10 Flower Bed Ideas for Full Sun

You can have a beautiful garden without a lot of work. As proof, here are 10 ideas for full sun flower beds.

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Golden
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Golden Rudbeckia

Golden rudbeckia pairs well with bright yellow marigolds, silver dusty miller, red and white geraniums, and variegated dracaena. The key to mixing all these colors: planting in swaths to avoid a spotty effect.

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Colorful
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Spring Sunshine

Sunny garden beds aren’t just for summer stalwarts. Spring sunshine is less intense, making it suitable for a host of plants, including these tulips, grape hyacinths and pansies, which are thriving in the full sun.

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Flower
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Snapdragons

Snapdragons are an underutilized annual that deserve to see more “action” in the garden, especially since they bring a circus of color in unusual flower forms. Here they’re joined by purple and white petunias, another sun-loving annual, making this another one of our favorite flower bed ideas.

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pink roses on white fence
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Climbing Roses

The pink flowers of these climbing roses are joined by purple-flowering veronica and chartreuse-leaved euphorbia in a tritone arrangement that looks fresh and appealing. They also all do well in full sun. If the fence is facing west or southwest, you can use the other side for plants that like a little afternoon shade, opening up even more plant possibilities.

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Wheelbarrow Planter
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Portable Planter

Flowers for full sun? Who says they can’t be portable? In the hottest days of the summer, or when you’re away on vacation, wheel them to the shade temporarily to save on maintenance and watering. Then bring them back to full sun when the time is right. This planter features marigolds, petunias, angelonia, sweet alyssum and sanvitalia. Want other planter ideas?

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garden
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Create Flower Ribbons

Colorful ribbons of flowers make an artistic statement in this sun-loving flower garden bed. Flowers include red, gold, orange and pink celosia, pink and white vinca, purple and white petunias, and blue torenia and salvia. These are tough plants.

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flower bed
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Simple Design

Sometimes less is more. In this case, less variety in flowers and less variety in color add up to more visual oomph. Orange tithonia, also called Mexican sunflower, backs up a stream of yellow marigolds and pockets of purple verbena.

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zinnias
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Simple Dependable Colors

Just two species and three colors are used here, and to great effect. Swatches of orange and deep pink double-flowered zinnias back up violet-colored ageratum. These low-maintenance, drought-tolerant annuals are perfect for sunny landscapes.

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orange
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Distinct Sections of Color

Three different cultivars of marigolds join with blue lobelia, sunpatiens, dwarf daisies and dusty miller on this island-like raised bed.

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flowers garden bloom
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Short and Sprawling

Not much height to the sun-loving flowers in this bed, but they’re certainly not lacking firepower. Flowers include yellow marigolds, blue salvia and dwarf white dahlia. Marigolds are also good in the vegetable garden.

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Luke Miller
Luke Miller is an award-winning garden editor with 25 years' experience in horticultural communications, including editing a national magazine and creating print and online gardening content for a national retailer. He grew up across the street from a park arboretum and has a lifelong passion for gardening in general and trees in particular. In addition to his journalism degree, he has studied horticulture and is a Master Gardener.