When designing your garden, incorporate as many visual treats as possible. So in addition to selecting plants for their attractive flowers and leaves, consider choosing some perennials for their ornamental seed or fruit.
Here are some decorative seed pods in the garden this morning!
The seed pods really are attractive. I wonder if seed pods have always been considered ornamental or if they were consistently removed in older traditional gardens? Also, I have heard of people spraying their Allium seed heads ( while still attached to the plant) with colorful paint and wonder if there are other seed heads that lend themselves to that?
Katherine, I think gardening practices in the past were probably about as varied as people who garden. Certainly there were gardeners whose appreciated the beauty and ornamental value of seed pods as much as we do. As far as spray painting seed pods/seed heads, allium is certainly a good candidate, as well as clematis, baptisia, and the plumes of ornamental grasses.
Lilium formosanum is one that right away comes to mind (for painting). The upright seedpods look like candelabras. (I haven’t done this, but often thought it would be cool in some gardens). Mine are full of buds.