Planting Combinations

We are attracted to showy individuals that shout ‘look at me’, the ones that look good in pots or on the page. Our plants may interview well, have a magnificent resume but when we get them home we find they are not “team players.” The resulting planting is usually a disjointed collection of plants rather than a harmonious picture.

A beautiful garden is more than the sum of its parts. For a planting to sing it needs synergy; that is the plants must work together. Think of your ornamental garden like an orchestra that needs to tune in, soloists are good but we don’t want random cacophony. I am not suggesting gardeners produce rigid planting plans for their garden; this can kill the sense of play that separates the gardener’s garden from the designer’s landscape.

However, we must look at plants as groups not individuals, beauty lies in how they interact with one another. In this way you will not ignore the ‘good doers’, the plants that play vital supporting roles but will not jump out at you from a catalogue page. Creating combinations that work is a challenge. I’ll give you a head start by examining the basics through examples from Heronswood and suggesting some effective combinations, this goes with that, you might like to try.

The first step is assessing your site; don’t start with the pretty picture start with your site. You are already making the job easier by limiting your designs to the plants that will thrive in your garden. You want to create a spirit of place and your plants need to be adapted to the conditions, of soil, light, shade, rainfall climate zone.

Diggers labelling helps by providing this information. Your plant combinations must share the same likes and dislikes to succeed.

Timing is the next factor, your plant team need to be doing their thing at the same time. No point in trying to create a picture based on winter daffodils with a summer autumn flowering dahlia. Timing can be manipulated by cutting plants back or taking off flower buds but far easier to select plants that naturally do their thing at the same time.

Now for the designing. The basics of any design is balancing harmony and contrast. Basically similar colour, foliage, texture and form produces calm and rest. And conversely, contrast excitement. The art is in creating a sense of harmony while still retaining a heartbeat.

No matter how gorgeous they are, put flowers and colour to one side. It is foliage and form that really give structure to a garden.

A good suggestion is to photograph your garden in black and white. This allows you to focus on concepts like mass and void, foliage texture and scale.

Consider the following:

Combine Forms: Mounding forms, vertical forms, airy forms, strappy forms and mat forms.

Combine Textures: Glossy/felty; bold/fine.

Foliage Colour: Variegated, grey/green, purple/golden.

Contrasts in Density: Tightly packed box versus the open form of Verbena bonariensis.

Our evergreen border demonstrates how contrast of texture and form can create a beautiful picture without flowers and with plants that might appear dull on their own. This is a combination of one drip, full sun plants with year round interest.