White
is a versatile color in anybody’s flower bed
By Lee Reich
AP Weekly Features
White flowers and leaves are
not the first things that come to mind when planning a colorful
garden. Nonetheless, they can really spruce up a flower bed.
White mixes well with all
colors and makes for harmonious transitions between colors that
would otherwise clash. Picture a mass of red zinnias next to some
blue lobelias. Disturbing, isn’t it?
Put an island of white, perhaps
something soft such as baby’s breath, between the zinnias and
lobelias and they peacefully coexist.
Use the soft whites of flowers,
or plants with grayish leaves, to harmonize a garden’s many
hues.
White not only pacifies clashes,
it also adds zest to already bright colors.
The flowers of rose campion
are pink-magenta, but they sparkle even more brightly against the
plant’s silvery-white leaves.
The same goes for the white,
woolly leaves of dusty miller, which highlight bright red geraniums
or blue salvias.
White flowers also are useful
for cheering up dark areas. White alyssum can brighten up a somber
row of yews, and night-blooming white flowers, such as moonflower
and nicotiana, seem to glow through the night.
Although white flowers are
useful as complements in a garden, they can also stand on their
own.
The different textures and
shapes offer infinite variety: dainty lilies-of-the-valley, sunny
daisies, corpulent peonies, eerie angel’s trumpets, spires
of hollyhocks and spidery cleomes. There is also a broad range of
white shades: a beige lily, a yellowish-white marigold, a bluish-white
anemone, a greenish-white hydrangea.
The renowned British writer
and gardener Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) planted a garden of
only white flowers at her Sissinghurst Castle garden. The overcast,
misty climate of Sackville-West’s England puts an extra glow
into white flowers.
On this side of the Atlantic,
however, bright and sunny afternoons often wash the life out of
whites. Here, whites are reliably at their best in the soft light
of morning or evening. |
