Every year in early spring, I peek out my kitchen window and see one of my favorite things: little green bushes sprouting with the most beautiful white and blush pink peony blossoms. I love cutting flowers and greenery from my yard to fill vases and containers around our home and to give to friends and family as gifts. But I don't always know what to buy when I go to a garden shop to pick out a new plant to add to my yard. I called my friend and avid gardener Susanne Richardson to find out how she chooses what to plant in the yard of her beautiful Vestavia Hills home that teems with incredible blooms year-round.

Richardson is a self-taught gardener with a passion for flowers. A teacher by trade, she grew up soaking in all the knowledge she could gather about gardening from her parents and grandparents. What she lacks in formal training, she makes up for with hands-on experience.

“I love gardening. I’ve always had a dream to have a farm and fields of flowers—but not in Vestavia! The fun thing about nature is you just never know. It’s all trial and error. I learned a lot from my mom and dad, but it’s all about getting in there and getting your hands dirty. You try planting something here or there, see what works and what doesn’t.”

“Zinnias are the go-to easy flowers. You can do all kinds and it’s never too late to plant them. I put some in the ground in early April and they were already sprouting two weeks later. Everything I plant in the fall blooms in the early spring: Snapdragons, Pansies, Foxglove, Dusty Miller and Dianthus. I usually change those out in mid to late May and replace with flowers that will bloom through the summer.”

Richardson says she picks up packs of annual seeds at local garden stores like Andy’s, Collier’s, Leaf&Petal, and Hannah’s. She orders them from Amazon, grabs them at the hardware store and even the dollar store.

“I have a raised bed in my backyard, but I decided not to plant vegetables there this year,” Richardson shares. “Instead I’m planting seeds for cutting flowers. I’ve got Zinnias—I especially love the Zahara Extra Large ones, Ranunculus—lots of those, Delphinium, Purple Coneflowers, Dahlias, Queen Anne’s Lace, Cosmos. I put them all out and see what takes.”

Richardson says her best advice is to read the backs of seed packs. Know your sunlight. Make sure you have good dirt. She says she prepares a bed for planting by mixing five bags of topsoil to 1 bag manure.

“People don’t think about it, but it’s just like us—you are what you eat. “It’s got to be good soil. It’s got to be in the right place. It’s got to have the right amount of drainage. "There's a narrow window in the spring when you can get new plants in the ground between the last frost--usually close to Easter--and before the heat becomes too intense."

Richardson suggests taking a photo or making a note when you see something pretty growing that you’d like to plant and research the right time to get the plant in the ground. She loves the Limelight hydrangeas and purple Vitex Tree that bloom in early sprin and a pretty Mandavila climbing the mailbox always makes her smile. The tropical flower can't stand up to the cold winter in Alabama, so this plant has to be added annually.

Richardson’s passion recently transitioned into a small business she started with her friend Melissa Wood called Seeds Design.

“We don’t do big jobs. We do sweet arrangements of cut flowers for friends and we help people with little projects. Maybe they want to fix up a bed or plant around their mailbox. We call it making your bed happy. We either advise them about what to plant or go buy everything and install the plants for them.”

Richardson nurtures several types and colors of roses in her backyard, including David Austin and Knockout Roses. The roses are the stars of Seeds' Mother's Day arrangements in May.

"Daylilies pop up in spring along with hydrangeas, azaleas and an old timey plant called Bridal Wreath. Summer plants like Salvia start to peek though early when we have a warm early spring. I also have some Shasta Daisies, Cone Flowers and Black Eyed Susans that come back every year in the summer.”

For a few weeks in mid-spring, sweet pink blossoms of Peggy Martin rose vines are climbing above the front entrance of her house. They drape over other vines that fill in with green once the flowery show of spring has passed.

Richardson also enjoys the time-honored tradition of sharing flowers.

“A friend gave me a bunch of hydrangeas that she rooted from her yard and I love them," she says. "I have white Yorrow that comes back—it was all my grandmother’s. There’s Lamb’s Ear around my mailbox. You can share Salvia, Black Eyed Susan, Forsythia, Bridal Wreath, Hydrangeas. A friend will call up and say, ‘I have lots of Black Eyed Susans, what can we share?’ I’ll go over with different sprigs of things and we have the best time. I have friends whose yards are perfect and mine is messy and all over the place. It just depends on your personality. I’m not a perfectionist, I just like color!” and flowers.

For more flower inspiration, follow @seedsdesignco on Instagram. Richardson and Wood are available for consultations and small installs to enhance any space around your home with beautiful plants and flowers.