ABC Theme Garden of Animal Flowers
Design an Alphabet Animal Theme Garden or Flower Plant Zoo
Feb 26, 2007
This ABC animal theme garden or plant zoo includes flowers with animal names beginning with the letters from A to Z. I have listed some plant suggestions for (almost) every letter of the alphabet below so you can plant a fully populated animal zoo in flowers. When you make your flower selections and design your alphabet animal garden, keep in mind the growing conditions where you are planting and growing your flower garden. For example, if it is hot and sunny, use plants that do well in a sunny location. If you live in a cold weather climate, use annuals or use perennial plants that can tolerate your cold winters. You may not want to plant 26 different flowers, or you might not have room for so many plants. That’s fine; just plant the ones you like best. And of course, don’t be afraid to substitute -- your local nursery staff may have suggestions to help you. If you garden with children or think kids might visit your garden, this is a terrific theme -- and it's fun for adults as well. (More Garden Design Ideas Tips and Inspiration.)
Here is the alphabetical list of flowers I came up with for animal themed plant names from A to Z. Some letters offer many options for plants but I only listed a few. For a few letters, I stretched a little and used an insect or bird name. Some letters are much harder to think of! You might notice that I still need a flower for the letter X. If you come up with one, please let me know and I will add it to my ABC list of animal plants.
Flowers for ABC Animal Theme Garden or Plant Zoo from A to Z
- Agastache “Black Adder” or Astilbe “Flamingo”
- Butterfly weed (Asclepias) or Beebalm (Monarda)
- Catmint (Nepeta) or Cardinal flower (Lobelia) or Pelargonium “Crocodile”
- “Dragonsblood” sedum or “Doodlebug” daylily (Hemerocallis)
- Elephant ear (Alocasia)
- Foxglove (Digitalis) or Fleabane (Erigeron)
- Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) or Iris germanica “Gnu’s Flash”
- Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum) or Heron’s Bill (Erodium)
- Iris sibirica “Percheron”
- “Jaguar” Marigold or Iris germanica “Jitterbug”
- Kats and Kittens (Sempervivum)
- Lamb’s ear (Stachys) or Leopard’s Bane (Doronicum)
- Monkey flower (Mimulus)
- Nothing at all comes to mind; Pheasant's Eye Narcissis is the best I can do.
- “Ostrich Plume” Astilbe or “Pink Octopus” Campanula or Oxe-eye daisy
- Pussy Toes (Arenaria) or Pennisetum alopecuroides “Piglet” or Pig Squeak (Bergenia)
- “Queen Bee” sedum
- Wake Robin (Trillium) or Pennisetum alopecuroides “Little Bunny”
- Spiderflower (Cleome) or Spiderwort (Tradescantia)
- Turtlehead (Chelone) or Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium) or Toad Lily (Tricyrtis)
- Unicorn Plant (Sonoran Desert plant also called Devil’s claw; Proboscidea altheaefolia) or Rosa “Golden Unicorn”
- Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare)
- Wormwood (Artemisia) or “Whirlybird” Nasturtium
- X marks the spot
- “Yellow Jacket” garden mum
- Malva sylvestris “Zebrina” or Musa “Zebrina” or Zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis “Zebrinus”)
Childrens' Theme Garden: Alphabet Garden, Animal Garden, Zoo Garden, Plant Zoo
I hope this inspires you to try an animal alphabet garden or a plant a flower zoo in your flower garden. Theme gardens such as this are terrific projects for gardening with children or for including in a children's garden or even to plant just for fun. Enjoy!
For more ideas on kids gardening see Five Fun Flowers for Kids.
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