Colored plant foliage is not at all uncommon. To one degree or another, it is present in most species of trees and shrubs. Therefore, the choice is really very large. But, unfortunately, not everyone understands how correctly variegated plants require use in site design. And how jealous they are of their neighbors. Therefore, you need to choose and place decorative leafy crops very carefully. There are certain rules that must be followed if you want to create a truly beautiful garden.
- 7 design rules from Alexander Sapelin RULE 1: Never buy plants spontaneously
- RULE 2: Moderation and naturalness
- RULE 3: Aesthetics and intuition
- RULE 4: When planting plants, consider the lighting in the garden
- RULE 5: Soften bright colors with white or silver paints
- RULE 6: Work on nuances
- RULE 7: Pay attention to color
RULE 1: Never buy plants spontaneously
- Therefore - rule one - never buy a plant you like spontaneously. If you don’t want to bury your money in the ground, first find out from the reference literature about the maintenance and wintering conditions of this species and variety
Variegated foliage of plants, as we have already said, is not uncommon. But this, as a rule, is the result of a mutation fixed by a person in a variety. And in connection with this “artificiality,” common sense dictates that such plants should be used in the garden mainly as bright accent spots. It is very difficult to create a composition entirely from “colored” plants.
Fortune's euonymus (Euonymus fortunei Emerald Gaiety)
Sometimes you can see the following picture: under a row planting of trees with purple leaves, the same shrubs grow, under it are herbaceous perennials with a similar color, then “cheerful” annuals, and all this unimaginable beauty is completed by matching paving: red benches, lanterns and other landscape elements. The overall impression is kitsch, expensive and vulgar.
Exotic shrubs for the garden
tree peony
It is a deciduous shrub that can reach a height of two meters with flowers up to 20 centimeters in diameter. The tree peony is not very common in central Russia, but it may well become a worthy decoration for your garden; there are many varieties that are resistant to cold weather. Requires shelter for the winter.
Tree peonies prefer well-lit places on a small hill. It is advisable that there are no tall plants or buildings nearby that could block sunlight. The plant prefers loamy soils; organic fertilizers must be added before planting. Since peony grows in one place for several decades, the choice of site and soil composition must be taken responsibly.
Tree peony pruning is carried out in the spring before active growth begins. Dry branches are cut off completely, last year's shoots are shortened, leaving no more than 10 centimeters. The shrub propagates by division and cuttings. The most popular varieties:
- Kiao sisters,
- Sapphire,
- Coral altar,
- Green Jade
Hibiscus (Chinese rose)
Hybrid forms of hibiscus are mostly frost-resistant. They are planted in the ground at the end of May, in a sunny area with fertile, loose soil. Loves regular watering.
Swamp hibiscus overwinters well. Blooms with large red or pink flowers. Each flower of this plant blooms for only 24 hours, then fades and others bloom.
Herbaceous hibiscus is also a cold-resistant variety. It can bloom with red, white or light pink flowers. In winter, the shoots are cut to the ground; in the spring, new ones appear in their place.
Rhododendron
This is a southern beautiful flowering plant. You can find species adapted to temperate climates. For example: Schlippenbach, Japanese, Katevbinsky.
Rhododendron prefers places with moderate lighting and acidic soil. Does not tolerate drafts and strong winds well. Therefore, it is placed near the southern part of the house or next to good shelter.
Tolerates minor waterlogging well. On hot days, it is necessary to water and spray the foliage more often. For comfortable growth, the plant requires regular nitrogen-containing fertilizing.
RULE 2: Moderation and naturalness
- This means the second most important rule : moderation and naturalness. In any garden, the main color is green, all the others are just spectacular spots against its background.
But individual colored plants are also used carefully. Accents are powerful spots of color; their visual impact on a person is quite noticeable. This is especially true for plants with warm-colored foliage – purple and gold. It is known that the color red has a stimulating effect on living organisms. Experts have proven that contemplating red increases muscle tension, increases blood pressure, breathing rhythm, increases heart rate, and speeds up reactions. It would seem, what is the connection with the landscape? The most direct. Let's say there is a hypertensive patient in your family who, feeling unwell, decided to sit on his favorite bench near the luxurious purple-leaved barberry. But it is unlikely that he will feel better here, rather the opposite. But the same barberry will have a positive effect on the condition of a hypotensive person. It will not be out of place in the garden of a melancholic person, whose day can be much more fruitful if he has breakfast on the veranda overlooking the burning barberry bush. This plant will have the same effect on a choleric person as a red rag on a bull.
Common purple-leaved barberry (Berberis vulgaris f. atropurpurea)
Yellow color does not have such an aggressive effect on the psyche as purple; it balances emotions, allowing a person to relax and unwind. But people react to it differently: some feel a surge of energy, while others are irritated by it, associating it with something poisonous and painful.
