By Ellen Schlesinger
White flowers are always in style, go with everything in every season and are particularly pleasing and welcome during the dog days of summer.
Whether you plant a “moon garden” – a whole area solely comprised of white flowers and gray foliage – or simply have white things blooming here and there, you’ll appreciate the tranquil mood set by adding neutral tones to your yard.
The white or moon garden was the brainchild of English novelist and gardener extraordinaire Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) and her husband, Harold Nicholson. The couple created the now-famous monochromatic area to accommodate their outdoor dining during summer at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, England.
There is something lovely and understated about white flowers. And when they are paired with silver-leaved plants they seem to acquire further elegance. And white and silver colors seem to dazzle under lights at night.
One can never have too many white flowers on a deck: sweet alyssum; stock; verbena; heliotrope; geraniums; calla lilies; baby’s breath; delphiniums; Oriental lilies, violas and veronicas, to name a very few plants that look crisp and cool on summer days and nights.
Most, but not all, white-flowered plants have ‘alba’ or ‘album’ in their Latin names, and while many of them are pure white, others may be flushed or veined with pink, mauve, green or yellow.
In the shade, plants with dark green leaves, such as rhododendrons, camellias and hellebores, make excellent foils. In sun, plants with gray or silver foliage, such as wormwoods (Artemesia), lambs’ ears (Stachys) and dusty millers (Senecio) make effective companions.
If you’re planning a moon garden, you might want to begin by draping a climbing rose over an archway or pergola; or perhaps just planting several shrubs as the backbone of the border.
Many rosarians consider ‘Iceberg’ to be the finest shrub rose in existence. This non-stop performer has large, semi-double white blooms borne in great profusion on a bush with glossy mid-green foliage. The climbing form is exceedingly showy, producing masses of open, fluffy white flowers.
England’s Royal National Rose Society has rated ‘Margaret Merril’ as its No. 1 cultivar for fragrance. Clusters of clear white flowers with prominent yellow stamens make a striking contrast with the shrub’s dark green leaves.
The hybrid tea ‘Sheer Bliss’ bears large, creamy white and blush pink double blooms that have a strong fruity scent. Not surprisingly, this stunningly romantic rose is often used in wedding bouquets.
‘When you think of hydrangeas you probably immediately conjure up an image of blue or purple flowers, but the many white-flowered varieties should not be overlooked. Hydrangea macrophylla (Tea of Heaven) ‘Fuji Waterfall’ is a compact and erect, deciduous shrub with large, fully double white lacecap flowers that dangle daintily on pendulous stems. Few other hydrangeas can match its grace. If pruned and kept tidy, hydrangeas always look opulent growing in tubs on a deck or patio.
Some of your summer flowers may be looking exhausted at this time of year. Not to worry. There are several white-flowered perennials that are just coming into their own now to perk things up. Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ is a vigorous – some would say marauding – woody perennial with broad green leaves and heartbreakingly beautiful single white flowers with eyes or centers that are rings of gold. I adore this flower and perhaps because I do the plant rewards me by being very well mannered.
Crimson flag (Schizostylis coccinea) is a rhizomatous, late-season perennial that is native to the river banks of southern Africa, but happily the plants are perfectly hardy here and the clumps get bigger year after year. Crimson flags begin to bloom in late summer and have gladioli-like, reedy foliage and starry little upturned flowers. Most varieties are shades of red or pink, but there is a lovely, harder-to-find white form. Grow these carefree and pretty plants in well-draining soil in full sun at the front of a border.
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) is an upright deciduous shrub with dark green, coarsely toothed leaves and large showy flowers. Useful as an informal hedge or in the back of the border, Rose of Sharon explodes into a mass of blooms in late summer or early fall.
‘Diana’ has 5-inch white flowers with yellow eyes; ‘Red Heart’ is white with a deep red center. It’s a knockout.
In their daintiness and simplicity, asters are akin to wildflowers. Many varieties bloom all summer long while others only begin to flower when the gardening season is ebbing. Michaelmas daisy or New York aster (A. novae-belgii) is a clump-forming perennial that blooms in mid-autumn.
