Choose perfect partners

Pairing plants for contrasts of foliage and flowers is enormous fun. Val Bourne chooses some of her favourite partnerships for spring

Team plants for texture, shape and colour. Here’s how to do it for combinations that wow

Fresh foliage emerges in March, so it’s the ideal time to create your own lush tapestry of colour and texture in the garden. A narrow leaf may be flattered by a scalloped shell shape, for instance. Or, team a highly divided maidenhair fern with the crinkled foliage of a pristine primula, or high-gloss bergenia leaves, reddened by the cold. Close by, a finely beaded grass will provide a translucent veil between noble ferns, such as polystichums. Brought together, such plant contrasts will make spring special. The late Beth Chatto was a first-class advocate of mixing foliage to provide ‘rhythm, cadence and contrast’; her flower-arranging background helped. She would place a round leaf next to a spikier one, or soft next to rough, or a light flower next to a darker one and she had a very good eye. In her garden (see p64), she wasn’t afraid to repeat a successful combination.

Nurserywoman Rosy Hardy takes a slightly different approach. She still mixes foliage, but looks for the detail in each flower as well. A white flower with purple veining is placed close to a darker flower to pick up the colour. Blues and purples are never far away from a strong orange trollius or a seductive peach verbascum. And there’s usually a frothy filler, a cow-parsleylike umbel or a dainty grass, threaded through to unite the entire scheme. Garden centres are groaning with plants with interesting foliage and jaunty flowers. It’s a good idea to get a trolley and pick a star plant – one that catches your eye. Then, go walkabout and try to match it up with some iconic partners, looking mainly at the foliage because this will last longer than the flowers. With your trolley as the stage you can mix and match plants to your heart’s content, until you find a convincing trio or quintet that pleases the eye. ➤

Pick a star plant and try to match it up with some iconic partners

Create a dazzling display with cobalt blue Muscari armeniacum and the aptly named Nandina domestica ‘Fire Power’

Pollen-dusted catkins of Salix caprea pick up the yellow centres of primula ‘Gold Lace’

Fritillaria meleagris and Erythronium californicum make a dynamic pairing around the ankles of Betula utilis jacquemontii. Yellow stars of Ficaria verna ‘Brazen Hussy’ add a bright accent