This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Are you looking to create a flowerbed or redesign a corner of the yard by incorporating new varieties of plants this summer? What shades are you dreaming of? Here are three very interesting color palettes to introduce: blues, greens and reds.
Green
You will give a touch of light to your arrangement by choosing greens. The orpin ‘Autumn Joy’ (Sedum‘Autum Joy’) remains a classic. Its flowers turn old pink in late summer. The rock stonecrop (Sedum‘Angelina’) is a most spectacular ground cover with its fleshy leaves of a sparkling yellow-green colour. The creeping lysimachia ‘Aurea’ (Lysimachia nummularia‘Aurea’), a creeping perennial in both sun and shade, can be used as ground cover or in your planters. The bright green of the hop ‘Bianca’ (Humulus‘Bianca’) will turn heads. It will twine around a wire or pole at lightning speed. In a more traditional arrangement, you won’t want to miss a magnificent clump of panicled hydrangea ‘Limelight’ (Hydrangea paniculata‘Limelight’), whose conical, soft lime green flowers are abundant all summer long.
Red
Add a pop of magenta to your landscape by introducing ‘Lucifer’ crocosmias (Crocosmia‘Lucifer’). This red-flowering perennial has a very exotic and hardy appearance in winter under a good cover of snow, and some echinacea ‘Tomato Soup’ (Echinacea‘Tomato Soup’) in your sunny flower bed. Knotweed ‘Firetail’ (Persicaria amplexicaulis‘Firetail’), with its long red spikes, adapts well to partial shade. On a wall or an arbour, climb a clematis ‘Niobe’ (Clematis‘Niobe’). And, in a more modern arrangement, opt for the cylindrical imperate or Japanese bloody grass (Imperata cylindrica‘Red Baron’). This hardy grass, whose tips are blood red during the summer, gradually turns red at the end of the hot season and will be all the rage. Finally, to stretch out the season and put on a show, plant a winged spindle tree (Euonymus alatus) which will turn purple all fall.
Blue
This shade remains relatively rare in the plant kingdom. Few organic pigments provide this color. Here are some suggestions for creating a unique flowerbed, all in blue. Blue thistle (Echinops ritro‘Blue Glow’) is a must-have. It thrives all summer and produces intense blue spheres that rise above the silvery-green foliage. Combine with eryngium (Eryngium), a very original plant with blue flowers, to play with heights. At the base, add a few blue fescue tillers (Festuca glauca), a small grass with a compact and rounded shape, as well as some woolly beangrass (Stachys byzantina), the famous fluffy gray rabbit ears. Then, in the background, to support this arrangement, sow some ‘Heavy Metal’ panicles (Panicum virgatum‘Heavy Metal’), a grass with powder blue foliage that tolerates drought. In a very large pot or in a steel tub, plant sand ryegrass (Elymus arenarius‘Blue Dunes’), a grass with stiff, bluish-grey, then tawny spikes, resembling those of wheat. However, it must be taken into account that ryegrass is a very invasive plant. It should be grown in a tub or pot to ensure that it does not spread by its rhizomes. The look of this monochrome arrangement will be modern and very original.
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.