Well, it's springtime now, and I know all of you are thinking the same thought. (NO! Not that one!) You're asking yourself, what kind of flowers should I plant this year? You want to be able to look out your noding window (you do have a noding window, don't you?) and feast your eyes on some beautiful blossoms every once in a while, don't you? Sure you do.
If your flower bed is in the full sun most of the day, like mine, there's a couple of good options. Petunias are good-looking flowers, but they tend to get leggy later in the summer and they don't look nice when they are wearing down. They tend to do better in a pot or a hanging basket. Also, they don't make good anal retentive rows like some flowers. And I know most of you folks in here are so anal retentive that you could suck the vinyl off a barcolounger. So you might like the kind of flowers I planted today.
My favorite is the periwinkle. Pinks, reds, whites; mix 'em up. You may find them under their botanical name, Vinca. They're in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae). The name periwinkle is possibly taken from pervinka, the Russian name of the flower, which in turn is derived from pervi, "first," as it is one of the first flowers of spring. They tend to stay pretty almost all summer long, and they love the sun.