Color
Garden
White cleome stands tall.
At
the Virginia Zoo, four different color beds offer the Tidewater
gardener ideas for white, blue, yellow, and orange gardens.
The
White Garden is also known as the Moon Garden because twilight
is the time a white garden glows. Luminous flowers, heady fragrances,
night flying moths, and flickering fireflies create a magical
scene. In daylight, a white garden creates a cool, calming effect.
The silver foliages of cardoon, artemisia, lamb's ears, and
santolina act as a bridge between white flowers and green leaves
and mix in textures from bold to lacy. Vines such as sweet autumn
clematis and moon vine, white roses (especially 'Blanc Double
du Coubert'), gardenias, ginger, and lilies bring unrivaled
fragrance into the garden.
The
Blue Garden represents many shades of blue and lavender. Very
few flowers are a true sky blue, but 'Heavenly Blue' morning
glory and bog sage come close. Annual flowers such as verbena,
petunia, ageratum, bachelor's button, and fan flower fill in
as perennials such as Japanese roof iris, Mexican petunia (Ruellia),
and Mexican bush sage, bloom from spring to autumn. Leaf color
is not forgotten in a blue garden. 'Limelight' sage and 'Sweet
Kate' spiderwort have rich blue flowers highlighted by golden
foliage. Silver leafed Centaurea 'Colchester White'
has small purple flowers but its foliage is its most valuable
contribution in a blue garden. The exotic Persian shield (Strobilanthes)
shimmers with burgundy, lilac, and blue striped leaves. Shrubs
and small trees such as butterfly bush and chaste tree (Vitex)
create height in a blue garden.
On
the sunnier side, there are the Yellow and the Orange Gardens.
The same design basics apply with exotic foliage provided by
variegated cannas. 'Bengal Tiger' and 'Tropicanna' are two favorites.
Many of the flowers in these two gardens are sorted out of the
multicolored annual mixtures of Mexican zinnias, 'Bright Lights'
Swiss chard, 'Pampas Plume' celosia, marigolds, and rudbeckia.
In
winter, evergreens provide the bone structure of the garden
while pansies, violas, and ornamental mustards and kales keep
the color going. Spring bulbs offer another round of bloom before
the whole process starts over.
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