Something missing? Maybe you need more than color

By this time of year, you probably have planted some new perennials for color in your garden. But if you look around and still feel something is missing, the answer may be that your landscape needs more than color.
As a landscape designer, I am often called upon for ideas to create richer landscapes that provide four seasons of interest. Here are some tips I pass along.
A more sophisticated appeal and enduring quality in your landscape can be achieved if foliage color is used to complement, or contrast with, other plants within the design. This technique unifies the overall look while offering appeal throughout the season.
One plant that would make this happen is “rose glow” Japanese barberry. Its graceful slender, arching branches makes a statement by itself, but it’s the vivid marbled red-pink foliage that steals the show until it deepens to rose and bronze with age. In the fall, the foliage turns yellow-orange before dropping, and bead-like bright red berries stud the branches from fall through winter.
Confetti abelia is another small shrub that can be used to unify your landscape. It grows only 2 to 3 feet high and 4 to 5 feet wide and has with leaves of variegated white that turn maroon in cold weather. Abelias are adaptable plants — useful in shrub borders, near the house or as groundcover on banks. Their white, bell-shaped flowers are plentiful and showy during summer and early fall.
Texture in foliage is very important in good garden design. Varying the size and shape of leaves creates diversity and variety among neighboring plants. Striking visual interest can even be achieved when working with two different plants with similar shades of green.
An example of this would be combining “gold star” Pittosporum tenuifolium with Grevillea noellii. The first has dark-green oval foliage on dense 10- to 15-foot plants, while the latter is densely clad with narrow inch-long glossy, green leaves. Clusters of pink and white flowers bloom in early to late spring and are a favorite of hummingbirds.
Using the same plant shape throughout a landscape can also create rhythm, balance and harmony, and tie the entire design together. Forms and shapes of plants and trees can be columnar, conical, oval, round, pyramidal, weeping, spreading or arching.
A loropetalum, with its spreading tiers of arching branches, could be repeated throughout your garden to create visual interest and balance. A dogwood tree could also repeat this same form, as its branches grow horizontally.
Consider also layering plants to create a beautiful garden. From groundcovers all the way to the tallest tree, natural-looking designs mimic nature.
And don’t forget about focal points. This could be a Japanese maple cloaked by a wall of dark evergreens or a statue or pottery at the end of a long, narrow pathway. Focal points draw attention and even distract the eye from an unsightly view.
There are many solutions to make your garden complete. Consider using some of the above design elements to make your landscape beautiful.
Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at ja******@ao*.com.