A monochromatic garden is a garden in which a single color is highlighted.
A monochromatic garden is a garden in which a single color is highlighted.
Such a garden is planted so that it overwhelms the observer with a single color. While this may seem a rather bland approach at first, such gardens were made popular by the work of famous garden designers such as Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West. Sackville-West, for example, created what may have been one of the most famous single-color gardens, the White Garden room of the Sissinghurst Castle Garden. [1] [2]
Many single-color gardens use flowers of different shades, such as light yellow and deep gold, or a range that includes dark burgundy, bright scarlet, and also pink for a red garden. [3] [4] (A similar idea uses analogous colors, such as purple, red, and orange, rather than a single color. [5] ) Plants with colored leaves, such as silver leaves or plants with variegated foliage for a white garden, might also be included. [4]
The color for a monochromatic garden may be chosen for any reason, including to fit a small garden, as part of a clean, contemporary design, or to highlight a favorite color. [6] [4] Another possibility is an all-green garden, which may feel peaceful or harmonious. [1] A monochromatic edible garden is possible, but more challenging to design than a flower garden in any color except green. [7] Yellow variegated leaves can be difficult to include in a multi-colored garden, but they blend easily into an all-yellow garden, such as all-yellow Gold Border garden at Wave Hill in New York. [8]
Beyond the choice of color, single-color gardens are designed with a variety of types and sizes of flowers as well as plants of different heights, shapes and textures. [3] [4] Other elements of the garden, such as pathways, walls, and furniture, may match or contrast with the chosen color. [4]
A white garden is a feature garden composed of plants that produce white flowers and spathes as well as plants with a white or silvery cast to their foliage. The white garden is a variant of the color garden. The most essential feature of the white garden is its unity of color.
The white garden is an informal gardening style that is similar in design to the English cottage garden. The open and informal design creates associations with romance, peace, and elegance. The white flowers are not usually placed in clusters, but spread throughout the garden's green areas, creating a natural look and feel. The mildly dense placement of white flowers creates a luminescent sight that is especially powerful in the twilight. Because of this effect, they are sometimes called moon gardens . [9]
The white flowers in a white garden are not necessarily pure white; they may have hints of other colors, such as gray, blue, pink, yellow, or green. [2] The White Garden at Sissinghurst, for example, contains white, grey and silver. [10]
Flowers used in white gardens may include:
The color white, and white flowers in particular, carry a vast amount of symbolism.
In parts of the US in 1915, single-color flower gardens featuring yellow flowers were used as a symbol of support for women's right to vote. [11]
Canna or canna lily is the only genus of flowering plants in the family Cannaceae, consisting of 10 species. All of the genus's species are native to the American tropics and naturalized in Europe, India and Africa in the 1860s. Although they grow native to the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world, as long as they receive at least 6–8 hours average sunlight during the summer, and are moved to a warm location for the winter. See the Canna cultivar gallery for photographs of Canna cultivars.
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that improve on the original species in qualities such as color, shape, scent, and long-lasting blooms. There are many examples of fine ornamental plants that can provide height, privacy, and beauty for any garden. These ornamental perennial plants have seeds that allow them to reproduce. One of the beauties of ornamental grasses is that they are very versatile and low maintenance. Almost all types of plant have ornamental varieties: trees, shrubs, climbers, grasses, succulents, aquatic plants, herbaceous perennials and annual plants. Non-botanical classifications include houseplants, bedding plants, hedges, plants for cut flowers and foliage plants. The cultivation of ornamental plants comes under floriculture and tree nurseries, which is a major branch of horticulture.
Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves and sometimes the stems and fruit of plants. Species with variegated individuals are sometimes found in the understory of tropical rainforests, and this habitat is the source of a number of variegated houseplants. Variegation is caused by mutations that affect chlorophyll production or by viruses, such as mosaic viruses, which have been studied by scientists. The striking look of variegated plants is desired by many gardeners, and some have deliberately tried to induce it for aesthetic purposes. There are a number of gardening books about variegated plants, and some gardening societies specialize in them.
Salvia officinalis, the common sage or sage, is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in modern times it has been used as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is also used for closely related species and cultivars.
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, at Sissinghurst in the Weald of Kent in England, was created by Vita Sackville-West, poet and writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. It is among the most famous gardens in England and is designated Grade I on Historic England's register of historic parks and gardens. It was bought by Sackville-West in 1930, and over the next thirty years, working with, and later succeeded by, a series of notable head gardeners, she and Nicolson transformed a farmstead of "squalor and slovenly disorder" into one of the world's most influential gardens. Following Sackville-West's death in 1962, the estate was donated to the National Trust. It was ranked 42nd on the list of the Trust's most-visited sites in the 2021–2022 season, with over 150,000 visitors.
