I recently read a web article entitled Color: dense vs diffuse, by Michael McCoy of The Gardenist. In it, he explored the different effects achieved by using vibrant, solid blocks of dense, hurts-your-eyes color (like the solid, hot pink of a Karume Azalea in bloom) vs the same color sprinkled among greens (as, for example, Knautia blooms). He explained how using diffuse color (like the Knautia) can make an effective transition to a more solid block of color that would otherwise stand alone in a landscape. The Knautia example was mine--and I totally mashed-up the author's Azalea example--but he shared several fantastic visual examples of plant combinations featuring dense/diffuse plant pairings. His article is well worth reading--it's just a page long--and can be found here. I've always been a fan of gentle transitions in the garden, so the general concept of stepping-down from an intense block of color to a graduated or diffuse version was not new to me but this eloquent essay got inside my head and it has been rattling around in there ever since.
While I don't consider my garden to be a colorist garden, it is too small to leave color unconsidered. When I remodeled the front beds last year, one of my goals was to create a somber or dusky color palette. In addition to plants with dark or dusky flowers, I incorporated plants with dark foliage. But I have been unsatisfied with the result despite continued tweaking. One source of dissatisfaction has been the way in which plants with dark foliage tend to stick out like blobs within the big picture. Having read Michael McCoy's article, I suddenly realized that non-green foliage functions like dense floral color in the landscape: It needs to be stepped-down with a more diluted version. D'oh! I am not sure why that was not immediately obvious to me.
So, while I am still looking for more dusky options to strengthen my color palette, I realize that I need to look for wispy plants or plants having dark stems instead of focusing on big, dense, dark foliage plants like Sambucus nigra "Black Lace" or Sedum "Black Jack". I'm having a bit of difficulty building that list: I think that Pennisetum setaceum rubrum accomplishes the task; and I thought about blood grass although it is (probably) too bright red; Clematis recta purpurea would be OK if it vined instead of clumping strongly; maybe there's a really vining dark leafed geranium?--I have "Samobor" but it does not read "dark" to me. Hmmm...this is not easy...
Here, for the purpose of critiquing the color palette, are some pictures of my garden taken during the past couple of days.
I call this view the "reverse view" because the photo is taken from my neighbor's property looking parallel to the street--the opposite view from the one you'd get if you were approaching the house on the entry path.
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| Reverse view. Everybody asks about the tall, skinny trees-- they are "North Pole" columnar apples. |
...And a closer look at the Digitalis and lily "Landini". Last year when the Digitalis was blooming, I'd just planted the Geranium and I admired the color echo between the brownish Digitalis spikes and the browned-off stems of the Geranium. (Last year's post about Digitalis.) Fortunately, I still like the combo even though the geraniums are not brown but blooming.
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| Lily "Landini", Digitalis parviflora "Milk Chocolate", Cimicifuga, Geranium "Jolly Bee" |
Here's another picture of the same plants but the viewpoint is shifted around to the street. This view features a lot of deep reds contributed by the chocolate cosmos and the Sanguisorba "Red Thunder". There's a Pennisetum setaceum "Rubrum" tucked in behind the Sanguisorba.
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| Chasmanthium latifolium, Cimicifuga, Digitalis parviflora, Geranium "Jolly Bee", Sanguisorba "Red Thunder", chocolate cosmos, Adenophora Tashiroi |
...And a little closer.
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I think I made something pretty, but I'm still chasing the moodiness that I'd hoped to create. In fact, I made a couple of changes just after I took these pictures. I dug out all three clumps of Adenophora Tashiroi and two big, established sedums. I took the Adenophora out because they flopped and their clear, light violet color just wasn't adding to the moodiness. I'm not sure how I will replace them, but I'm leaning towards annual larkspur "Blue Spires". I like the darker blue color of the larkspur and I think I will prefer their single stems. I also planted two Penstemon "Dark Towers" which, with their darker (but not too dark) foliage, should add to the moodiness. I hope they do not clump up too vigorously--a narrow clump will suit my needs much better.
