Planning a flower garden
22 Layouts and Design Plans for a Perennial Flower Garden
How to choose flowers and where to plant them
Reviewed by
Kathleen Miller
Reviewed by Kathleen Miller
Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia's Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has over 30 years of experience in gardening and sustainable farming.
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Some of the most luscious perennial gardens look like they just kind of happen, don't they? Lush cottage-style flower beds overflowing with color, just popping up out of nowhere all on their own, right? Well, not exactly.
Perennial gardens can definitely become very easy and low maintenance over time, but before that magical effortless look happens, there are plenty of plans and decisions to be made. Specifically, where you plant things is almost as important as what you decide to plant.
Here are 22 suggestions and ideas to help you plan the layout and design of gorgeous perennial flower garden.
How to Design a Perennial Flower Garden
There are some specific things to consider when choosing what and where to plant:
- When will this plant bloom, and for how long?
- How much growth (height, spread, bloom size) does it put out during the high point of the season?
- Do its blooms or foliage change color over time, and if so, when and what colors can you expect?
- What different colors are available in this plant's cultivars?
- Does this plant have a desirable fragrance?
- Does it have specific light or soil needs that are different from the plants near it?
- Is it vulnerable to pests, and if so, will it attract pests that might damage adjacent plants?
- Does this plant have flowers that are vulnerable to damage from wind, rain, or heat?
Keep a notebook listing plants you're considering, and then do your research.
Read tags at the nursery, and ask for guidance and tips from employees or other gardeners.
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01 of 22
Get the Big Picture
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Look at your garden from a distance and see how the plantings work together. When we work in the garden, we're often "up close and personal" with plants, but designing requires stepping back to get a more comprehensive perspective of your space. This is especially important if you have trees and large shrubs in your landscape—consider the entire impact of your design. Step back to take in the big picture and see how your plantings balance and flow into one another.
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02 of 22
Plant Bulbs for Early Spring Color
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You can't beat spring bulbs for low-effort color in spring. But, they only bloom for a few weeks. By planting your spring bulbs (crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips) by your hostas and daylilies, the bulb foliage will be dying back once the foliage from these later season plants starts to emerge. This makes for great use of space and fills in the gaps between seasons of bloom.
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03 of 22
Arrange Plants By Height
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Most of the time, you will want to put taller plants in the back of the bed and shorter ones in front. Exceptions can be plants with very delicate sprays of flowers, or tall slender stems with flowers at the very top, which can go in front even if their stems are taller than the plants they're in front of (like alliums, salvias, coral bells/heucheras, veronica, columbines, bluebells, or forget-me-nots).
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04 of 22
Create Visual Patterns with Color
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Planting to create a pattern of color to draw the eye is a well-known landscape designer's trick. See how the purple foliage of these heucheras creates a dynamic pattern that leads the eye across the garden, and connects them to the purple tones of the Japanese maples. The purple-toned foliage of these heucheras and Japanese maples creates a dynamic pattern that leads the eye.
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05 of 22
Strive for Interesting Shape and Texture
@paintedleafhostagarden / Instagram
Plant strategically to create a lively combination of shapes and textures. Even a simple shade garden can balance the sturdy rounded or pointed leaves of hostas with the delicate textures of heuchera leaves and flowers, airy astilbes, and spiky ferns. Consider also how a plant's texture may change as the season progresses. The delicate airy texture of heuchera flowers (coral bells) is a perfect contrast to the heavier shapes and textures of hostas in this shade garden.
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06 of 22
Try Color Blocking
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Some gardeners like to have a large variety of plants in their mixed perennial beds. But there is something to be said for the dramatic impact of a large area blooming with vibrant color, making your garden into a seasonal show-stopper. This is especially effective with long-blooming perennial flowers like columbines, echinacea, hydrangeas, dianthus, chrysanthemums, etc.
Plant other flowering plants nearby that will add color when these show-stoppers are done; try chrysanthemums or perennial snapdragons in front of your echinacea.
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07 of 22
Design with Foliage
@gardenfromscratch / Instagram
Perennial flowers don't always have long seasons of bloom, so learning which plants have colorful or interesting foliage can help you design a garden that stays rich and interesting through the seasons.
