Green-on-green is the style of planting I am currently experimenting with in different parts of the garden.
I feel it is going well. I have even started to buy green garden furniture – bench, cafe-style table and chairs.
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Boxwood ready to be clipped into a cloud-shaped cluster
An arch that once supported a white rose and a purple clematis is now covered on both sides with pyracantha. This provides green leaves year round with white flower buds in May and orange berries in fall.
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Chamaecyparis with sarcococca
I have been waiting patiently for both pyracantha plants to meet at the top of the arch which I expect them to do this time.
Elsewhere, I have planted sarcococca around the bluish-green foliage of a pyramidal chamaecyparis and black mondo grass under a cone of boxwood.
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Hakonechloa in pot
My most exciting project is still in the works – a boxwood cloud, composed of eight boxwood balls and cones of different sizes that I am slowly shaping into the look of a cloud-cluster. It takes a while for the boxwood to reach the right size to clip, so at the moment it is still a little raggedy looking.
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Hosta in pot and lime green cafe table and chairs
Under this boxwood, I have Cotoneaster dammeri, which produces tiny white flowers and then red berries later in the year and leathery evergreen leaves all year around.
Where there were some floppy perennials, I have replanted with evergreen azaleas, rhododendrons, heathers, sarcococca and skimmia.
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Geranium macrorrhizum as grouncover and green bench
For ground cover, I have used Geranium macrorrhizum everywhere. I love it for many reasons – evergreen, flowers in spring, thrives in light sun or deep shade, does not have an invasive root system, doesn’t grow too tall, and is not a thirsty creature requiring constant watering – in other words, it tolerates dry shade and is reasonably drought tolerant.
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Astellia with purple oxalis
In the backyard, I have used plain green mondo grass and brass buttons (Leptinella squalida) to fill cracks and crevices between pavers.
In pots, I am using hostas, mostly blues and yellow, as well as grasses, such as Hakonechloa and silvery leaves of Astellia with purple oxalis underneath.
And in one container, I have successfully trained ivy up a pyramidal trellis.
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Mix of green – euphorbia with mondo grass with boxwood pyramid
I have also worked in Carex Ice Dance in many places, but am worried that the tips dry out so easily and it loses its overall attractiveness. I am watching this and may end up having to switch to something else.
There are so many more green plants I want to add. My son, Joel, is helping me along the way. For my birthday recently he bought me a beautiful Chinese fairy bells plant (Disporum longistylum) which I am yet to find the perfect spot for.
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Green on green arch in Steve Whysall’s garden
My perennials growing nursery friends should not despair that I have totally abandoned them and leading a revolt to evergreen shrubs. I still have lots of euphorbia and even more phlox and campanula as well as far too many hardy geraniums. But I have to say I do love the look of yew in all its forms and dwarf conifers are calling and I have the urge to do even more clip clip clipping.
What started this green-on-green obsession? Well, I blame seeing gardens in Italy and especially in the South of France and designers like Russell Page and Lawrence Johnston who showed me how beautiful green-on-green planting can be at Hidcote and Landriana.
I have a long way to go, however, so I am open to all ideas . . . on the green on green theme, of course.
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