Designing a Perennial Garden
Spring has sprung and now is the perfect time to design a beautiful perennial garden for your landscape. Before creating the garden consider the following design tips listed below:
Light: There are five main light levels full sun, light shade, partial shade, full shade, and deep shade. These levels are based on the intensity of light and the duration of time at that intensity. Combinations of plants selected should include plants that have the same light requirements.
Soil Type: Choose plants that can survive in the soil conditions found on your property. Clay soils retain water longer and sandy soils drain quickly. If soils are sandy consider amending the soil with organic matter to help increase soil fertility and water retention. If you have heavy clay soils, consider amending with soil buster (gypsum) and organic matter.
Water Requirements:
Create plant combinations with similar water requirements. Drought tolerant plants such as Salvia will not grow well with higher water loving plants such as Camellia.
Plant Size: Think of the mature plant size when choosing your perennial's, this determines how much room your plant combinations need. Avoid plants with all the same size and place larger plants in the background and lower ones in the foreground. Three or four different heights are ideal. Additionally, choose plants with similar growth rates so that one will not out grow the other.
Flower and Foliage Color: Utilize masses of related colors in both flower and foliage to create a pleasing and harmonious plant composition. A combination of blue, violet and red produces a cool and restful feel whereas red, orange, and yellow combinations are more intense and vibrant. Another option would be to use complementary colors such as purple and yellow or blue and orange. These colors play off one another and cause the colors to appear saturated and especially bright. A neutral color such as white can be used to help tone down a mass of one color.
Plant Form: Plants have six basic forms: Mounding or spreading, oval, pendulous, columnar, rounded, and vase shaped. Use oval, columnar and vase-shaped plants to draw the eye upward, pendulous or rounded plants to provide continuity, and mounding or spreading plants to fill in the gaps in a bed or boarder. A mixture of up to three forms is the most aesthetically pleasing.
Texture: Flowers and foliage can have a fine, medium, or coarse texture. Examples of fine textured plants include: ferns, ornamental grasses, Lavender, and Russian sage. Coarse textured plants have larger leaves and include plants such as Canna, Bergenia, and Lamb's Ear. Medium textured plants are between these sizes. Combine different textures for great visual effect and contrast.
Bloom Time: Choose plants that bloom at different seasons to create a garden with year round interest.
Repetition: Shapes, textures, colors, and sizes should be repeated throughout the garden. This gives continuity to the design, is aesthetically pleasing and unifies the entire landscape.
Some Plant Combinations You Can't Miss!
California Native: Arctostaphylos 'Dr Hurd', Achillea 'Moonshine', Iris douglasiana, Festuca rubra 'Tomales Bay', Verbena lilacina 'De la Mina', and Muhlenbergia rigens
Arctostaphylos 'Dr Hurd' Achillea Iris douglasiana Festuca 'Tomales Bay'
'Moonshine'
Verbena lilicina Muhlenbergia rigens
'De la Mina'
Mediterranean: Helictotrichon sempervirens, Cordyline australis 'Red Star', Penstemon 'Garnet', Lavandula 'Provence', Rosmarinus 'Boule', Phlomis fruticosa, Calandrinia grandiflora, Thymus 'Creeping', and Erigeron karvinskianus
Helictotrichon Cordyline australis Penstemon 'Garnet' Lavandula 'Provence'
sempervirens 'Red Star'
Rosmarinus 'Boule' Phlomis fruticosa Calandrinia grandiflora
Thymus 'Creeping' Erigeron karvinskianus
South African: Kniphofia 'Cobra', Dierama pulcherrimum, Leucaspermum 'Flame Spike', Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset', Dodonaea purpurea, Arctotis 'Magenta', Senecio mandraliscae, Gazania
Kniphofia 'Cobra' Dierama Leucadendron Leucaspermum
pulcherrimum 'Safari Sunset' 'Flame Spike'
Dodonaea purpurea Arctotis 'Magenta' Senecio mandraliscae Gazania
Tropical: Canna 'Tropicanna', Dahlia 'Fascination Purple', Melianthus major, Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi', Colocasia 'Black Magic', Helichrysum 'Limelight', Lotus berthelotii
Canna 'Tropicanna' Dahlia 'Fascination Purple' Melianthus major
Brugmansia Colocasia Helichrysum 'Limelight' Lotus berthelotii
'Charles Grimaldi' 'Black Magic'
Grass Garden: Cotinus coggygria 'Velvet Cloak', Phormium 'Bronze Baby', Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum', Stipa tenuissima, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', Pennisetum orientale
Cotinus coggygria Phormium Pennisetum setaceum
'Velvet Cloak' 'Bronze Baby' 'Rubrum'
Stipa tenuissima Calamagrostis Pennisetum
'Karl Foerster' orientale
Resources:
Perennial Combinations - C. Colston Burrell
garden.help@jocogov.org
Western Garden Book
www.oneplan.org
