use red perennials for a lively summer look, whether ordered or informal. Go a little wild with wildflowers and native perennials to build your patriotic flower bed around classic color combinations.
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Coneflower ‘Sombrero Salsa Red’ | Echinacea purpurea ‘Balsomsed’ |
| Dahlia ‘American Dream’ | Dahlia ‘American Dream’ |
| Beebalm ‘Fireball’ | Monarda didyma ‘Fireball’ |
| Scarlet Sage | Salvia coccinea |
Create a Fireworks-Inspired Display
Fill your garden with fiery blooms and dazzling foliage.
Curating floral selections around a strong concept allows immense creativity. While many of us enjoy fireworks on the Fourth of July, we can also add a little garden sizzle with plants with bright plumes, fountain forms, and out-of-this-world colors to glitter the patriotic flower bed.
Flowers inspired by fireworks bring delight and surprise. Sparkly names, dazzling blooms, and dynamic foliage captivate the visitor and let the garden shine throughout the summer and into fall. Annuals, perennials, or a mix, planted in-ground or in containers, enliven the garden and invite time spent outdoors together.
Perennials
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Agapnthus | Agapanthus africanus |
| Cuphea | Cuphea spp. |
| Globe Thistle | Echinops spp. |
| Red Hot Poker | Kniphofia spp. |
| Sea holly | Eryngium spp. |
| Solidago ‘Fireworks’ | Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ |
Annuals
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Bloodleaf | Iresine spp. |
| Cleome | Cleome spp. |
| Gomphrena ‘Fireworks’ | Gomphrena pulchella ‘Fireworks’ |
| Flowering Tobacco | Nictoiana spp. |
| Fountain Grass ‘Fireworks’ | Pennisetum ‘Fireworks’ |
| Papyrus | Cyperus papyrus |
Bring in Colorful Accessories
Enhance your patriotic garden with thematic accessories for vibrant flair.
To add flare to a patriotic flower bed, add related accessories to bring in thematic color. These may be a simple American flag among objects in schematic colors like a red watering can, a blue flower pot, or a hanging star. Complementing red roses or blue hydrangeas with an object in patriotic hues lends vibrancy while incorporating nature.
If you like to go all out on the Fourth of July with celebratory decor, by all means, enjoy doing so and bring the garden bed into the mix. Bunting among red, white, and blue flowering hanging baskets and containers overflows with celebratory vibes. Embellish a summer wreath by adding fresh flowers and plumes in red, white, and blue to customize it for the day.
Keep Accessories Simple
Celebrate Independence Day with a symbolic touch of American flags.
To classically commemorate Independence Day, an American flag tells the story. Placing a single flag or repeating a series of flags incorporates tradition while unifying the design and tailoring the planting to the day. Even a versatile, all-season garden bed pops with red, white, and blue with simple accessories.
If you want to keep the look minimal, conveying the patriotic theme doesn’t require much. Red, white, and blue blooms usher in the holiday, and non-themed plantings become part of the celebration when paired with a simple flag. A burst of color from a Fourth-inspired planter adds instant complement.
Embellish with Patriotic Planters
Transform your pots into patriotic statements with themed decorations.
Other than placing an American flag in the display, related potted arrangements are the easiest way to convey a patriotic theme. A container design with red, white, and blue annuals and perennials adds quick charm to the entryway or seating area in the spirit of independence.
While we never need an excuse to dress up our pots, the Fourth of July allows customizing the flowering display with a themed refresh and instant color. If you planned early in the season with the red, white, and blue scheme, your pots are likely lush with prolific blooms to last well beyond the holiday for all-season enjoyment.
Outside of the container planting designs, artful ways to incorporate the holiday’s colors include the containers themselves; glazed or painted pots and themed accessories show the spirit of the Fourth.
Accent With Monochromatic Containers
Enhance your garden bed with seasonal monochromatic pot accents.
While a mix of patriotic-themed plants in a container creates a package of festivity, accenting with a single specimen or color punctuates the display. If you have a hydrangea in full flower, overflowing with light and dark blues, bring in a container of red to vary the look while adding patriotic overtones. Conversely, pots of blues and whites among red roses create a stand-out look.
Punctuating with monochromatic pots is an easy addition to the garden bed. They are temporary, changeable, and portable. They highlight the season’s natural beauty by adding to the existing garden structure.
Rely on Flowering Shrubs and Garden Elements
Highlight your garden’s seasonal themes with vibrant flowering shrubs.
Sometimes, our garden provides the perfect stage for seasonal themes. Big shows of white, blue, or red flowering shrubs and trees provide a stunning backdrop for accentuating with containers or accessories to emphasize the celebration of freedom.
Roses and hydrangeas are key summer performers that come to mind when adapting a patriotic garden bed. Roses in red and white and hydrangeas in blue, white, or red hues allow lots of summer color and set the scene for themed accessories or planters to round out the scheme. For example, if your red rose bed lacks blue and white, embellish it with in-ground or potted annuals to create the motif.
Garden elements and structures like walls, fences, pillars, and even the home add to the color scheme. A prime example is bright blue hydrangeas against a white fence with a red backdrop. Add a flag or pop of red to the display for instant customization that highlights natural beauty, maintains the garden style, and costs little.
Flowering Shrubs
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Climbing rose ‘Iceberg’ | Rosa ‘KORbin’ |
| Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’ |
| Rose ‘American Beauty’ | Rosa ‘American Beauty’ |
| Rose of Sharon ‘Blue Chiffon’ | Hibiscus syriacus ‘Blue Chiffon’ |
Play With Color
Enhance your landscape with dynamic color combinations and seasonal accents.
Blending summer-flowering shrubs with colorful annuals and exciting foliage creates variation, textural interest, and the opportunity to move color around the landscape. Impactful designs feature repeated hues throughout the display, throwing color to different parts of the garden for symmetry and balance. For patriotic inspiration, this includes contrasting repeating blues and whites with bursts of red or vice versa.
For a motif in the spirit of freedom, play off of existing color by creating emphasis through annuals and variations on the theme. Annual arrangements boost the garden style in complementary tones of the season for impact. Accessories tie it all together, from colorful chairs and benches to a simple flag. Pops of red, white, and blue can be as subtle or contrived as your imagination desires.
Final Thoughts
To commemorate Independence Day, consider incorporating the garden bed into your celebration. A festive container to highlight the entrance, brighten a porch, or add flair to a seating area easily evokes a patriotic motif.
A splash of annual plantings or a swath of perennials allows fun and creativity in building a theme around the colors of freedom. Relying on existing elements and features provides a strong foundation, while effortless accents bring flare to the show. Enjoy commemorating the day and the garden’s lasting rewards all summer long.
