Foliage: Form, Color and Texture

When shopping for new garden plants, it is easy to hyper-focus on flowers.  Big box stores create dramatic displays of heavily flowering perennials grouped together on shelves, right where they will catch your attention.  The beauty of those massed flowers really draws the eye and entices the senses.  What could be more beautiful in your yard than to mimic that stunning display.  Oceans of purple flowering Salvia or Veronica bringing color to your drab gardens.  Splashes of orange and red Poppy.  Swaths of yellow Daylillies and Black-eyed Susan bursting with color.

The plants you see flowering on the shelves now, most likely will not be flowering two weeks from now. You are seeing plants at their flowering peak.  For retail garden centers, timing is everything. The stores and nurseries work together to ensure stocked plants are in their seasonal prime.  So, plants that flower in early spring, will be sold in late winter and early Spring, when they are showing off their colors to the best of their ability.  Summer flowering plants are stocked in late Spring or early Summer.  Fall flowering plants are displayed in late Summer or early Fall.

Stores are not attempting to rip you off.  But don't be fooled by wishful thinking.  These plants will not flower forever.  Most plants bloom for three to six weeks.  Then you are left with leaves and stems. 

So, when purchasing your plants, consider the form, color and texture of a plant's foliage.  Between periods of flowering, foliage holds a garden together.  Consider using plants for the sake of their foliage and count the flowers as a bonus.

The challenge: planning your garden to ensure interest throughout the growing season.  You can plant swaths of perennials, grasses and shrubs to create dramatic displays of your own.  But keep in mind the limited flowering period of each plant.  Plan for flowering lulls.

Ornamental Grass and Grass-like plants:
The variety of available grass and grass-like plants on the market today is astounding.   There are ornamental grasses ranging in size from six inches to ten feet tall.  Some clump, some spread, some weep, some stand upright.  Grasses can be found in red, white, blue, silver, purple, black, variegated, striped, spotted and solid, broad of leaf or narrow. These plants flower in Spring, Summer, and Fall in plumes of red, pink, white, silver, brown, purple....  My point is this: grass offers a wide range of options that can bring interest in form, texture, and color. 
Consider some of the ornamental grasses and grass-like plants below to bring beauty to your gardens.

Calamagrostis brachytricha  - Korean Feather Reed Grass

Korean Feather Reed Grass matures at approximately 24" tall and 30" wide.  This plant tends to be fairly loose in habit, especially when young.  This grass does well in partial shade.  I would use Korean Feather Reed Grass in the foreground of large flowering perennials such as Black-eyed Susan and Cone flower.  The foliage color contrast with these particular perennials



 

 Blue Spire Oat Grass

Festuca glauca'Elijah Blue' - Elijah Blue Fescue 

This Fecue is a well controlled mounding/weeping grass that tends to be a deep steel blue and grows approximately 1' tall and 9" wide. 

 

 Stipa (Nasella) tenuissima - Ponytail Grass

 

Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Overdam' - Overdam Feather Reed Grass

 

Ornamental Grasses can be left standing through Fall and Winter to add form, texture and color to what could otherwise be a bleak or drab garden.

Astilbe

Coral Bell

For more tips and tricks to creating a lush and beautiful garden, continue reading my blog.

For help designing, installing or maintaining your landscape, feel free to give Brent Langley a call at (616) 328-3258.  Thank you



Kensington Palace Gardens - July 2013

My wife, Melissa, and I had the opportunity to make it to London, England, in July, 2013, staying at the Thistle Kensington located just across Bayswater Road from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.  We spent many hours walking the 650 acres of the Park and Garden where the Kings and Queens and their Courts have walked and gather since its aquisition in 1536 by King Henry VIII. 

I was surprised to find the majority of Kensington Garden and Hyde Park consists, not of "gardens" as we would understand the term in the United States, but of open lawns and ancient trees through which ran broad boulevards for strolling, running and biking. These areas are more like NY's Central Park or St. Louis' Forest Park.  The seeming monotony is broken by occasional fountains and formal displays of flowering annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees.  When we discovered these, I was ecstatic. 

