Chapman Karen - Gardening with foliage first: 127 dazzling combinations that pair the beauty of leaves with flowers, bark, berries, and more

To our gardening
friendspast,
present, and
futurewhose
passion for plants,
the landscape, good
wine, and chocolate
sustains us.
Karen & Christina

What do you get when you let two designers loose in a nursery? A car filled to overflowing with a wild assortment of trees, shrubs, perennials, and more. It is a given that you will not be able to see out of the rear window, and you should expect to have plants on the seats, on the floor, and in cup holders. It is only when plants are precariously balanced on the dashboard that we think we may have enough.

But these are not just any plants. The majority will be an outrageous selection of foliage plants with enormous tropical leaves jostling feathery grasses; stripes, spots, and splashes alongside bold solid colors from vibrant orange to deepest purple. Tucked in here and there will be some flowering plants. Experience has taught us that these truly perform, either with a reliably long bloom time or interesting leaves as well as flowers.

As designers, speakers, and coauthors, we have gained a reputation for being entertaining as well as inspiring and for sharing our expertise in a way that is easy to understand. We encourage and challenge each other, which brings out the best in both of us. This, in turn, provides readers with a much broader range of ideas than either one of us could accomplish alone. Together we have fun while we walk you through our design process, which puts foliage first, then adds a final flourish to take the scene from predictable to exceptional.

When you go to the grocery store, you probably have a plan (or at least a recipe) in mind. But how often do you take a shopping list to the nursery? Without forethought, you are headed for disasterit is too easy to get seduced by all the colorful flowers so prominently displayed. On impulse, you grab one of this and one of that, and when you get home that collection of pretty blooms never quite translates into a glossy magazine image. It is just a wild kaleidoscope with no cohesive sense of designor, worse, the blooms fade, and you spent a lot of money on a short-term burst of glory. What went wrong?

You may have chosen plants that are individually beautiful, but did you consider whether they look good together? Is there a visual connection between them? Or perhaps you succumbed to the display of blooming annuals and perennials, the enticing photographs promising an abundance of flowers in summer. But how many months do you need to wait for the plants to reach that stageand how long will they bloom? If you focus on the flowers without considering the foliage, you may end up with a disappointing mlange of midsize green leaves for much of the year, not a unified, well-designed look. It is far more effective, and attractive, to start with foliage.

After building a foliage framework, we show you how to layer in flowers or other artistic elements to add the finishing touch. We take the mystery out of the design process and explain what makes a combination successful. If you follow our ideas or use them as a springboard for your own creations, you will feel like we are your personal design coaches.

In this book, we demonstrate how quickly and easily you can assemble plants that reflect your personal style and suit the largest border or smallest container. We teach you how to make strategic plant choices, clarify why certain plants are great investments for year-round interest, and explain how every element will help you achieve a cohesive look.

Our ideas go beyond the typical summer growing season. The book is divided into two main sections Spring and Summer, Fall and Winterboth of which feature design schemes for sun and shade situations. You will be able to create a true four-season garden that will work for your style and design challenges. Are you still trying to outwit the deer? We feel your pain, and have included Beauty Without the Beast just for you. Looking for something to add winter interest to your cold-climate garden? We were inspired by Serendipity and we think you will be, too. Do you prefer a hot, spicy color palette? Sassitude is sizzling hot. Need ideas for a fall container? Pumpkin Spice Latte is just one of the flavors on the menu.

We scoured gardens from British Columbia to Arizona and Florida to Washington State to find designs to delight, inspire, and embolden you to try new ideas, new plants, and new ways of looking at plant combinations. There are ideas for small patio containers to large sweeping borders, and everything in between. Each combination includes an explanation of how it works. Many of our favorite plants have multiple periods of significance, so we also discuss how each component evolves during the year and offers ideas on how to extend the season of interest even further.

New gardeners will quickly gain confidence as they learn how to select plants that work together, as well as how to identify the details that create a strong foliage picture frame for the flowers on which they may have initially focused. Intermediate gardeners will learn how to transform their gardens from a jumble of collectors plants to a carefully composed design, while those with many years of dirt under their fingernails will be inspired by a fresh twist on old favoritesplus exciting new introductions that will spark the imagination and help you craft unique creations.

You dont need to be a horticulturist or an artist to learn how to design. Careful observation of the smallest detail will help you transform a group of plants on a cart in the nursery into a memorable vignette: your foliage picture frame. Begin with an inspiration plant that drives you wild with excitement. Maybe it is one you have loved and used a number of times, or perhaps it once intimidated you. Whether you are choosing a tree, a perennial, a shrub, or a succulent, look at its key features first.

The final step is an opportunity to add something unexpected, such as a piece of glass art or a colorful flower. Or you may simply develop a monochromatic theme to include additional foliage and flowering plants. Often these elements will have a color echo with some other design component, but with experience you will learn how to use a wild card that at face value has nothing in common with the other plants. For example, in Citrus Splash we show you that the level of color saturation between the two elements makes them perfect partners, even without any specific color echo. Winter designs take considerable creativity to think beyond evergreens, so we will show you how to use berries, seed heads, and colorful branches as layers to enhance your design.