8 Pink Flower Gardens to Steal for Your Own Backyard

Petunias in three or four shades of pink hug a curved stone edge here, and the whole bed reads as one soft wave.

• A tall hydrangea grown on a single trunk anchors the back, with cones fading from cream to rosy peach.
• Bubblegum, magenta, and orchid petunias overlap instead of sitting in blocks.
• The dark fence makes every bloom look brighter.
• Plain gravel keeps the path quiet so the flowers do the talking.

Steal the curve first. It makes even a narrow bed look planned.

Peonies are the slow burn of pink flower gardens. Plant them along a walkway and they get fuller every year, with big ruffled blooms and a sweet scent you catch as you walk past.

Give them a sunny spot with good drainage. Set the crown just under the soil surface. Bury it deeper and you will get leaves but few flowers.

Watch out for heavy blooms after rain. They flop fast without support.

Bright pink double roses spill from a window ledge all the way up to the porch roof on this cream wall. A pale green door and a wisteria growing alongside keep the color from feeling too sweet.

The secret is how the canes are trained. Here is the simple version:

Pink does not have to mean fussy. Purple coneflowers with soft grasses make a strip that looks loose and wild but takes very little work once it is settled in.

Pick your pink:

• Pale rose types feel calm and pair well with silver foliage.
• Deep magenta types show up from across the yard.

Bees and butterflies will find it fast.

Shade does not mean giving up on pink. Under tall trees, azaleas give you a full shrub of spring blooms, and bleeding heart fills in the gaps with arching stems.

Plant the azaleas first, then tuck the bleeding heart in front. Add a layer of leaf mulch and keep the soil damp. Both like it cool and moist.

Expect the bleeding heart to fade by midsummer. That is normal, so plant a hosta beside it to cover the gap.

Look at how the colors move here. Cupped, rosette blooms start cream at the edge and deepen to bright pink in the center, so one plant looks like several.

Dark glossy leaves make a rich backdrop, and a lime green maple behind the pergola keeps the pinks fresh. A white post ties it all together.

Ruffled, cup shaped roses in peach, coral, and rose pink cover a fence here, with fat buds still opening at the top. Rain drops sit on the leaves, and that damp light suits these colors.

The tall dark evergreens behind do the heavy lifting. A deep green backdrop makes warm pinks glow, so plant near a hedge or tree line if you have one.

Cluster the buds. They open in waves, not all at once.

Roses and peonies slow down by midsummer. Dahlias take over and keep going until frost, so a small raised bed of pink ones gives you flowers when the rest of the yard goes quiet.

Plant tubers after the last frost in full sun. Stake them early. Then cut often, since picking is what keeps the plant making more.