A LIGHTER SHADE OF PALE

WHITE FLOWERS FOR YOUR GARDEN

Creating a white garden design in the landscape denotes elegance and purity. White flower themes are easy to create and work with, as many plants for an all-white garden exist in numerous forms, sizes, and bloom times.

Cool and refreshing by day, white flowers come into their own at dusk, standing out against a dark green background. There are certainly plenty of white flowers and plants to fill multiple gardens, but it can be a little tricky getting a combination you like. You never really notice how many shades of white there are until you start grouping them together.

Avoid monotony in your white plants by using contrasting textures and forms, both in plant and flower shapes. To break it up further, include plants with strong texture and plants with white variegated or silver or grey leaves. These have the effect of softening the glare.

Consider the plants below when planning a white colour scheme for your garden:

• Butterfly Bush or Gaura lindheimerii – Gaura lindheimeri is undemanding and suitable for small gardens. It might look delicate, but is actually very drought tolerant, hardy and flowers from summer right through to autumn. Butterflies love it.
• Wild Iris or Dietes grandiflora – Free-flowering Dietes grandiflora have orchid-like, exotic blooms and sword-shaped leaves. They grow in just about any type of soil, in sun and shade, including marshy areas. Although the flowers don’t last long, the plants bloom continuously. They’re ideal for texture and as fillers.
• Iceberg Roses or Rosa x hybrid ‘Iceberg’ – It’s no surprise that ‘Iceberg’ roses are so popular. Disease resistant, they can grow up to 2m high producing prolific clusters of white blooms. All they require is a light pruning in winter.
• Mexican Daisy or Erigeron karvinskianus – Erigeron karvinskianus is a pretty evergreen groundcoverwith small white, daisy-like blooms with touches of pink. It grows in sun and semi-shade and multiplies easily, making it suitable for in between paving, at the back of steps and as an edging.
• Shasta Daisies or Leucanthemum x superbum – Shasta Daisies are perky and fun. They flower from late spring right through to autumn. They love a sunny spot, don’t mind a little shade, but tend to become leggy without enough direct sun. Divide and replant them or share extras with friends.
• Mayflower or Spiraea catoniensis – When in full bloom, this shrub is absolutely covered in showy white bloom clusters, with a light, sweet fragrance. Uses for this beautiful shrub include mass plantings, shrub borders along fence lines, or even as a tough hardy foundation planting.
• White Azalea or Rhodedendron indica ‘Alba’ – A popular mass flowering plant that prefers acidic soil. With an abundance of single white flowers it makes a stunning background shrub.  Ideal for a semi-shaded area.
• Dwarf Magnolia – Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’ – A truly handsome gem. This smalltree with dark green, leathery leaves with brown reverse and white flowers most of the year.
• Star Jasmine or Tracheolospermum jasminoides – Vigorous, evergreen, woody climber about 9m in height, with twining stems, glossy dark green, oval leaves to 10cm in length, often turning deep bronze-red in winter and clusters of very fragrant, white flowers 2.5cm in width produced in mid to late summer
• Now Zealand Rock Lily or Arthropodium cirratum – Well known not only as a perfect shade plant but also as an excellent coastal plant when planted in the shade.

Get creative and experiment when learning how to create a white coloured garden. Include plants that bloom in spring, summer, and even autumn and winter. With ongoing effort, you can grace your landscape with an elegant, white garden.

Join us this Friday 3 February 2023 for our FREE online workshop on: ‘A Lighter Shade of Pales’, with Garden Guru Sue Both. 

Please use the following login details to join us at 11am sharp over Zoom:

Meeting ID: 829 2201 6893

Passcode: 934165

or use the following direct link: https://bit.ly/3QEYPoI