garden combinations

Picea orientalis, Sabal 'DeFuniak'

Hot and Cold Detente

We love planting garden combinations that cause visitors to have a moment of cognitive dissonance. One of those moments in the garden currently is illustrated in the combination of Picea orientalis with Sabal ‘DeFuniak’. I remember a visitor once commenting that they didn’t like it that we had planted cactus with ferns, since they found […]

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Playing with Colors, Textures, and Form

Here’s an example from JLBG, of how plant colors, textures, and forms can be used to create a garden vignette. The foreground is Tradescantia pallida (purple), Berberis thunbergii ‘Sunjoy Gold Beret’, Colocasia ‘Coal Miner’, Pennisetum orientale ‘Tall Tails’, and Albizia julibrissin ‘Chocolate Fountain’. The frame is backed with Vitex agnus-castus ‘Sensational’.

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Lavender and White

On my very short commute home, we’ve designed beds along the way that help relieve the stresses of the day. One of my favorite beds in summer is this combination of Allium ‘Millenium’, Sinningia tubiflora (white), Verbena bonariensis, and Pervoskia atriplicifolia. Both the sinningia and the verbena can be a bit aggressive in some areas

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Guardians of the pet

Here’s a fun combination in the winter garden where we interplanted a clump of the North American native Agave lophantha with a gold-leaf form of the Japanese native Selaginella tamariscina. Both the textural and color combinations are quite eyecathing.  The lesson…create vignettes throughout the garden and don’t be afraid to experiment!

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