Gray and Silvery Foliage

The gray and silver-leaved plants are also important in color compositions. They add charm independent of their blossoms. In background plantings, they lighten heavy or monotonous masses of dark green, and at the same time they heighten the effect of distance. In the border, they bring conflicting colors into pleasing relationship.

Mrs. Wilder wrote of these: "But of all the colored leaved plants and shrubs none is so really beautiful and so entirely indispensable as those that wear the silvery or bluish tones. These fill a place in the garden that no other plants can fill; among the gay garden flowers, the trails and mounds and breadths of soft neutral foliage soothe our color-excited nerves and give us great aesthetic pleasure. ... To be wholly effective, these sober-hued plants should be used with a fairly lavish hand, not dotted about among gayer colors where their quiet sway would scarcely be felt."

Gray-foliaged plants are more effective with light-tinted flowers, soft lavenders, mauve, pale yellow, buff, and soft pinks. But they are also good with strong colors. Gertrude Jekyll felt that gray foliage with pink and purple flowers was so important that a whole border might be given over to such a combination. She suggested bold clumps of hollyhocks, tumbling masses of Clematis jackmanni, lavatera, globe thistle, purple and white China asters, dwarf and tall ageratum, babysbreath, deep blue and purple delphinium, double pink godetia, pink snapdragons, together with Eryngium giganteum, Thalictrum glaucum, santolina, Stachys lanata, and dusty miller (Centaurea cineraria) to be used in a composition for midsummer.

We have long used the gray-green foliages as foregrounds for compositions. There are several excellent low-growing, gray-green perennials and annuals. Some of the less compact sorts like Scotch pinks can be sheared after blooming into compact forms to accentuate the front edge of a border. Alyssum, both annual and perennial, arabis, especially the double-flowered form, Nepeta mussini, southernwood, and Veronica incana are all good gray-green edging material.

Contents

• Color Accent - Color accent groups along a border produce movement, rhythm, and sequence. They carry the eye along to the climactic point.
• Color Placement - Color, for any given season, should never be concentrated in any one bed or border to the exclusion of others.
• Color Schemes - Since we discourage the use of restrictive and complex color schemes, we will offer other reasonable solutions. The two methods that follow have been found in actual practice to produce satisfactory gardens.
• Blue - Analogous harmonies based on blue are easy to arrange because dark and light blues provide sufficient contrast. Blue, contrasted with yellow or orange of the same chroma, is strong and bold, but such combinations must be used sparingly.
• Violet, Purple, and Magenta - These hues lie between blue and red and are most difficult to use effectively. Long considered symbols of loyalty, they bring dignity to the garden.
• Red, and Its Place - Red, and the closely associated hues of crimson, scarlet, and red-orange can be important in a garden composition. Too often they are omitted altogether, but they are a means of securing greater distinction and a desirable warmth.
• Pink, a Tint of Red - Here is a color that is not a primary, as is sometimes supposed, but a tint of red that varies according to the amount of white it contains. There are deep strong pinks (rose), or pale weak ones.
• Orange, Warm and Luminous - Orange imparts even more brilliance and warmth to borders than red and closely related scarlet. Orange is one of the vital hues.
• Yellow for Light and Life - Yellow and white are always pleasing together and there is a fresh simplicity in their use. Another strong contrast may be had from strong yellow with strong blue, or even with difficult purple.
• White, the Fifth Primary - You might think white would be the simplest of colors to use in the garden, yet this is not the case. White, improperly placed, or in poor proportion causes unsatisfactory compositions.
• Green, the Sixth Primary - The urge for riots of color in all parts of the garden at all times makes us overlook green. Such neglect not only impairs the true effectiveness of color compositions, but also robs the garden of more permanent beauty.
• Gray and Silvery Foliage - Gray-foliaged plants are more effective with light-tinted flowers, soft lavenders, mauve, pale yellow, buff, and soft pinks. But they are also good with strong colors.
• Color in the Garden - Color should be used to provide accent and emphasis, balance, repetition and rhythm, sequence, and climax. These are more helpful in the development of a pleasing garden than all the subtle, close, color harmonies that ever were attempted.

See Also

• Next Page: Color in the Garden
• Return from Gray and Silvery Foliage to: Landscape-Guide Home

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