I have been on many, Garden Conservancy Open Days program tours. The different leaf color would make for enough contrast. You would only (possibly) place “maple and oak” next to each other, if they were different colors (burgundy maple, with green oak). You would never want to place a maple shaped leaf #3 next to an oak shaped leave #4. When you site different plants in the garden, you don’t want to place plants next to each other that have a similar leaf shape. The “Third Plant” that you look at should look completely different from the first and second plant that you have just viewed… In this illustration you are also looking at the repetitive planting, of some of the same plants, across a garden, to unify the space. Next to it, “Plant Two”, should be a clump of something else that does not look like the first plant (something completely different). When you look at a garden, you want to first see a clump of “Plant One”. Wrapping up the right corner of the garden illustration is #3 maple leaf (repeated), and below it is #1 heart (repeating).Īs you look over this garden illustration, you are looking at the shapes of plant’s leaves, that are sited so they are completely different, from each other. Grassy #2 (repeats) with #8 almond shaped below it, with fern #7 along side. Then comes upward thrusting #6, with oak leaf #4, along side of it. Next comes maple #3, with fan #5, and heart #1 (repeating). In the bottom left corner, we start with heart-shaped #1.Then next to heart is grassy #2, and fern #7. Now let’s look at the garden layout, across the bottom of the illustration. My objective here, is to get you to look at the different shapes of leaves (foliage), and to start thinking about what grows in your region. My leaf descriptions are not properly scientific, as in the exact botanical names for leaves. I know you can come up with other names, to describe different shapes of leaves, on plants that grow in your garden. They might be smooth, serrated (like being cut with pinking shears), or even a bit ruffled. Leaves also have different kinds of edges. Besides the eight shapes just listed, I am also adding to the list round, oar shaped, and hairy leaves, like the summer growth on asparagus. Number 7, I am calling fern, and number 8, I am calling almond. The sixth leaf is upward thrusting, like an Asiatic or Oriental lily. The second shaped leaf, is sword or grassy #2. The first leaf shape, that you are looking at is heart shaped #1. Now let’s look at the top line of the illustration I made for you. Foliage by itself is a beautiful thing, and the shapes of many plants are quite sculptural. What you have before, and after they bloom is their foliage. When you think about it, most perennials are in bloom, maybe, two or three weeks during the growing season, and that is it. Using different shaped leaves, to make a foliage tapestry, is an ideal, when planning the layout of your perennial garden. Perennial garden design is all about shapes of leaves.
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