Mix it Up! - How to Use Texture in the Garden

By Kathy Zimmerman

Transylvania Extension Master Gardener

With our early spring in Transylvania County, you are probably ready to start buying plants and sprucing up you garden. We plant lovers are tempted by the beauties in the nursery, and often arrive home wondering where to put the newly acquired plants. A few design tips may help you find the perfect place.

One of the most effective design elements to play with is texture in the garden. Even when all plant material is a similar shade of green, effective combinations can be made by placing plants with different textures adjacent to each other, creating an enjoyable vignette.

In planting design, the terms used to describe texture are “fine,” “medium” and “coarse.” These terms refer primarily to the size of the leaf or flower, but also to the shape. The small, delicate leaves of a weeping Japanese maple are considered fine, as are the blades and inflorescences of an ornamental grassand the fine needles of a pine. The large leaf and flower of an oakleaf hydrangea, the broad leaf of a hosta, and the spiny blades of a mahonia all have a coarse texture. Most plants have an in-between size and hence are considered medium – think pieris, fothergilla, viburnum and so on.

When you view garden plantings, coarse textures will dominate. The large size of the leaf will draw the eye. It is often best to place such plants towards the back of the vignette. On the other hand, fine textured plantings will recede, so they are best appreciated from up close. Medium textured plants are typically the predominant plantings in your garden and are used as a contrast between the coarse and fine leaves of your planting design.

The above rules for placement based on texture can be broken to provide special effects. In a garden border, a single coarsely textured plant near the front can provide an exciting focal point. A backdrop of finely textured grasses catching the afternoon light can provide a halo effect for the other plantings.

An easy way to learn about texture is to go to the nursery and select plants for a container planting. Try placing plants together in your shopping cart and look at what happens when you mix the textures. If you fill your cart with several plants of the same texture, you will find that your eye doesn’t know what to focus on. It all looks the same. Introduction of a plant with a contrasting texture will suddenly make it more interesting.

Last summer, I made a striking container planting that had several medium textured plants: angelonia, ageratum, dichondra and coleus. But the addition of fine textured purple fountain grass and Diamond Frost euphorbia provided a delicate contrast to the initial medium-textured plants and a large leaved caladium provided a dominant focal point.

Texture is especially important to the winter garden when you don’t have showy flower or leaf color that is enjoyed in other seasons. Try to start a garden design with a “skeleton” of evergreen plantings that will always have a presence in the space. Evergreens themselves provide wonderful textural differences that will keep the garden from looking boring. Think about mixing up the soft fronds of a false cypress (Chamaecyparis,) with the small, crisp leaf of boxwood and a nicely contrasting fine-needled Japanese black pine.

Ornamental grasses are among my favorite garden elements because of their winter presence and textural contrast with evergreens. Hellebores, certain ferns, and other evergreen perennials provide nice ground-level contrasts as well.

When you’re thinking about texture in the garden, don’t limit your choice of contrasts to plant material. A stone path or bed of river rock will provide a strong contrast with softer plant material. A cedar trellis or wrought-iron tutuer (free standing trellis) will not only provide a way to elevate your garden, but will provide a textural contrast that adds to the visual experience.

To make your garden more interesting this season, try mixing up the textures and see if you don’t find some wonderful combinations!

Gardening Tasks for April

  • Set out perennials and summer flowering bulbs. Prepare beds with superphosphate and leaf compost.
  • Divide and transplant perennials
  • Fertilize trees, shrubs, ground covers and rose bushes
  • Check for azalea lace bugs boxwood leaf miner and euonymus scale. Spray if needed.

Do you have a question for the Master Gardeners?E-mail us c/o . The Master Gardener Telephone Clinic is also available to answer your garden questions from March through the end of October on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 884-3239. Walk-ins are welcome during those hours at the Community Services Building, 203 E. Morgan St., Brevard. Master Gardeners work at the gardens of Silvermont every Thursday from 9 to 11 a.m. Drop by the ask questions, help or just enjoy the gardens!