RULE 3: Aesthetics and intuition
- Which leads to the third rule : when choosing a bright accent for the garden, focus not only on aesthetic feelings, but also on intuition. Your inner voice will correctly tell you whether you are comfortable around this plant or not.
Every artist knows that the interaction of color and light is a rather complex phenomenon, not at all as simple as it seems at first glance. For example, warm colors, especially red, are perceived as “traffic lights” that are constantly on. But, oddly enough, they are the first to “go out” with the arrival of twilight. And if your family gathers in the garden only in the evening, then it makes sense to plant more silver and white-variegated plants - the purple ones will simply “fall through” into the darkness of the night. True, on a bright sunny day, the white and variegated ones fade and become uninteresting, but the purple ones appear in all their glory. In this case, yellow-leaved ones are a kind of golden mean (literally and figuratively). Light yellow, for example, is visible at dusk (however, later it still disappears, unlike white, silver, pink), and glows in the bright sun. In addition, the “golden-leaved” group includes plants of very different shades. Sometimes it is lemon yellow (Spiraea japonica 'Golden Princess') or green-yellow (Elderberry 'Aurea').
Japanese Spiraea Golden Princess (Spiraea japonica Golden Princess)
The light appearance of yellow-variegated and white-variegated plants makes it possible to “highlight” shady corners of the garden. Even in cloudy weather, it seems that a ray of light has hit the bush. And it is not true that the foliage of all colored plants lose color in the shade. Some of them, for example varieties of white wood, appear even whiter in the shade than in a brightly lit place. And plants with yellow foliage acquire a light light green tint, more pleasant than the piercing lemon yellow.
Evergreen frost-resistant shrubs for the garden
Most evergreen shrubs are not adapted to harsh winters and require special care during the cold period. But several species can still be grown in temperate climates.
Honeysuckle evergreen
Climbing ornamental shrub. The branches are suitable for creating vertical gardening. They can be used to decorate arches, supports of gazebos, and perfectly camouflage old walls and fences.
The plant is quite unpretentious and grows quickly. Over the course of a season it can weave up to several meters of supports or walls.
During flowering it has a persistent pleasant smell. It blooms until late autumn, after flowering it dresses up with bright red fruits.
Holly holly
An evergreen plant reaching 15 meters in height. It grows very slowly. It has a dense pyramidal shape, interestingly shaped sheets with sharp edges. Flowers do not amaze with their beauty, which cannot be said about the bright fruits that can stay on the branches all winter.
Prefers shaded places protected from winds. Requires spring pruning to form a bush. It is also necessary to apply mineral fertilizers at the beginning of the season.
The younger the plant, the more care it requires. For the winter, you need to insulate the tree trunk circle, and cover the bush itself using spruce branches or spunbond.
Camellia japonica
This is a beautiful flowering ornamental plant with leathery glossy foliage. It is not winter hardy, but there are artificially bred varieties that can tolerate frost, for example:
- Winter hope
- Winter snowman
- Lady Campbell
- polar ice
- winter star
- Pink icicle
- April dawn
- Korean Fire
- Spring Promise
- Snowfall
- Spring Festival
- Arctic Rose
These varieties can withstand temperatures down to minus 10-17 degrees, but for the winter it is better to cover the plant. They prefer semi-shaded places, on small hills, sheltered from strong winds. The soil must be well prepared before planting - drainage is provided, compost and humus are added.
Boxwood evergreen
An incredibly picturesque frost-resistant shrub with dense glossy leaves. Easy to shape. With regular pruning, the crown becomes denser. You can create any fantasy compositions from boxwood. Suitable for creating hedges.
Growing and reproduction:
- Prefers light fertile soil with neutral acidity. Grows well in slightly shaded areas.
- It is quite easily propagated by cuttings. After trimming an adult specimen, sort the cuttings measuring 15-20 cm. Remove the lower leaves and leave them in the root solution for a day.
- Then insert the cuttings into a mixture of sand and fertile soil. Cover with film to maintain high humidity, moisten regularly. Roots will appear in 2 months.
- In spring, when the sun is already getting brighter and the ground is still not warm enough, boxwood needs to be shaded. At this time, if there is insufficient root nutrition, the foliage may burn.
Boxwood grows slowly, adding only a few centimeters per year. Can reach 12 meters. At the same time, it is characterized by longevity.
RULE 4: When planting plants, consider the lighting in the garden
- The fourth rule says: when choosing a place for variegated plants, be sure to take into account the lighting of the garden.
Recently, a combination of golden and purple shades has become fashionable. Frankly speaking, it cannot be called flawless; you need to try very hard to make the composition balanced. A win-win option is the proximity of purple and silver. Moreover, both of them are quite diverse; there are quite a lot of plants with leaves of these colors. Pink, blue, white colors and their shades will fit perfectly into this composition. If you already have a purple-gold composition in your garden, but it is too heavy, the effect of stress can be reduced. Just add the same white-variegated or silver plants into it without changing anything essentially.
