Flowers are the stars of landscaping. When in bloom, they’re often what people first notice. They’re also typically the place we want to start when planting or redesigning a landscape bed. But most flowering plants only bloom for a few weeks, or even less. If you want to keep your landscape looking good spring, summer, fall, and winter then you’ll either need to plant lots of flowers with different bloom times or choose interesting foliage plants.
Landscaping has come a long way since adding foliage meant putting in a couple green shrubs at the front of your house. More foliage plants are on the market now and most nurseries and garden centers carry quite a variety of sizes, colors, and species. Foliage plants can form the backbone of your landscape, showcasing your flowers, or make up the whole of the landscape. Whichever direction you go, keeping these 5 tips in mind will help you add interest to your landscape designs.
1) Don’t Limit Yourself
The category “foliage plants” encompasses a wide variety of landscape plants. Grasses, trees, shrubs, woody perennials, ground covers, and some flowering plants can all have interesting foliage. And you can mix and match them however you like. Use an array of textures, colors, and shapes or stick with all green and just vary texture and forms. Or whatever other combination you find appealing. It’s up to you.
2) Consider Form
“Form” refers to the plant’s overall shape and size as well as how the leaves look. For example, grass leaves have a long, slender form while oakleaf hydrangea has larger, broad leaves. Their overall shape is also very different. Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia, U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5-9) forms a bushy shrub. In contrast, ornamental grasses can vary from cute little tufts of blue fescue (Festuca glauca, USDA 4-8) to stately maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis, USDA 6-9).
3) Use Color
Green might be the typical color for leaves, but it’s not the only one. Purples, blues, yellows, and reds are also colors you’ll commonly find in ornamental foliage plants, both deciduous and evergreen. And even if you just stick with green the option vary from chartreuse to deep forest green. On top of that, many plant varieties are available in variegated forms so they have multicolored leaves. To make the most of differences in color put plants with very different hues right next to each other. Blue foliage forms a nice contrast with red tones while variegated or bright leaves pop next to dark greens.
4) Vary Texture
When we talk about texture, we’re referring to how the plant feels if you touch the leaves and what the leaves look like, including leaf size. Some plants have a shiny texture with glossy leaves that feel slick if you touch them, like holy (Ilex spp.). Others have a soft and fuzzy texture, such as lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina, USDA 4-8). And others have a fine needle-like texture, including certain coniferous shrubs. Having a variety of different textures will create a more interesting landscape than sticking with plants that have similar leaves.
5) Remember Growing Needs
Even though you like how two plants could look together, keep in mind that they might not like growing next to each other. Be sure to match plants’ growing needs to your location and put plants with similar soil, moisture, and sunlight requirements together. You’ll also want to keep the plants’ mature sizes in mind and leave enough space for them to grow. Also, remember to leave enough space that you can get into the garden to trim and clean up as needed. Many foliage plants are low-maintenance, but you’ll still need to cut down dead grasses in the spring (hedge trimmers work well for large clumps of grass), remove any dead stems or foliage, and prune shrubs to help maintain their shape.
