Favorite Garden Flowers Of 2023 – For More Than Just Looks!

While growing vegetables is the main priority in my garden each year, I also like to incorporate some of my favorite flowers as well. And from drawing in pollinators to helping with pests, these flowers do more than just look beautiful!

I enjoy walking out to the garden and seeing all those wonderful pops of color amongst all the green from the vegetables. Whether they are pink, red, orange, purple, white, or yellow, these flowers’ blooms just stand out bright and cheerful.

However, the biggest reason for growing flowers with my vegetables is how many pollinators they attract. Sure I get some bees and butterflies visiting my cucumber and squash blooms, but there’s just something about the bright flowers that draws them in droves to the garden.

Not only bees and butterflies, but hummingbirds also like to visit the homestead as well. There are multiple times when I am standing out in the middle of the garden and I hear the unmistakable hum of their fast-beating wings. I love watching them as much as I appreciate them pollinating the blooms!

While the following are my tried-and-true favorites, I’m constantly growing new flower types and varieties to see if a new favorite makes its way onto my list. You never know, my list for next year might be completely different but you can be sure that these four will be included!

My Favorite Garden Flowers Of 2023

#1: Sunflowers

Starting out at the top of the list of my favorite garden flowers, I have to go with my absolute favorite flower to grow: Sunflowers! These bright and cherry flowers are a symbol of summer and the warm weather.

There are actually a ton of different sunflower varieties, colors, and sizes. While I absolutely love the tall, commanding sunflowers with the large seed heads, they don’t grow the best in our location. (Non-Affiliate Product Link: Baker Creek Seeds Sunflower Options)

The spot where my garden is located receives a lot of high winds, especially during storms. So those tall flower stalks, while super sturdy and thick, just don’t hold up well to our Midwest winds and storms. I do still grow them occasionally, but usually end up with a few fatalities along the way.

One of my favorite tall varieties to grow is the Evening Sun mix. These plants grow up to 7 feet tall and produce multiple medium-sized blooms in colors of yellow, orange, rust, and almost brown. They really are a perfect mix for late summer and early fall. Since their blooms are a bit smaller, they do a bit better than those with huge flower heads.

A new variety I tried this year was Teddy Bear sunflowers. These unique flowers produce double blooms with layers upon layers of tiny petals. This gives the bloom an almost fuzzy appearance. The plants are perfect for high-wind locations or even for container growing since they only get to be around 24″ tall.

Additional Bonus Of Growing Sunflowers

Besides their cheerful blooms, sunflowers can perform extra duties in the garden space.

We actually started having an aphid issue last summer but the tiny pests were attracted to our sunflower plants. Since sunflowers are pretty durable and sturdy plants, I could allow the aphids to infest them and not worry too much about damage to the plants. (Unlike more sensitive crops like peppers or tomatoes.)

This is an example of using a trap crop in your garden. These crops are used to attract unwanted pests so they leave your more desired or weaker plants alone.

#2: Zinnias – Favorite Garden Flowers

Zinnias are flowers that have been in my garden space since day one. The variety and color have changed over the years, but I have always had zinnias in my garden.

Zinnia flowers are considered to be cut-and-come-again blooms. Basically, that means that the more you cut off the zinnia blooms, the more they will keep on producing. Even if you don’t want to cut the flowers to display in your home (they make excellent vase flowers!), you should still at least deadhead (or remove) the dead or spent blooms. This allows the plant to focus its energy on producing new blooms as opposed to fixing the dying ones.

Last year, I grew a few new varieties of zinnias that I absolutely fell in love with. They were the Double Zahara Raspberry Ripple Zinnia Seeds and the Double Zahara™ Salmon Zinnia Seeds, both from Park Seeds. They are shorter zinnia varieties but their blooms were just as stunning as the larger varieties!

Another favorite zinnia flower variety to grow in my garden is the Zowie! Yellow Flame Zinnia Seeds. Their cheerful double blooms feature bright yellow-edged petals with firey orange-red middles. Their name really fits with this show-stopper!

#3: Marigolds

While marigolds might not be the biggest or most beautiful flower compared to some, they are another plant that will always have a place in my garden. And it’s really for two main reasons.

First, it’s short story time: When I was growing up, my parents always had marigolds blooming around their farm. I can remember an old fence feature in particular that they had next to their mailbox. My mom would always plant marigolds around its base. I can vividly remember always wanting to smell the blooms only to realize that they really weren’t all that pleasant smelling!

So there’s a bit of a nostalgia factor to growing marigolds in my garden. But, their not-as-pleasant smell comes with a great advantage: it helps to repel pests. Creatures like squash bugs, cabbage worms, rabbits, squirrels, and groundhogs are all put off by the strong stench, causing them to stay away (for the most part).

My favorite marigolds to grow are the ones with the large pom-pom-like blooms. There are even edible varieties you can grow for even more benefits! In fact, there are actually over 50 different varieties you can choose from. Most come in that iconic orange, yellow, deep red, or white color.

One of the best parts of growing marigolds is that you can easily start them from seed as well as save their seeds each year. That means you will always have free plants on hand year after year just by deadheading and properly storing seeds!

#4: Annual Phlox

Last but definitely not least on my favorite garden flowers of 2023 list is phlox. This is one flower that is tiny but produces a ton of beautiful, brightly colored blooms from the middle of summer and well into fall.

My favorite variety of annual phlox is hands down Sugar Stars. These tiny flowers feature petals in shades of purple with beautiful bright white centers that appear to burst out from the middle. They grow low to the ground and really add beautiful pops of color that the bees and smaller pollinators love.

So there you have it, my top four favorite garden flowers to grow as of 2023 and the reasons why. Maybe next year I’ll have a totally new flower take the place of one of these. Even if I do, at least I know that they will add beauty to my garden space while helping to draw in those much-needed pollinators, too!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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