When thinking about a scheme for flower beds, the tendency is to concentrate almost exclusively on the question of color. While color is obviously important and undoubtedly the primary category to consider, it is not always recognized that flowers posses other visual properties such as form, shape, size and texture. Whether you like it or not, these characteristics affect the overall look of the composition, either for good or for ill.

Personal taste aside, genuinely satisfactory results can only be achieved if the plants go together to form a harmonious composition. One rule of design that is particularly relevant to flower beds is the need for unity or uniformity. When it comes to color, it is obvious that just throwing any color in at random is liable to create a mess.

Less obvious, but important nevertheless, is the need to choose plants whose flower shape size or texture are in keeping with each other. To take an extreme example, let's say the different species in the bed all have flowers that are varying shades of red. Such a scheme would be termed monochromatic, and would clearly posses the quality of unity, at least as it relates to color. However, if some of the flowers were tiny while others huge, with any number of shapes and forms in between, would the effect still remain harmonious?

This is where choosing the bedding plants from one botanical family can come to your assistance. Due to the fact that flower structure is the criterion by which plants are sorted botanically, it follows that plants that are closely related are most likely to have flowers that are visually similar. The best example is provided by daisy flowers, which belong to the Asteraceae family. (Formerly Compositae)

There are a great number and variety of herbaceous flowering plants belonging to the daisy family, ranging from small shrubby types, plants with tall flower storks and ground hugging species. There is also a wide range of flower color within the family, but the common denominator is the flower shape and size common to almost all genera. An understanding of this property allows for greater unity to be achieved, balancing the variety that is created by the different plant types. Here are some examples which are suitable for dry Mediterranean climates.

Small shrubs: There are a number of species of Chrysanthemum such as C. frutescens that grow to about 50 cm and posses lovely fine textured foliage in addition to their daisy flowers. A similar plant with yellow flowers is Euryops pectinatus. These types are useful for "holding" an herbaceous bed, at a time when some flowering plants are passed their best.

Tall Flowers: Solidago, Achillea and Coreopsis are good placed towards the back of the border. The fine foliage texture of Achillea or Yarrow, associates well shrubby Chrysanthemums and foliage plants from other families such as Asparagus. A number of species of Felicia can fill an intermediate role between low growing plants and taller ones.

Low growing plants: There are a large number to choose from such as the ground hugging Gazania, the dependable African Daisy, (Arctotis) Bidens, the delicate Brachicome and the sprawling Osteospermum.