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Pleasing Plantings - One Leaf at A Time. - Page 2

© Carol Wallace

In the above example I seem heavy on the purples and fairly solid leaf structures - so choosing a bridge plant of a complementary color seems wise. The one I use is Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' which has extremely fine foliage and pale (moonbeam) yellow flowers that go one for most of the summer. It billows nicely to a height of about two feet and the Veronica from the last grouping looks good at its feet when it sends up those porcelain blue flowers. So something that flowers in blue seems like a logical next step. And so in goes a Veronica of a different type - the long-blooming brilliant deep blue 'Goodness Grows'.

And so it goes - on down the border.

Planting a long flower border can seem truly intimidating if you look at it as this big long strip that needs filling. But if you break it down into vignettes it becomes manageable. All you need to remember are a few basic principles.

Look for foliage types that complement each other. Generally a mix of small and large shapes that echo each other work, as well as a mix of bold foliage with fine or ferny leaves. I always like to start with the foliage because it's what you see most of the year, so I pay a lot of attention to the shapes, and even more important, to the colors.

Foliage does come in many colors. Greens tend to have either blue tones or yellow. Very blue foliage will go well with very yellow, but mixing in-between shades of these often clashes or just looks wishy-washy.

If you need to use plants in shades of green that don't quite work together then use plants with silver or gold or purple foliage (whichever harmonizes best) to bridge the gap. Or better still, use a plant with variegated foliage that combines the two colors. The colored foliage will add life to the composition even when nothing is flowering.

Pay attention to color echoes. The purplish cast of one leaf may make it a great partner for the deep purple flower of another; a yellow variegation on a leaf may hint that a yellow-flowered plant will work well in the grouping.

Use "plant echoes, too. A collection of lots of different plants can be unified by repeating a few garden basics from time to time throughout the garden. For me, in this particular border, the basics are my bridge plant, the coreopsis, and the lamb's ears and veronica which form an edging that ties the whole composition together. I use the lamb's ears in front of finer textured plants, and let it melt into the Veronica when fronting those with bolder foliage. On occasion I let something else spill over - a geranium with its finely dissected foliage, or a Veronica repens with very finely textured leaves and deep blue flowers.

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