Heucheras come in a rainbow of colors with differently-shaped leaves and do well in sun or shade.
Hostas and daphne come in variegated varieties that add visual depth and interest. Silvery tones can come from artemisia or brunnera. The beautifully-shaped leaves of oakleaf hydrangeas and amsonia provide brilliant autumn color. -
08 of 22
Create Colorful Shade Beds
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
There are many perennials that will happily bloom in partial shade, so your shade beds needn't be all hostas and astilbes! Perennial geraniums weave in and out among plants in search of dappled sun, and other colorful part-shade lovers include foxgloves, alliums, irises, heucheras and primroses. See how the purple tones and lacy texture of the Japanese painted fern complement the 'Rozanne' geraniums and 'Millennium' alliums here.
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09 of 22
Time Your Blooms Right
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One of the biggest challenges in garden design is finding ways to have flowers blooming consistently throughout the season.
But, consider how certain plants may have a more dramatic impact than others. Maybe you want your roses to take the starring role. Maybe your peonies are the pride of the neighborhood. Let those pink David Austin roses shine by keeping other early summer blooming perennials to a minimum nearby, unless you want an all-pink garden, in which case, go for it! With a bit of practice and research, you can plant strategically to showcase certain plants at the height of their bloom season.
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10 of 22
Plant Flowering Groundcovers
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Ground covers can be a wonderful way to fill in empty spots and add low-growing beauty to your beds. Some bloom in spring (like sweet woodruff, epimedium, or creeping phlox), some in summer (spreading dianthus), some in fall (like creeping sedums which come in many colors, or peacock plumbago with its bright cobalt blue flowers). Depending on your climate, there are a great many to choose from.
Tip
Be careful with ground covers like vinca that grow matted roots, as these can spread and crowd out the roots of other perennials. But, planting these evergreen plants beneath a tree where not much else will grow adds year-round color. For example, the vivid blue flowers on peacock plumbago make it a gorgeous choice for ground cover.
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11 of 22
Experiment with Contrasting Colors
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Opposites on the color wheel create vibrant, dramatic contrasts in the garden. Pair purples and yellows, oranges and blues, or reds and greens, including variations like magenta and chartreuse for dynamic color combinations.
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12 of 22
Balance Warm and Cool Colors
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Many gardeners love having a garden that is all cool colors (blues, purples, pinks) while some enjoy vibrant warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges. Having a mix of warm and cool palettes makes for maximum visual appeal.
You can mix them together in one bed, or have one section that's cool next to one that's warm. The possibilities are endless and can include both flowers and foliage. -
13 of 22
Choose Easy-to-Divide Perennials
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Perennial dividing is usually a yearly task for the avid gardener. Some perennials will tend to show decreased vitality in their blooming if left undivided, as the roots or tubers may get crowded. Most types of irises need dividing every 3 years, as do daylilies and hostas; all three are very easy to divide. Some plants benefit from once yearly division, such as artemisia 'Silver Mound.' Once you divide them (mid to late autumn is the best time) you can replant the divisions immediately.
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14 of 22
Go For Late-Season Blooms
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Many gardeners find it challenging to keep a vibrant palette of blooms happening through three seasons. Don't neglect to plant late-blooming perennials, especially in spots where other perennials will have stopped blooming for the season.
Anemones are a lovely sight in autumn with their delicate pinks and whites fluttering above the flower bed like fairies. The deep blues of monkshood add dramatic color too. -
15 of 22
Add Winter Interest
@paintedleafhostagarden / Instagram
Why stop at three seasons of beauty? Winter can be a beautiful time in the garden, even if you're looking at it from inside a warm room, standing by the window with a cup of hot chocolate. Many evergreen shrubs and trees hold up to the weight of heavy wet snow and create sculptural shapes and a bit of color in the winter landscape.
Consider leaving some plants intact for winter, like tall sedums, that create a lovely shape, then cut back in spring as new growth appears. This snowy garden has beautiful forms and textures from its evergreen and tree plantings.
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16 of 22
Plant in Containers
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Containers are an easy way to add height, shape, and balance to your garden and give you flexibility in terms of placement and adding plants throughout the season.
