Gardening Australia – May 2019

46 MAY 2019 GARDENING AUSTRALIA

A

white garden! Could there be
anything more immediately
compelling? It’s hard to know
if there’s something inherently
appealing in the concept, or if it’s the
almost universally known and celebrated
white garden at Sissinghurst Castle in
the UK that loads the idea with romance.
Certainly, that famous white garden,
with its elegant iron arbor laden with
Rosa mulliganii, would make a strong
claim to being the most-copied garden
in the world (see page 50 for more on
Sissinghurst Castle Garden).
The only time I ever saw it in full and
glorious bloom was after opening hours,
nearly 30 years ago. I stood transfixed

in the gloaming, as the clock in the

nearby tower ponderously struck nine.

At least part of the power of white

gardens is a consequence of their

behaviour in the evening and under

moonlight. Dark colours fade to shadow

in low light, while whites are bathed in

a surreal glow. They’re also wonderfully

bright and cool during the day, often

made more buoyant still by the fact that

many white flowers are albino forms

of otherwise coloured flowers, and the

lack of pigment is often carried into the

foliage, rendering it lighter and fresher.

The appeal of single-colour gardens,

beyond just white gardens, has been on

a slow rotation for well over a century.

The provocative British garden writer

Christopher Lloyd dismissed them entirely

as the work of unimaginative gardeners,

who self-impose limitations in order to

narrow the bewildering array of plant

choices, but I don’t think it’s that simple.

The power of any one colour is amplified

by repetition. It’s almost as if, in bouncing

around within your field of view – some

clumps of the chosen colour close, some

far, some in focus, some not – there’s an

implication of the infinite. It makes good

sense to wield this power for our benefit.

put foliage to work

One of the biggest challenges in using

this effect of repetition in a white garden PHOTOS

ALAMY, THE GARDEN COLLECTION, GAP PHOTOS/ELKE BORKOWSKI,

CANCER RESEARCH UK GARDEN DESIGNED BY ROBERT MYERS