• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Great Garden Speakers

  • Home
  • About
  • Search Speakers
  • Search Talks
  • Upcoming Events
    • Submit Event
    • Edit Events
    • Edit Locations
  • Learning Center
    • General FAQ
    • Program Manager Tips
    • Speaker Tips
  • Contact
  • Member Login
    • Become A Member
    • Support
    • Buy Spotlight Ad

Dynamic Plant Combinations

February 8, 2021 By Debra Prinzing

Learn how foliage, color, texture and form can create beautiful compositions in the garden.

COLOR: Use color to frame, define and highlight specific plants in the garden
Monochromatic color
• Green + one color ~ good way to incorporate variegated plants with cream, white or pale yellow
• An array of one color ~ i.e., all blues or all greens
Analogous color: colors next to one another on the color wheel
• warm tones together
• cool tones together
Complementary color: High contrast using colors opposite or nearly opposite each other on the color wheel
• orange-purple
• yellow/gold-blue
• red-green

TEXTURE:
• Get interest from foliage even if you don’t have flowers
• Keep one element as “common denominator” such as foliage color or using plants from same family (example: sedums, hostas, hebes)
• Balance small, medium and large-leafed plants

FORM: Consider a plant’s overall form or growth habit ~ arching, weeping, mounded, spreading, open or dense
• You can mix colors if your “form language” is common (example: large phormium/New Zealand flax + small black mondo grass)
• Pair densely-formed plants with open-formed plants for a cool effect (look “through” one plant to enjoy the other’s beauty)
• When you can’t repeat specific plants, repeat similar forms

SCALE/PROPORTION:
• Balance tall and short plants with a common medium-scale plant that echoes elements of each
• Create emphasis, dominance and focal points with scale

Primary Sidebar

Search Talks

Search Speakers

Search for:

Learning Center Categories

Speaker Tips
Program Manager Tips
Speaker FAQ

Talks In The Spotlight

Grow With Great Garden Speakers

Get weekly tips for creating exciting online and live programs!
* indicates required
Garden Speaker Interests

Footer

Speaker’s Quick Links

My Speaker Profile
My Talks
Member Login
Member Resources
Speaker FAQ
Upcoming Events
Spotlight Ads

Customer Service

My Account
Reset Password
Member Admin Area
Get Support



Copyright © 2022 Greatgardenspeakers.org · Owned and managed by The Garden of Words, LLC · Sitemap · Privacy Policy ·Terms of Use

Content posted by speakers and advertisers is owned by them and may not be reproduced without their permission.

Great Garden Speakers is not a party to any contract between a speaker and a venue, and is not responsible for the actions that may result from any contacts made through this site.