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Perennial Punctuation Points

© Jojo Sigurgeirson

People in the design world sometimes talk about impact and punctuation points. In indoor decor, designers use dark, stark or bold objects as punctuation points. Let us take for example a light coloured room, with light coloured furniture, and a few black objects such as black mat board behind a stark sketch, a black lamp, perhaps a black pillow. The tendancy within this sort of scenario is to leave black objects lying around, such as hats and shoes. However, too many black punctuation marks can cause a room to look polka-dotted. Sooner or later you catch yourself leaving anarchist magazines out on coffee tables at jaunty angles. There is such a thing as going too far.

You see, punctuation points are a place where your eye pauses to take in the scene. If you have too many punctuation points your eyes stop every yard or so and can lead to visual problems. The show will be cluttered with mixed messages and forgotten impacts.

In the outdoor arena, certain plants are said to be punctuation points. These can be anything, but are often used singly as a feature within a void of relative sameness. If a garden is bland, add a punctuation point and all the designers will be happy.

Indoors or out, you can work punctuation points in colour, form or texture.

Some popular punctuation points include...

• Deep coloured leafy plants such as Heucheras
• Bold-leaved plants such as Ligularia
• Plants with lots of vertical impact such as Delphiniums

Sometimes all it takes is one punctuation point in a garden bed or container, to make a statement, and suddenly the entire show comes alive.

Some plants by their very nature don't work as punctuation points. Plain and simple. These plants are often soft or feathery in nature, featuring flowers in pale pretty colours such as white and pink. The leaves on non-punctuation plants blend into the background. Sometimes these are needed in a garden where there are too many punctuation points, or where some body is needed to fill in behind. Non-punctuation plants include Spireas, shrubby potentillas, and of course Baby's Breath.

Do you have your own ideas on punctuation in the garden? Please drop us a line in our discussion area, which is linked to at the bottom of this article.

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