Bringing color to the Garden
By Jody Wood-Putnam Photography by Michael Booini
“Colour” is an important attribute of a garden that can create interest and bring visual appeal. It can easily be incorporated in a garden through the addition of plants with colourful flowers, foliage, berries, fruit, and even by using hardscape such as pots and benches. Colour in the garden can bring curb appeal and attract wildlife with butterflies and hummingbirds as the most visible examples. The colours used in a garden are a matter of personal preference. A feeling of energy and cheerfulness can be created using bright colours such as red and yellow while more subdued shades of white, blue, and purple can create coolness, calm, and restfulness.
A Florida native and retired teacher, Annette Williams has created a beautiful garden which clearly reflects her love of flowers and colour. She lives with husband Jimmy in a home located on a large lot directly on St. Andrews Bay and spends as much time as she can out in the garden. For her, “Every day spent in the garden is a good day.”
When Jimmy and Annette purchased their property in 2007, they were especially attracted to its beautiful mature trees including hickories, magnolias, red bays, and cherry laurels. With the construction of their house and the long driveway running the length of the lot, they preserved as many of these trees and native plants as possible, clearing under the trees and trimming the lower tree branches to make room for shade gardens. They then began the creation and continuing expansion of colourful flower and plant beds beneath the trees and in the sunny areas of their yard.
Annette then initiated the search for plants that would thrive in these beds. She feels that fi plants “that work” is part of the challenge and fun of gardening. Whenever she sees a plant that she likes in the store, she tries to make a place in her garden for it. If the plant does not do well, she digs it up and relocates it. Over the years, she has created a colourful collection of beds and has successfully located a wide variety of thriving plants.
FLOWERS
With a lifelong love of flowers she attributes to her mother, Annette cannot name a “favorite plant,” but likes “anything that blooms.” However, she has a particular love for flowering perennials as they return every year and “give you time to learn about them.’’
GARDENING BRINGING COLOR TO THE GARDEN
Numerous varieties of hydrangeas thrive in the beds beneath her trees. They bloom in the summer in cooling shades of pink, lavender, and blue. In 2017, she planted an additional 100 plants she started from cuttings of those already there. To brighten partially shady beds, repeat blooming azaleas are perfect as they bloom in shades of pink and orange throughout the year.
In sunny beds throughout the yard, flowers such as agapanthus, golden dewdrops, and the native powder blue stokes aster attract additional color to the garden in the form of butterflies. Numerous flowering trees such as crepe myrtles bring lavender and pink to the garden.
FOLIAGE, FRUIT, BERRIES, AND HARDSCAPE
Annette’s garden clearly demonstrates colour is not limited to flowers. She has successfully supplemented her beloved flowers with plants possessing bold and colorful foliage that add a vibrancy of their own. Caladiums and bromeliads of green, red, and pink brighten shady areas throughout the garden. Also in the shade, split leaf philodendrons have large, shiny leaves that give a tropical feel. Variegated gingers, crotons, and cordylines highlight sunny locations.
Farfugium japonicum, a spectacular perennial not commonly seen in Bay County, is located several in places throughout her garden. This plant brings a tropical look to shady areas even in the winter with large, bold, evergreen leaves. As a bonus, in the fall it sends up a bouquet of yellow daisy-like flowers that attract the fall butterflies.
Native beautyberries add interest to the late summer garden, while in wintertime, yaupons and a beautiful holly bring a visual treat of bright red berries that also attract birds. Additionally, yard ornaments and potted plants are located throughout the beds to provide colour.
FOCAL PLANTS
Several special focal plants are located throughout the garden. A beautiful old red buckeye tree has brilliant red flowers in the spring that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. This native tree was on the property when they bought it. The prior owner asked specifically that they never cut down that tree.
Annette has several citrus trees planted along the driveway but one in particular is spectacular. A large Meyer’s lemon tree produces fragrant white blossoms followed by large bright yellow fruit in such numbers that neighbours and friends look forward to the harvest each year.
Another special plant is a Confederate Rose. In the fall, this large relative of the hibiscus has large double flowers that initially open white and gradually change to pale pink and finally dark pink. One single plant can grow almost 15 feet tall and produce a spectacular mix of colours.
CHALLENGES
Keeping deer from eating plants in the garden has been a major challenge. They particularly seem to enjoy the delicate purplish-blue blossoms of the agapanthus. To protect the plants, Annette moved them close to the house and uses a deer deterrent spray. Even so, she says the deer sometimes find them. Nonetheless, Annette enjoys seeing the deer in her garden but is hopeful that they will not find all her favorite plants.
Some of the plants such as the caladiums and hydrangeas require regular moisture to thrive. While the garden has an underground sprinkler system, keeping it running and covering the whole garden is a challenge taken on by Annette’s husband Jimmy.
BRINGING COLOR TO YOUR GARDEN
How colour is incorporated into a garden is largely a matter of personal preference. There is not a wrong way. Large splashes of a single colour from a bed planted with one type of flower can be stunning, while the mixture of colours from a less formal wildflower garden is preferred by others. Foliage can come in many shades of green and in colours such as red, chartreuse, pink, and grey. Colourful foliage and berries can bring interest to the garden and complement flowers not in bloom. If you do not enjoy experiments and wish to increase the odds of your plants thriving, research their preferred growing conditions and select those that will do well in the conditions found in your garden. Consider adding hardscape such as a painted pot, a colourful bench, or birdhouse. Whether it is from flowers, foliage, berries, or hardscape, there are many great options that will bring colour to your garden, too.