Color garden
Encyclopedia
The term color garden has in popular use two contradictory interpretations. In the first sense, a color garden is a garden specially planted in order to display a wide variety of colors, often in a particular season (for example a fall color garden). In the second sense, a color garden may more accurately be labeled a single-color garden. Such a garden is planted so that it overwhelms the observer with a single color. While this may seem a rather bland approach at first, such gardens were made popular by the work of famous garden designers such as Gertrude Jekyll
and Vita Sackville-West
. Sackville-West, for example, created what may have been one of the most famous single-color gardens, the Sissinghurst
Castle's all-white garden.
composed of plants that produce white flower
s and spathes as well as plants with a white or silvery cast to their foliage. The white garden is a variant of the color garden. The most essential feature of the white garden is its unity of colour.
The white garden is an informal gardening style that is similar in design to the English cottage garden. The open and informal design creates associations with romance, peace, and elegance. The white flowers are not usually placed in clusters, but spread throughout the garden's green areas, creating a natural look and feel. The mildly dense placement of white flowers creates a luminescent sight that is especially powerful in the twilight.
The colour white, and white flowers in particular, carry a vast amount of symbolism. Some florists contend certain white flowers also have defined meanings.
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
and Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
. Sackville-West, for example, created what may have been one of the most famous single-color gardens, the Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst is a small village in the county of Kent in England. Originally called Milkhouse Street , Sissinghurst changed its name in the 1850s, possibly to avoid association with the smuggling and cockfighting activities of the Hawkhurst Gang.The nearest railway station is at...
Castle's all-white garden.
White garden
A White Garden is a feature gardenGarden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
composed of plants that produce white flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s and spathes as well as plants with a white or silvery cast to their foliage. The white garden is a variant of the color garden. The most essential feature of the white garden is its unity of colour.
The white garden is an informal gardening style that is similar in design to the English cottage garden. The open and informal design creates associations with romance, peace, and elegance. The white flowers are not usually placed in clusters, but spread throughout the garden's green areas, creating a natural look and feel. The mildly dense placement of white flowers creates a luminescent sight that is especially powerful in the twilight.
The colour white, and white flowers in particular, carry a vast amount of symbolism. Some florists contend certain white flowers also have defined meanings.
Flowers used in white gardens
- White CamelliaCamelliaCamellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...
- Shasta daisyShasta daisyThe Shasta daisy is a commonly grown herbaceous perennial plant with the classic daisy appearance of white petals around a yellow disc, similar to the Oxeye daisy Leucanthemum vulgare Lam. but larger...
- White LilacLilacSyringa is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering woody plants in the olive family , native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere....
- Madonna lilyMadonna lilyLilium candidum is a plant in the genus Lilium, one of the true lilies. It is native to the Balkans and West Asia. It forms bulbs at ground level, and unlike other lilies, has a basal rosette of leaves through the winter, which die back in summer...
- White Periwinkle
- White RoseRoseA rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...