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Home » Gardening Guides » Perennials » Basics » Border or Bed?

Border or Bed? (And What’s the Difference?)

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Elizabeth Navas Finley

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Full-sun perennial borders need strong primary colors to appear bright. Here, white Shasta daisies tower over golden marguerite.

When most people think of perennial beds, it’s the classic flowering border or bed that springs to mind. The layered masses of blooming plants create a changing tapestry of shape and color you can carefully choreograph throughout the growing season. The art of the perennial border was brought to its pinnacle in the early years of the 20th century, when vast borders flanked lawns at entrances to stately homes (along with a small army of gardeners to tend them). They’re still widely grown today – likely because of their enduring beauty.

Chances are you’ve seen lots of these in your own neighborhood. Perennial borders are long, narrow planting areas that are viewed from a single side. Borders are often backed by hedges, fences, a home or other structure. By comparison, a bed is a planting area that can be viewed from more than one side, like an island or a peninsula. Beds and borders can be formal (with geometric shapes like squares, rectangles or circles) or informal (with free-form, curving shapes). Beds can include a tree or stand alone in a turfgrass lawn.

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A shady island bed shows just how to arrange plants from smallest to largest so onlookers can enjoy them all from many angles.

Each has their advantages. Borders leave open space in the center of the landscape and soften the edges of buildings, fences and walkways. Beds, with at least two sides, can be viewed from several parts of a garden and allow sunlight and air circulation around the plants. Whichever appeals to you and fits your needs, a bed or border packed with flowers will be the glamour queen of your garden.

Don’t know where to start? Visit the many historic gardens preserved and open to the public through The Garden Conservancy in the US and the National Trust in Britain. And some of the best places to see new perennial borders are botanical gardens. So gather some ideas – then get planting!

Tips

Plants should be arranged in beds according to their height, with small selections at the edge of the bed or border and successively higher plants reaching toward the back. This creates a wall of flowers and masks the foliage of the taller plants.
The minimum width of a bed or border should be approximately 3 feet, which allows for two layers of plants. Of course, an even better measure is the reach of an average person across the bed, since that allows for easy maintenance without stepping into the garden.

Facts

Casual gardens take their theme from nature, with irregular edges, intermingled plantings and curving pathways. Plants are usually grouped in odd-numbered patterns and groups.

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