Check out that MADNESS! That crazy color work! This is not a planting for the faint of heart - it is a gaudy party dress of a garden ... and I LOVE IT!
I have a heart stopping amount of variegation in this garden - the orange flowered Canna 'Tropicanna', the tiny Euphorbia 'Helena's Blush' (in full bloom), Phormium 'Red Dark Green', and - somebody STOP me - Cortaderia 'Silver Comet'. What got into me? Well, mixing different variegation is supposed to be a no-no, so guess what I wanted to do? Play. Experiment. See if I could make it work.
If you look closely, each of the variegated plants has a soft yellow tone connecting them. The cortaderias - the grasses in the background- seem to glow with their own light, and that same color is present in the center of the canna leaves, as well as the edges of the phormium. You can't see the foliage of the euphorbia through it's spent blooms - but those blooms have become a soft buff that ties them to the rest of the variegated posse.
What makes this garden really sing for me is the blue tones of the agaves - Agave franzonii in the background and Agave 'Blue Glow' down in the left front part of the frame. They are like the yogurt raita you eat with a hot curry - refreshing, delicious, and neccesary. Their forms are dazzling, and even though this planting is a color study, shape and texture still have to be considered.
If I were putting this same moment into a client's garden, I'd probably bring in more green mounding plants to give a little more balance into the picture, and I might change the Euphorbia 'Helena's Blush' to the non variegated variety Euphorbia 'Martinii'. But in my garden - this planting stays as is.
Until another variegated wonder comes over to play!
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