Norway maple Drummondi (Acer platanoides Drummondi)
RULE 5: Soften bright colors with white or silver paints
- This leads to fifth rule : bright, saturated, and therefore boring colors can always be softened and diluted with white and silver paints.
Contrast in composition is always effective, catchy and not too complicated. But when working on contrasts, it is very easy to overdo it. Therefore, if you want the garden to look natural, then you need to make them unobtrusive. For nuanced compositions based on smooth transitions of tones, it is much more difficult to choose plants, but the result is stylish and elegant. True, in this case you need to know very well the material you are working with, because the color of one leaf and the color of the plant as a whole are not at all the same thing.
Actinidia kolomikta
Certain patterns are also taken into account. For example, the color of variegated plants of any cultivar is almost always lighter than the color of a typical, non-varietal plant of that species. The larger the area of yellow (and any other) spots on the leaf, the yellower the entire bush looks. It is impossible to predict how intensely yellow (white, pink, etc.) it will be without sufficient experience. But now it is possible to work with a very wide palette: new varieties are constantly appearing (there are several dozen variegated varieties of Thunberg barberry or white dogwood alone). Pale green, emerald-cream, golden-green, green-yellow, silver-green - these are the colors found in most variegated varieties. What, if not these undertones, is most suitable for nuanced compositions with purely green plants?
Reproduction
Derain can be propagated in several ways, each of which will be effective. Therefore, every gardener chooses the simplest and most convenient for himself.
Cuttings
In spring and autumn, pruning produces shoots that can be used as planting material. The main thing is that they have 6-8 good buds. In spring they are planted in boxes with soil. They are then placed in a greenhouse or greenhouse. They are watered all summer, fed seasonally, and by autumn seedlings are obtained. In a new place they adapt well and develop quickly.
By layering
Low-growing branches are attached to the ground using an iron bracket. The place is covered with earth or mulch. Next spring or autumn, the seedling is dug up and transplanted to a new location.
Seeds
You can get seeds from the fruits of the tree by opening the capsules. They are sown before winter, when the cold is felt. The seeds have 100% germination, but gardeners rarely use this method, as it takes a very long time.
RULE 6: Work on nuances
- And therefore rule six : do not overuse contrasts, work on nuances.
Do not forget that thanks to the color of plants, you can artificially expand and narrow the space. Of course, only visually. The yellow color seems to lift the surface and expand it. Purple, on the other hand, “compresses.” For example, let’s take two tablecloths – yellow and purple, and place them alternately on the table. In the first case, it will appear wider and higher, and in the second, the boundaries will be clearly defined and the table will look compact. The same thing will happen with the site. Should it be reduced by highlighting the borders with purple plants? It is better to expand the garden by planting light-colored ones.
White dogwood variety Elegantissima (Cornus alba Elegantissima)
Due to the red-leaved forms, you can also change the visible area of the site. If they are planted closer to the view point, and plants with cool colors of the spectrum are placed immediately behind them, it will seem that the latter are further away. This is also one of the ways to visually lengthen a site.
RULE 7: Pay attention to color
- Seventh rule : use the color of plants when modeling the garden space.
And finally: Pay more attention to color. At least think about it no less than about winter hardiness and plant size (lest one tree covers the entire garden). After all, no one wants to live in a stressful, unnatural garden. Do not forget that our eye first perceives color, and only then – shape. And it’s a shame when compositions, proportionally arranged according to the shape of individual elements and their sizes, lose due to ill-conceived coloring. Then all the years of work may come to naught. But in areas that are perfectly matched in color, no one will even notice errors in the proportions of shapes and sizes.
Derain care
Variegated dogwood is unpretentious in care. It easily tolerates drought, frost, and adverse weather conditions. You should only pay attention to timely watering and pruning so as not to stress the plant. Removing excess branches, yellow leaves and green mass will save useful substances in the structure of the bush, which will be used for the development of the tree.
Watering the plant
After planting, young plants must be watered at least 2 times a week. It is especially important to pay attention to this in the first months of the adaptation period, if the shrub was replanted or a young plant was planted. At this age, drought becomes a disastrous test, but an adult turf can live without water for several months. The high humidity outside is enough for it, and it only needs to be watered during periods of prolonged drought. For each plant, 20 liters of water is enough, but in some cases this is even too much. Excess water leads to the formation of fungal diseases.
Pruning branches
Pruning helps maintain the shape of the shrub . Variegated dogwood is used in landscape design precisely because of its flexibility to take on various forms. In addition, pruning has a number of other advantages:
- the volume of green mass decreases;
- old and shapeless branches are removed;
- it is possible to remove branches suspected of being infected with a fungus;
- New shoots are actively growing.
A huge number of advantages and resistance to frost have made variegated turf one of the most popular ornamental shrubs in the world. This is an excellent option if there is a need to change or decorate the landscape design. You can breed and care for it even without much experience in gardening.