A solid clay pot can offer an earthy feel next to airy, delicate blooms or the spreading branches of shrubs. You can also choose brightly colored pots to add to your garden's colorways. -
17 of 22
Incorporate Frost-Hardy Color
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A number of perennials will keep blooming after a light frost, including late-season chrysanthemums and perennial snapdragons. Such plants can provide much-needed color and form later in the season. These football mums keep their form and color even after a light frost in November.
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18 of 22
Add Flowering Shrubs
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Flowering shrubs can be colorful centerpieces in your perennial beds. They bloom at different points in the season, so plant them where you want seasonal impact. Azaleas and rhododendrons in spring, weigelas and hydrangeas in summer, Rose of Sharon through fall, etc.
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19 of 22
Plant for Autumn Color
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Plant perennials that flower in autumn (chrysanthemums, snapdragons, sedums) but also plan for foliage shifting to rich autumn color and plant accordingly.
There are many plants that provide bright and earthy colors in autumn: Japanese maples, ferns, amsonia, hydrangeas, heuchera, ninebark, and fothergilla are but a few. -
20 of 22
Don't Forget Deadheading
Barry Winiker / Getty Images
Deadheading is vital in the busy summer season. Some plants that offer thrilling blooms need frequent deadheading to stay fresh-looking. One good example is the day lily (hemerocallis): the blooms only last one day but there are always new ones about to open; plucking off the dead/drooping flowers makes the most of the blooming time.
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21 of 22
Choose Long-Lasting Blooms
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You don't have to sacrifice planting your favorite short-blooming flowers for the sake of having a lush perennial garden. Plant the briefest blooms between long-lasting perennials like purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and catmint.
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22 of 22
Plant Annuals that Act Like Perennials
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Annuals like zinnias, cornflowers, and cosmos will often reseed every year, becoming a reliable "perennial" flower.
Many of these colorful annuals are heavy with nectar and beloved of pollinators. You can collect the seeds to plant in spring (direct sow after last frost date), or just let early annuals like cornflowers reseed themselves. Tip
The great thing about perennials is that if they're not ideal in one spot, they can be moved to another. And when they grow larger, you can divide them and plant more! Remember to observe how plants do after they're planted: they are the best teachers and will tell you if they're content.
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This terraced flower garden features layers of vibrant color.
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A splash of bright orange poppies brightens up a flower border.
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Color, size and shape variations work together to enliven a flower bed without being overwhelming.
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The repetition of purple throughout this flower garden brings unity to the design.
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Subtly layering flowers from low-growers to tall spires keeps sight lines intact and creates a more natural look.
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If you’ve always dreamed of having a gorgeous flower garden, now is the time to make it happen. Starting a flower garden is both fun and rewarding. Follow these guidelines for beginners and you’ll be off to a great start.
Step 1 - Know Your Garden
- Know your site: The first step in creating the perfect flower garden is to familiarize yourself with the area you want to plant. Landscape architect, Mary Ellen Cowan suggests, “Really know your site. Listen to Mother Nature to learn about your land’s traits. Be honest with light, moisture conditions, and the topography.”
- Know your soil: An important tip to ensure a successful flower garden is to do a soil test. Erin Benzakein, owner of Floret Flower Farm, explains, “To collect soil samples, dig a hole 1 foot deep, gather a few tablespoons, then repeat throughout your garden until a quart-sized jar is full. You can send your soil to a testing lab like the UMass Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Laboratory (soiltest.
umass.edu) and use the result to amend your soil before planting.” - Know your flowers: Cowan also says, “Learn what plants grow well in your soil. From there, you can figure out what to do design-wise.” Carol Bornstein, horticulturist at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, recommends “visiting nearby natural areas that mimic your conditions in the wild to discover the flowers that you like.” Not sure where to start? Check out this list: 21 Easiest Flowers for Beginners.
- Know your frost cycle: To make sure your newly planted garden will survive the seasons, you will need to know your area’s average last and first frost dates. Benzakein notes this will affect when you start seeds and will allow you to plant varieties that will grow into autumn. Starting your seeds about 4 to 6 weeks before the average last frost date will give your plants a jump start. The plants will fill in faster and cut down on weeds. If you don’t have a greenhouse to start your seeds in, a covered seed tray indoors under growing lights will work.