The formal garden of Kensington Palace, known as the Dutch Sunken Garden, is lush and vibrant in July, boasting extravagant displays of a wide variety of flowering perennials as well as palms and evergreen shrubs and trees.

Kensington Palace Sunken Garden



Kensington Palace Formal Pool surrounded by cut flagstone walks and topiary in planters close trimmed lawns and vibrant floral and foliar displays. 

Notice the contrast as well as repetition of color throughout the garden.  Color is repeated from bed to bed using a variety of flowering plants, creating continuity while still maintaining interest that draws the eye deeper into the garden to discover the uniqueness of each area.

 

 

The Steel Blue of the Globe Thistle seen here in the foreground is repeated by the Lavender, drawing the eye deeper into the landscape.

 A wide swath of wine-red bipinnatus Cosmos creates a stunning complementing backdrop to the Globe Thistle. 

The striking red flower of 'Bishop of Llandaff' Dahlia stands out dramatically against its black leaves and stems which, in turn, are complemented by the open flower heads of the nearly spent pink Purple Loosestrife(?).

Bee Balm and Ligularia 'The Rocket' in the foreground.

Large topiary Arborvitae leading to the Queen's Alcove and arched walk around the Sunken Garden form the backdrop.

 

Landscape Design: Harmony

Harmony in the landscape refers to the way in which various elements in the landscape are organized to create a sense of unity or continuity within individual garden areas as well as between areas within the overall landscape. There are many elements that can be used to create harmony within a landscape. Each element adds a different dimension of unity and can be used in combination with the other elements to create an overall sense of harmony within the garden and landscape. Among these harmonizing elements, I would like to emphasis the following: Color Schemes, Repeated Hardscapes elements, Repeated Forms, and Green Spaces. Let’s look at some of these various elements in detail.
Color Schemes are probably the most easily identified harmonizing element in a landscape, and therefore the most habitually emphasized of these elements. Color Schemes usually rely on specific color combinations that can make or break a garden. For this reason color schemes must be chosen with care. However, the most exciting combinations are not always planned. Feel free to experiment with new partnerships. Choose an individual color or several contrasting or complimenting colors to be used throughout the landscape (see the color wheel).
Color partnerships can be separated into two categories: contrasting colors and complimentary colors. When contrasting colors are combined, they tend to draw attention to themselves through explosive relationship. Tension is created, heightening our senses and drawing our eyes to this place. By standing out, these dissonant color combinations further emphasis the more harmonic color combinations. Seizing our attention, these contrasting color combinations can highlight transition between two areas in the landscape. Beware: too many dissonant color combinations can destroy a garden. Our goal should then be to limit these contrasting color combinations in order to emphasis the overall unity of the garden or landscape.
It is easy to focus exclusively on flower color. However, flowers come and go. They blossom and fade with the seasons’ change. Foliage, however, is longer lasting and thus, perhaps, the more important producer of color choices in the landscape. I would, therefore, encourage you to try basing your color scheme on the foliage of one or more specimen plants. You may even consider the color found in other elements such boulders, tree and shrub bark, a garden sculpture or paver brick.
Hardscape elements repeated in the landscape can also draw together a disparate landscape. Thus, when you are dealing with various themes such as formal and informal areas or perennial and annual gardens, Consider using common hardscape elements such as stone or brick. Both of these can be used in a number of applications. For instance, granite can be used to create a very appealing patio or walkway as well as retaining walls. Perhaps you could use granite to create a unique water feature such as a fountain surrounded by granite pebbles.
Repeating a particular plant such as a Rhododendron or weeping Japanese Maple could also add another unifying element.
Try using Redwood or Cedar in both your fencing as well as your decking application. Match the brick in your front walkway to the brick on your house. It may be difficult to match the paving brick exactly, especially if your home is more than a couple of years old. However, there is almost always another brick that will coordinate with the existing house brick