When enthusiastic about a scheme for flower beds, the tendency is to concentrate nearly completely on the question of color. Whereas colour is obviously important and undoubtedly the first category to consider, it’s not at all times recognized that flowers posses other visible properties corresponding to kind, form, size and texture. Whether you prefer it or not, these traits affect the overall look of the composition, both for good or for ill.
Personal taste aside, genuinely satisfactory results can only be achieved if the plants go collectively to kind a harmonious composition. One rule of design that is notably relevant to flower beds is the necessity for unity or uniformity. In terms of shade, it’s obvious that simply throwing any shade in at random is liable to create a mess.
Less obvious, however vital however, is the necessity to choose vegetation whose flower shape dimension or texture are in step with every other. To take an extreme instance, for instance the completely different species within the mattress all have flowers which can be various shades of red. Such a scheme could be termed monochromatic, and would clearly posses the standard of unity, at the very least as it relates to color. Nevertheless, if some of the flowers had been tiny whereas others enormous, with any variety of shapes and forms in between, would the effect nonetheless stay harmonious?
This is the place choosing the bedding vegetation from one botanical family can come to your assistance. On account of the truth that flower structure is the criterion by which plants are sorted botanically, it follows that vegetation that are closely related are most definitely to have flowers which are visually similar. One of the best example is provided by daisy flowers, which belong to the Asteraceae family. (Formerly Compositae)
There are an excellent quantity and number of herbaceous flowering crops belonging to the daisy family, starting from small shrubby types, plants with tall flower storks and floor hugging species. There may be additionally a variety of flower colour throughout the household, but the widespread denominator is the flower shape and dimension frequent to nearly all genera. An understanding of this property allows for greater unity to be achieved, balancing the variety that is created by the totally different plant types. Listed below are some examples that are suitable for dry Mediterranean climates.
Small shrubs: There are a variety of species of Chrysanthemum equivalent to C. frutescens that develop to about 50 cm and posses beautiful high-quality textured foliage in addition to their daisy flowers. An analogous plant with yellow flowers is Euryops pectinatus. These sorts are helpful for “holding” an herbaceous bed, at a time when some flowering vegetation are handed their best.
Tall Flowers: Solidago, Achillea and Coreopsis are good positioned towards the again of the border. The superb foliage texture of Achillea or Yarrow, associates well shrubby Chrysanthemums and foliage vegetation from other families comparable to Asparagus. Various species of Felicia can fill an intermediate position between low rising plants and taller ones.
Low rising plants: There are a big quantity to choose from similar to the bottom hugging Gazania, the reliable African Daisy, (Arctotis) Bidens, the delicate Brachicome and the sprawling Osteospermum.