Step 2 - Create Your Color Palette
- Create unity: When choosing a color scheme, Bornstein suggests picking one that will “help unify the landscape.” Using variations and different tones of the same color can make an impact without dominating.
- Create excitement: While sticking to a few similar hues can create a feeling of harmony, complimentary colors—opposites on the color wheel—create juxtaposition. For example, the combination of blue and yellow is fresh, lively, and summery. “In a sunny spot, warm tones like yellows, oranges, and reds make the most of the light, especially during the ‘golden hours,’ when the sun rises or sets. However, on their own, hot colors can appear rather flat. Blues compliment the yellows, creating harmony and vibrancy. Occasional splashes of hot orange and red add a little thrill,” says Keith Wiley of Wildside, his garden in Devon, England.
- Create peaceful areas: Wiley adds that it is prudent to practice restraint, as too much variety can feel tiring.
“You can’t have everything screaming at you in the garden. Separate areas with intense color or high drama with neutrals,” says Bill Thomas of Chanticleer. Above all, landscape designer and author of Heaven is a Garden, Jan Johnsen encourages the use of colors you personally enjoy in your garden.
Step 3 - Design Like a Pro
- Design with shape: When designing a flower garden, world-renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf suggests that shape is a good place to start. Perennials have several basic shapes: spires, plumes, daisies, buttons, globes, umbels, and screens. Try putting different shapes together and see if they spark off each other. Some combinations will be vibrant and dynamic, others may clash. Planting similar flower shapes together can reinforce an idea.
- Design with repetition: The repetition of key shapes or colors provides a sense of calm and visual unity. Ideally, advises Wiley, plants you repeat should have a long season, not look untidy after flowering, and flourish in the garden’s conditions.
Strategic repetition of flowers offers continuity when moving from one area of the garden to another. - Design in layers: Matt James, in his book, How to Plant a Garden, states, “When planting, try to pull one layer subtly into another — and vice versa — to create a more natural look, rather than simply arrange the layers like a staircase.” Oudolf warns that you can “lose plants in the back,” so it is important to make sure sight lines remain to see flowers at the rear of a border.
- Design in combinations: “Think in terms of plant combinations rather than individual species,” suggests Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery near Portland, Oregon. Mixing plant heights, sizes, colors, scale, and textures keeps the garden engaging in all seasons. Relaxed plantings will provide color, movement and a meadow-like feel.
- Design with fragrance and movement: Dan Hinkley, plant hunter and author, has discovered what he enjoys most in his garden — fragrance and movement.
“These elements of a garden aren’t included in the design often enough.” He advises to take advantage of natural breeze patterns to allow the scents of flowers to waft toward your home or patio areas.
Bonus Flower Garden Tips
- For a more productive flower garden and to encourage longer stems (better for cut flowers and floral design), Benzakein advises to plant flowers close together. “This will reduce weeds and increase the number of flowers you produce.”
- If you are growing flowers for cutting, “Don’t forget to grow foliage and filler plants for arrangements,” says Benzakein.
- Donna Hackman, retired garden designer, recommends that if you want your flowers to spill over in a natural way, but don’t want them within reach of the mower’s blades, install rectangles of flagstone around the beds. Also, keep paths between flower beds wide, so flowers won’t be trampled underfoot when walking through the garden.
- Hackman also suggests choosing smaller cultivars to reduce pruning work and planting shrubs at the center of your flower beds to provide year-round structure and height.
With seemingly endless design options, these tips will guide you in making the best choices when starting a flower garden, allowing you to sit back on a nice afternoon and enjoy the fruits—or blossoms—of your labor.
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START PLANNING FLOWERS
Creating a beautiful garden and flower garden is not so easy. You need to have good taste, knowledge of landscape design, as well as agricultural technology for growing plants.
There is now a large amount of literature in printed and film form. A lot of gardeners and florists share their knowledge and ideas on creating chic ensembles of flowers and ornamental bushes.
In many countries and cities, flower growers' exhibitions are held, where amateurs can learn many secrets of professionals in growing rare species of flowers and ornamental shrubs.
A beautiful flower garden for real professionals and amateurs is first born in dreams and on paper.
