Garden Texture Tips
Texture works with shape and color in a garden to create movement and harmony for the eye. In contrast with themselves and each other, these three elements produce a constantly changing variety of in¬terest, bringing the detail of the garden to life. The greater the range of textures, the greater will be the in¬terest throughout the space.
It is easy to forget that everything in a garden has its own texture; not only are there the textures of foliage, grass, flowers and bark, but also those of water, paths, walls, gravel and all the other areas of hard land¬scaping. Texture is a more discreet element than colour or shape, and a wide range of textures will not clutter a garden so much as highlight its other ele¬ments. So it is worth trying to incorporate plenty of different textures in all aspects of the garden.
We are made aware of texture in different ways; partly through direct sight and touch – we can see and feel if a leaf is rough and hairy – and partly through the way light falls on surfaces – we expect shiny rho¬dodendron leaves to be smooth and firm or a glisten¬ing, wet stone-flagged path to be harder than gravel. This indirect visual appreciation of texture needs to be part of the planning of texture in a garden as much as the tactile element.
Hard landscape features can be softened by the use of textures. Consider the use of “green” steps, where the risers are planted with ivy or some tiny coton-easter; think of deep cobbles or precise herringbone bricks with emerald green moss in every joint. The features themselves also offer a wide range of tex¬tures, from hard concrete to fine footstep-deadening grit. In a precise, formal garden, where much of the design is dictated by architectural features, large quantities of polished marble can look perfect on walls or underfoot, most usually in the form of a well-proportioned staircase. By contrast, in a minimalist style, where incidental details are more appropriate than clearly delineated patterns, a great river-washed boulder will combine a gentle shape with a hard tex¬ture without imposing uncompromising order.
The range of textures to be found in foliage is im¬mense, but they can reasonably be grouped into the following categories: feathery, soft, felty or hairy, rugged, spiky, hard, smooth or shiny.
Feathery leaves make you instantly want to touch them. Some, like fennel and ladslove, release a per¬fume when touched. There are the green or purple domes of the dwarf maple, Acer palmatum dissectum, the tougher birch ‘Trost’s Dwarf or the fern-leaved elder. There is the billowy foliage of ‘Boulevard’ cypresses, the brittle delicacy of dicentras or the flowers themselves of the smoke bush, Cotinus cog-gygria, which is smothered in panicles of wonderful, fluffy blossoms during summer.
Softness comes in many guises, from the swaying fountains of bamboos and ornamental grasses to the simple eloquence of moss. Ferns offer some deliciously soft textures over a long season. Meadow grass rippling in the wind must surely be one of the garden’s most seductive softnesses, while in a border plants like Alchemilla mollis will act as a gentle foil for more vigorous shapes.
Feltiness or hairiness is often to be found on large leaves, like those of Hydrangea sargentiana and Berge¬nia ciliata, or on the undersides of some species rho¬dodendron leaves which can have a rich indumentum of grey or russet. Lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina) is a favourite with children, and many people like to stroke the cerise velvet flowers of Salvia buchananii.
Ruggedness shows up well in the striking corrugated leaves of veratrums, rogersias, Viburnum davidii and V. rhytidophyllum, and the vast umbrella leaves of Gun-nera manicata. There are barks too, flaky, deeply corru¬gated, striped, or even peeling in shreds and tatters.
Spikiness appears most often in the sword-like foliage of irises, crocosmias, phormium and yucca, and in the prickles of holly and eryngiums. Acanthus, morina and eryngiums also have spiny flowers.
Hard textures are found in shiny broad-leaved and needle-bearing evergreens, in the rigidity of yuccas and in the tight surfaces of topiary and cushion plants like Bolax or Hebe ‘Boughton Dome’ (which is as crusty-looking as a new cottage loaf).
Glossy leaves grace evergreen shrubs like laurel, aucuba and griselinia, but there is just as much shine on the foliage of herbaceous plants like galax or asarum. Remember that some barks can be shiny too, especially some species of cherry and birch.
Tags: evergreen shrub, glisten, gravel, green moss, herringbone, land scaping, landscape features, leaves, minimalist style, texture works