Painting
with Flowers
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Painting
with Flowers |
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| This is about the part of my design work that deals with plants - please also take a look at my landscaping section ("Shaping the Earth"), which deals with stone work and hardscaping in general. |
For design work, installations or stone art please call the office any time at 207-439-7700.
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Although there are many photos of perennials in
this section, my design work really starts with the more long-lived
plants: trees, confers, evergreen shrubs and deciduous shrubs. Those are
the back-bones of my design work. My specialty is the use of compact and
dwarf shrubs and trees, which are generally plants that need a few years
to develop to their full potential, but once established, require very
little maintenance. Painting with flowers is not like painting with colors on paper! If you paint with flowers, be prepared that your painting, over the course of the season, and from year to year, takes on it's own life, changes and evolves, blooms and dies, rejuvenates and blossoms again. You created a living painting! In this shade garden, I used Tiarella, Heuchera, Thalictrum kiusianum, low spring bulbs, small, compact shrubs and rhododenrons, ferns and native woodland groundcovers. |
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Designing with flowers: Colors of flowers can contrast, as in this example with Helenium and Clematis, or they can be combined in monochromatic schemes, or in endless other possible combinations. |
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Designing with foliage is just as important as
the flower combinations. Textures and foliage colors are what is seen
when flowers have faded, or before they have come up. Well considered
foliage makes the garden. This example contrasts soft texture (Artemisia 'Sivermound') with bold texture (Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford). It is at the same time a contrast of silver and purple. Such foliage combination usually need a third partner - plain, fresh green, to somewhat neutralize the intense foliage colors. In this example, Blue Holly (Ilex x meservae 'Blue Girl') with deep green foliage, and various perennials such as Siberian iris and Daylilies, are the neutralizing companions. |
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Designing with shapes: the shape of a plant, and
it's size, have to be in perfect relationship with its environment.
Mounded plants look good in a rock garden. Tall and scraggly plants
might look good in contrast to formal hedges or in transition to a
woodland. To make an effective design plants should also be repeated . Even in nature, there is repetition. Certain plants dominate a landscape because they find the right conditions. If repetition is lacking, the garden will look like a botanical collection at best. Repeated in this example are: Iris cristata, Rhododendron 'Purple Gem' (a low, mounding rhododendron) and ferns (background).
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Photo galleries and technical recommendations:
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Technical recommendations for our customers:
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Plant Lists:
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| 'Low-Maintenance' Gardens | Summer-flowering shrubs |
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Escholzia and Nepeta |
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| Home | Shaping the Earth | Nursery | Directions | Contact |
Please ask for our permission if you would like to use any of our photos, graphics or text!