In order for the flower garden to be beautiful throughout the summer period, flowers are chosen for it that have a long flowering period, or flowers that will change each other with their flowering.
In parks, squares, flower beds are arranged in large sizes, they have the correct shape. In amateur gardens, flower beds are small, often have a variety of shapes that can go around paths and paths.
Flowerbeds can be either raised or flat. I plant flowers in flowerbeds of both the same species and various species.
Consider the main types of flower beds:
Tapeworms - single plantings of very beautiful bushes or flowers. Such flowers can have beautiful large carved leaves or buds. Tapeworms arrange on lawns or in places well viewed from afar. Roses, castor beans, amaranths, dahlia bushes look good as such plantings.
Rabatki are long and narrow strips of flowers that can stretch along paths, paths, along the fence or wall of the house.
Rabatki consisting of 2, 3 types of plants look very nice, which are planted by combining the colors and height of the plants. Low-growing plants are planted in the foreground, taller ones in the background so that the plants do not obscure or obscure each other.
Borders are narrow strips that can border lawns or large flower beds. Flowers in borders are planted undersized and of the same type and color. If your main flower garden will have red-pink colors, then pick up flowers with white tones in the border. Borders consisting of alyssum, lobelia are very good, because in addition to long flowering, such flowers also have a wonderful smell.
Parterres are complex flower beds and often form whole compositions of several elements. Such compositions may include lawns, borders, curbs.
Mixborders are especially liked by summer gardeners. In such flower beds, flowers of various flowering periods and colors are used.
Plants are selected and planted so that the flower bed is bright and blooming throughout the entire period from early spring to late autumn.
The arrays consist of low maintenance perennials. Arrays usually occupy large areas. Flowers in arrays grow quickly and well and are planted in groups by species.
Groups - plantings having shapes of any shape, but usually having smooth shapes. Flowers of the same species and variety or several species are planted in them in the form of beautiful bright spots.
When arranging a flower garden on the plots, it is necessary to take into account the natural and natural features of the landscape.
Flower beds and designer finds that take into account the natural features of this garden look most harmoniously in the garden. When we start planning flower gardens, there are many factors we need to consider:
-Composition and acidity of the soil. The assortment of flowers that will bloom well on the site will also depend on it.
- Illumination of the area where flowers are supposed to be broken. The choice of light-loving or shade-tolerant plants depends on this.
- Humidity of the site. The choice of ornamental shrubs and perennial flowers depends on how close surface waters lie.
- "Wind Rose". Many heat-loving flowers cannot stand constant cold winds and need to be planted in sheltered places.
Before you go out and buy all the bags of flower seeds in a row, ask about their flowering time, in what soils these flowers will grow and develop well and what temperatures these plants like.
Then select flowers according to the color scheme you need, which would bloom at the required time for a particular flower bed.
Do not rush to immediately allocate a permanent place and put permanent borders for a flower garden in new areas. We are sure that after the first year you will reconsider your decision and want to move the flower garden to a new location. Select a place for a nursery in which you will plant seeds of annuals and perennials.
During the operation of the site, it will become clear what kind of soil is on your site and what flowers grow best on it.
Try an approximate list of colors for the arrangement of the flowerbed:
1. Helenium Autumn
2. Rubbed Rivy
3. Sunword one -year -old
4. Middle -fruited
5. Middle -fruited
6. The largest
7. Hybrid
8. large
9. Garden iris (bearded group)
10. Calendula officinalis
11. Hybrid narcissus (tubular group)
12. Pyrethrum maiden (yellow-leaved form)
13. Lupine hybrid
14. Damascus nigella
15. Large nasturtium
16. Armenian Muscari
17. Italian setaria
18. Hybrid tulip (early terry group)
After the flowering of certain perennials, you will understand whether the combinations of flowers planted in your flower bed are beautiful. If the colors do not match, then transplant to your liking. Be sure to consider the distance between the flowers, otherwise they will oppress each other.
As a rule, the instructions for the seeds indicate the recommended distance between flowers. If these are perennials, then before the bushes grow, you can plant annual flowers between them. So, take a piece of paper and paper and start planning flower beds.
Natalya Myagkova makes the plan of the flower garden | Full cycle school of landscape design by Natalia Myagkova
How do I plan a flower garden on paper?