Pulmonaria (lungwort) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae, native to Europe and western Asia, with one species east to central Asia. According to various estimates there may be between 10 and 18 species found in the wild.
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are also technically perennials.Notably, it is estimated that 94% of plant species fall under the category of perennials, underscoring the prevalence of plants with lifespans exceeding two years in the botanical world
Salvia yangii, previously known as Perovskia atriplicifolia, and commonly called Russian sage, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant and subshrub. Although not previously a member of Salvia, the genus widely known as sage, since 2017 it has been included within them. It has an upright habit, typically reaching 0.5–1.2 metres tall, with square stems and gray-green leaves that yield a distinctive odor when crushed. It is best known for its flowers. Its flowering season extends from mid-summer to late October, with blue to violet blossoms arranged into showy, branched panicles.
Primula vulgaris, the common primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and parts of southwest Asia. The common name is primrose, or occasionally common primrose or English primrose to distinguish it from other Primula species also called primroses. None of these are closely related to the evening primroses.
Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is currently placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, and is native to northeast Asia. Like many "lilioid monocots", the genus was once classified in the Liliaceae. The genus was named by Austrian botanist Leopold Trattinnick in 1812, in honor of the Austrian botanist Nicholas Thomas Host. In 1817, the generic name Funkia was used by German botanist Kurt Sprengel in honor of Heinrich Christian Funck, a collector of ferns and alpines; this was later used as a common name and can be found in some older literature.
Dianthus barbatus, the sweet William, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. It has become a popular ornamental garden plant. It is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant growing to 13–92 cm tall, with flowers in a dense cluster of up to 30 at the top of the stems. Each flower is 2–3 cm diameter with five petals displaying serrated edges. Wild plants produce red flowers with a white base, but colours in cultivars range from white, pink, red, and purple to variegated patterns. The exact origin of its English common name is unknown but first appears in 1596 in botanist John Gerard's garden catalogue. The flowers are edible and may have medicinal properties. Sweet William attracts bees, birds, and butterflies.
The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to cottages go back centuries, but their stylized reinvention occurred in 1870s England, as a reaction to the more structured, rigorously maintained estate gardens with their formal designs and mass plantings of greenhouse annuals.
Calendula officinalis, the pot marigold, common marigold, ruddles, Mary's gold or Scotch marigold, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is probably native to southern Europe, though its long history of cultivation makes its precise origin unknown, and it may possibly be of garden origin. It is also widely naturalised farther north in Europe and elsewhere in warm temperate regions of the world.
Codiaeum variegatum is a species of plant in the genus Codiaeum, which is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, growing in open forests and scrub.
Stachys byzantina, the lamb's-ear or woolly hedgenettle, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. It is cultivated throughout much of the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and is naturalised in some locations as an escapee from gardens. Plants are very often found under the synonym Stachys lanata or Stachys olympica.
Hakonechloa is a genus of bunchgrass in the tribe Molinieae of the grass family, Poaceae, native to eastern Asia.
Aucuba japonica, commonly called spotted laurel, Japanese laurel, Japanese aucuba or gold dust plant (U.S.), is a shrub native to rich forest soils of moist valleys, thickets, by streams and near shaded moist rocks in China, Korea, and Japan. This is the species of Aucuba commonly seen in gardens - often in variegated form. The leaves are opposite, broad lanceolate, 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) long and 2–5 cm (0.79–1.97 in) wide. Aucuba japonica are dioecious. The flowers are small, 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) diameter, each with four purplish-brown petals; they are produced in clusters of 10-30 in a loose cyme. The fruit is a red drupe approximately 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter that is avoided by birds.
Ophiopogon planiscapus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is a small evergreen perennial growing to 20 cm (8 in) tall by 30 cm (12 in)wide. It grows from short rhizomes, and bears tufts of grasslike leaves, from which purple or white flowers emerge in racemes held on short stems above the leaves. It is native to Japan, where it grows on open and forested slopes.
Sedum spathulifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae known by the common names broadleaf stonecrop, yellow stonecrop, and spoon-leaved stonecrop. An evergreen perennial, it is native to western North America from British Columbia to southern California, where it can be found often in shade in many types of rocky habitat in coastal and inland hills and mountains.
Digitalis viridiflora is a species of flowering plant commonly called green foxglove in family Plantaginaceae. It is a perennial species with greenish-yellow flowers produced on stems that grow 60 to 80cm tall. It is native to the Balkans. It is found growing in woodlands and heaths.
Probably the most famous single-color garden is Vita Sackville-West's white garden at Sissinghurst in England.
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