How to use bold foliage
Bold coloured foliage in a garden can be tricky to get right. But you’ll get wow results using these three little bold foliage tips to pack a punch. Be warned: if you’re a fan of pastel hues and safe mid-greens, what follows may surprise you…
1. Shake it up but keep it linear: in other words, grab a stack of plants with coloured leaves but make sure they are all strappy plants. Think cordylines such as Festival™ Burgundy (also known as Red Fountain™ in the southern hemisphere) and Black Knight. Or lomandra Lime Tuff and dianella Cassa Blue. In a perfect world you’d be starting from scratch with a completely empty garden bed that you could fill with a mix of these. Whether you plant them randomly to create a patchwork effect, or in blocks of colour, in a few short weeks the results will look stunning.
2. A colour punch: how punchy obviously depends on your personal taste but start with something like the burgundy hues of a hero plant as an anchor-point, then pick a flowering favourite to plant smack up against it. Great colour combos to consider are: red and white (cercis Forest Pansy and white Flower Carpet® roses), deep burgundy and silver (Burgundy Spire™ cordylines and silver birches), or any burgundy foliaged plant against an acid pop of yellow. This type of treatment is perfect near an entrance where planting tends to get a lot of attention. Consider painting your front door to pull the whole look together.
3. A pop feature: if you’d like to dip a toe into bold plantings, but don’t really want to rip out part of your existing garden as an experiment, this pop option is perfect. You simply apply some of the above theory but plant it into a large container or garden urn. Create something startling, then when you position it in the garden, it will hold its own against your existing plantings. Your newly planted container is the star so think about elevating it on a plinth, column, or a handy garden retaining wall.