I put a grid on the original plan of the flower garden - the size of the cell is 50x50 cm (Fig. 1). I always make a grid to make it easier to determine the size of the spots (clumps) of flowers. The same mesh will help when planting plants in a flower garden on the site. For large flower beds, a mesh is required.
The sequence of my actions is as follows:
1. I mark the tiers on the plan. The width of the tier is approximately equal to the height of the tier. The line of the tier echoes the line of the border of the flower garden. For the first tier, I select a strip of about 80 cm, for the second - about 1 m, for the third - about 1.
2 m. The total width of the flower garden is 3 m.
2. I divide the tiers into spots about 1 m long. I get such a grid of spots - fig. 2.
3. I begin to distribute the plants. I have a table in front of me, where I distributed the flowers by tiers to the timing of flowering. All the time I look into it, which plants I have chosen. I don't rely on my memory. I start with the simplest - from the third tier. Here, the least plants are Volzhanka, Veronicastrum, Aster. It is important that there are repetitions of plants, then flowering will be even more spectacular. The most structural of all is Volzhanka, and I start with it. I plant it along the edges of the third tier. Between it is an aster. Veronicastrum (the variety that grows with me) is falling apart slightly, so I plant it in small curtain spots. Volzhanka and aster will squeeze one curtain. The second curtain may slightly fall apart into a cherry, but it does not interfere with the cherry. I looked at the plan - I didn’t like that the asters were just one curtain.
I looked for where to plant it - I came up with a fence. While the cherry has not grown, the aster will have enough light. When the cherry grows, then the aster will need division, it can be removed. How I planned the third tier - see fig. 3
4. Starting the second tier. Here the main plant is the peony. In my opinion, the peony most accurately conveys the theme of the flower garden - Provence with its simplicity and splendor at the same time. I want to have a lot of peonies. Therefore, I plant 3 curtains of 2 pieces. Peony with its appearance, a wonderful structural plant. It can be planted in the first tier and in the second. Therefore, we got 1 curtain - in the second tier, and 2 curtains - in the first tier (see Fig. 4)
5. Siberian iris blooms simultaneously with peony. This is a sheaf, structural. You can plant a small spot of 2-3 pieces, it will pacify any "flower porridge". Good for both the first and second tier. On the right, a curtain of irises will “squeeze” veronicastrum, on the left, it will contrast well with the leaves of peonies.
(Figure 5)
6. Of the plants of the second tier, it remains to find a place for phloxes. There are 2 free places left, I plant phloxes there (see Fig. 5.). I want to take a variety with purple inflorescences. Large-leaved hydrangeas of this color do not winter in the Moscow region, and such a phlox is similar to hydrangeas and is not inferior to it in splendor. Flowering in August is ensured, the theme of Provence will continue (Figure 5).
7. So, the turn of the first tier has come. It's time to add unstructured, hazy and soften all the "hard" plants. I love the way the oak sage falls apart. Just his place in the lower tier. I plant rhythmically 3 curtains (Fig. 5).
8. To contrast the texture, it is advisable to plant something with rounded leaves in the foreground, since the leaves of the selected plants are linear, split or inexpressive. Watching the flowers in July, I noticed that I do not have enough white flowers. The hosta is white-edged with rounded leaves and the shape of the plant - a hemisphere, in my opinion, is exactly what you need.
And the contrast will be, and the stripes will add the desired white color. The hosta will stand out brightly all season long. To make the flower garden look solid, you need to plant it rhythmically around the entire edge of the flower garden. For such a large flower garden, this will be 3 spots. There was no longer enough space and I had to sacrifice one curtain of iris (I planned a third curtain next to the spruce, but replaced it with a host) (Fig. 5).
9. And finally, echinacea (a variety with white flowers). This is a must plant for my flower garden. Firstly, in one of the pictures that inspired me, there was a couple of sage + chamomile. Instead of chamomile, I will have echinacea. Secondly, it provides flowering in August. And thirdly, it also corresponds to the theme of Provence - it combines both pomp and simplicity. There are 3 places left, and I plant it there, the rhythm of planting suits me (Fig. 6).
10. It remains to place the lilies. I will plant them in narrow strips or spotted in 5 pieces.
