My neighbour flies a flag from a mast in his backyard but I can't see myself ever putting one up. And, I know Americans are renowned for their patriotic pride when it comes to displaying their colours but are flags an item that gardeners would have in their gardens?

For those who might never fly a flag there is always the option to grow one. That's right - a flower flag. I'm not talking about hoisting a flag that has a floral emblem on it but actually growing a rectangular bed with flowers that depict your country's flag.

Certainly there's enough people who have grown them before to warrant the home gardener to give it a go but one must ask the question, "Why?" Is there a purpose for this irregular gardening practice? The answer - is there a purpose for any of our gardening practices?

The decision to grow a flower flag obviously comes down to patriotism - and too much time on their hands. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that gardeners who grow flower flags also have easy graphics to work with. For instance, the US flag is made up of three colours consisting mainly of horizontal stripes. The Australian flag is similar sporting the same colours with a marginally more complex pattern.

But, what if you were from Saudi Arabia, or Wales or worse still - Tibet. The Japanese, Scottish, Swedish and Italian gardeners have no excuse and could easily grow their flower flags without too much concern.

So, if you are inspired and think you might give it a try for your next National Festival here are a few things you might need to consider;

• Plant flowering times - obviously if the flowers you choose don't flower at the same time or even in the same season as your national holiday then it's a fairly pointless exercise. You will need to find plants that will grow and flower at the same time. And, you may need to prepare yourself for some level of compromise - the colours you really want may need to be substituted or at least a different hue found as an alternative.
• Flowering height - of course a flower flag is going to be grown with annuals - I'm yet to see one grown from perennial shrubs. However, you will need to consider the differing heights of plants and their eventual blooms. Mixing english stocks with lobelia is probably not going to be a great option.
• Plant growing preferences - basically, some plants prefer moist soil while others are happy with drier feet. Some prefer full sun and others are shade lovers. Find plants that are mutually happy in the position you plan to put them in.
• Replacing dead or damaged plants - this is the tricky one. If one, or a few, of your plants die during the growing or flowering period the result will look like a 5-year old with a lost tooth. If you're serious about growing this flower flag then you will need to have a few understudies maturing in the wings. Then replacing the dead plants will be an almost routine affair rather than a catastrophic disaster.
• Encouraging their blooms - ok, so it's only a week away from your national festival and the flower flag doesn't look like it will be blooming on time. Is there anything you can do about it? Well, you could try talking nicely to them, maybe invest in an all-night prayer vigil or you could try encouraging them with a high potassium liquid fertiliser. It may not get them over the line in a week but it's worth a shot.

So, if you plan to grow a flower flag in your garden I wish you all the best. This is not an easy thing to achieve success with as so many things can go wrong but if you manage to pull it off then you could become the toast of the neighbourhood.

And if you're looking for a little more inspiration take a look at this US flag grown in Vandenberg which spans more than 6.5 acres.