Designing herbaceous beds to suit you garden, patio and balcony

Herbaceous plants can be used to design elegant beds revealing beautiful flowers, interesting leaves and shapes of growth. There are many designs that a gardener can use to create an attractive herbaceous border.

It is good design practice to combine complementary colours, colour trios or a range of shades of one unique colour. These combinations create a well blended design. Ensure that the herbaceous plants all flower at the same time.

Creating moods with colours

You can use different colours to encourage a particular atmosphere in your garden, balcony or patio.

  • Blue is a cool colour. Its rare to find blue flowers and they are very unique

  • Shades of blue and red can be combined to create lilac and violet shades. Red colours create a warm atmosphere.

  • A romantic mood can be induced by using pink flowers

  • Orange and red are fiery colours and add life to a herbaceous planting

  • Yellow creates a glowing effect and is useful on gloomy days were it creates a sunshine design in the garden.

  • White creates a slightly cool atmosphere

  • Green is a common garden colour and creates a calm effect

The mood created by colour is more noticeable in a bed of one single colour. Combining numerous colours will dilute the individual colour and usually the mood of the dominant colour prevails.

Seasons and colours

Certain colours dominate in nature in different seasons. If you choose these colours for your herbaceous plants, they will blend into their surroundings enhancing the design. Its also possible to combine contrasting strong colours with delicate pastel shades or vice versa.

Spring

Soft pastel leaves and flower shades determine the effect of the garden. As the year progresses the shades of colour become much stronger. Delicate colours of white rock cress (Arabis Caucasica) and navelwort (Omphalodes verna) create a feeling of lightness after a cold winter. There are also stronger colours such as goldern yellow, purple and violet.

Early summer

Strong glowing colours dominate in summer. The red poppies (Papaver orientale), the blue Delphinium and the carmine red of Astilbe are common summer herbaceous plants. Blue creates a mystical mood in the evening. A romantic herbaceous border can be created by combining pastle shades of pinks (Dianthus), Gyposophila and phlox.

Late summer

The warmth of summer can be seen in yellow, orange and brownish-red tones in the herbaceous boarders. Day lilies (Hermerocallis), Heliopsis, sneezewort (Helenium_, yarrow (Achillea), cone flower (Rudbeckia) and red hot poker (kniphofia hybrids)