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Bold and Beautiful Herbs

© Connie Krochmal

When people think of foliage plants, the first things that comes to mind are probably hostas and ferns. That's a real shame.

Many herbs have bold, beautiful foliage. They can add color and interesting texture to the landscape. Create pleasing combinations by combining these herbs with flowering plants in flowerbeds and mixed borders. When the flowers or shrubs aren't in bloom, the herbs provide much-needed interest.

Use herbs with silver foliage as companions for flowering plants. They form a pleasing background for blooms-especially for white, purple, and blue ones.

For contrast, choose both fine-textured and rough-textured herbs. Of the ones with fine texture, lavender cotton, artemisias, and lavenders are very popular. Those with large rough leaves include garden sage and lambs' ears. Horehound falls in between, since the woolly wavy leaves are medium in size.

Other herbs with wooly foliage work very well when interplanted with flowers. Examples would be woolly thyme and woolly mint.

I depend upon variegated herbs to bring splashes of color to my shady borders. There are many kinds available. Golden lemon balm is an example. I also have variegated mint that does well in partial shade. Because my soil is on the dry side, the mints are never aggressive.

For sunny spots I use golden thyme, silver thyme, and the numerous variegated sages. In addition to ordinary culinary oreganos, there are several variegated ones, such as golden oregano.

I grow three different colored sages, including golden, purple, and tricolor. Do keep an eye on these sages. Sometimes they will revert to type, and start producing plain green leaves. Should this occur, prune off the offending part.

Cuban oregano is available in a variegated form. The leaves have a richly puckered texture. Here in zone 5 this is a tender perennial. So I bring it indoors for the winter.

For flower beds and borders a touch of purple foliage is always nice. Purple perilla is a perfect choice. This annual often self-sows, meaning you may only need to plant it once. The dark-colored basils also work very well. There are at least three purple ones, including 'Purple Ruffles,' 'Dark Opal,' and 'Red Rubin.'

When it comes to foliage, the scented geraniums are dependable plants. They can provide color and texture to the garden. Some have variegated foliage.

Who says an herb has to be variegated to be desirable? Germander, tansy, rue, and all of the thymes have pleasing foliage. Parsley may be so common we don't think of it as a foliage plant. Yet it is a beautiful addition to the landscape--especially if you use the curly-leaved one.