Think pink for your summer garden

A circle of pink pelargoniums around a terracotta birdbath create a spectacular focal point.

A circle of pink pelargoniums around a terracotta birdbath create a spectacular focal point.

Published Dec 27, 2013

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Johannesburg - Pink is a wonderful colour in the garden and midsummer is a great time to either add more pink to your garden or plant up a pink garden.

Create a secluded arbour covered in climbing pink roses such as New Dawn, Compassion, Eden Rose, High Hopes or Langenhoven. Add fragrant shrubs, roses and fillers in shades of pink, peach and lavender to enclose this garden of romance. Or you might consider arches covered with pink climbing roses and pink clematis leading to a lavender sundial garden.

Pink never goes out of fashion. It might be romantic and feminine one season, and vibrant and effervescent the following. Pink is gentle and restful when used with powder blue and lavender, fresh and sparkling with shades of green, tranquil with silver and grey, richly opulent in magenta and wine tones and dramatic when combined with chocolate-coloured flowers and maroon foliage.

Pink-flowering shrubs grown in front of a dark wall can soften and lighten a somewhat sombre exterior. In the front garden and at the entrance to your home, flower borders and containers filled with pink flowers assure your visitors of a warm welcome, and will give pleasure when planted in containers and hanging baskets on patios and near entertainment areas.

Pastel pink can be used to create an illusion of distance, making the garden appear more spacious; used at the back of a shallow border, pale pink flowers and delicate foliage can give the border more depth. When planted along the length of a garden they give an illusion of greater width.

Perhaps no other single genus covers the palette of pink as well as the rose. From blush to soft pink, deep rose to cerise, there is a pink rose to suit every garden.

The Knock Out series of roses are a good choice in supporting Breast Cancer, as they are survivors, resisting disease, black spot and drought. They range from soft to bright pink, bloom throughout the season and are self-cleaning.

The “sweetheart” rose, Cecile Brunner has sprays of tiny pink roses most of the year. This rose can be trained over an arch, or grown around a pillar or post.

Borders using shades of pink, from the softest pastel through to the most vibrant “hot” pinks, can be most attractive, particularly if plants of different heights and textures are introduced.

Pink-flowered shrubs could include anisodontea, pink confetti bush (Coleonema pulchellum), Escallonia “Apple Blossom”, Hebe “Rosie”, Raphiolepis indica “Rosea”, thryptomene and weigela. In front of these, grow pink and white cleome, perennial phlox, lavatera and dahlias.

Pink “see-through” plants that create space and depth in a border include cosmos and Gaura lindheimeri with butterfly-like flowers that are held on thin stems. If this seems like too much pink, then introduce touches of blue with groups of Salvia farinacea “Victoria” or Salvia “Black and Blue”, and powder and sky blue, indigo and violet agapanthus.

Not only do pink flowers look good on their own, they can also be combined with other colours. Pink, white and green are an easy colour scheme. Some flowers make it even easier by coming in a mixture of pink and white – think of bedding begonias, pansies, azaleas, roses and sweet peas.

Vinca cultivars of light pink to vermilion cope well in the hottest weather, and are not only pretty in a border, they also make attractive container and hanging basket subjects. In lightly shaded beds, plant pink bedding begonias to define a curved border or to make a broad ribbon of gentle colour.

A harmonious colour scheme that works well is a combination of pink with mauve, lilac, blue and grey. All these colours blend well together, but for more impact add deeper shades of violet and magenta.

Don’t overlook the value of pink and red foliage plants found in alternanthera, canna and Phormium tenax. Waterwise cordylines are perfect for pots and waterwise gardens, “Southern Splendour” has candy pink stripes and “Electric Pink”, maroon foliage edged with dark and electric pink.

Bronze and burgundy foliage add a touch of spice and textural interest to pink flowers. Choose from alternanthera, Berberis “Rose Glow”, canna, Leptospermum “Cherry Brandy”, Pennisetum “Rubrum”, and Phormium tenax “Thumbelina” and “Chocolate”.

When pink flowers are grown among plants with silver and grey foliage, such as Artemisia “Powis Castle”, lavenders, Gomphostigma virgatum, Helichrysum petiolare, santolina, Stachys lanata (lamb’s ear) and westringia they appear warm and inviting.

There are many ways of using pink in the garden apart from flowers. Stand a pink watering can next to pink pots holding pink daisies, paint a garden bench blue-grey and add pink floral cushions, or place a bench under a pink flowering tree such as the pompon tree, Dais cotinifolia.

 

GENERAL GARDENING TIPS

* Summer rains wash away nutrients in gardens. Now is the time to feed your garden.

* Plant beans, beetroot, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, melon, radish, tomatoes and squash. Plant a few lettuce seedlings at a time, and harvest while young and succulent. Summer lettuce is best grown by direct sowing of seed, and if the soil is kept moist and the lettuce harvested early, they won’t bolt or have a bitter taste.

* Find space for an indigenous summer colour scheme of mauve and orange in pots. Combine mauve Polygala fruticosa “Petite Butterfly” and its taller relative Polygala myrtifolia “Purple Butterfly” and Tecoma capensis “Apricot”, orange-red crocosmia and apricot gazania. Another colour option could be blue agapanthus, plumbago and felicia with pink anisodontea and diascia.

* Dress up bare spots in a shade garden with flowering pots of shade-loving annuals, perennials or shrubs. Plants suitable for shady entrances include hydrangeas, fuchsias, bedding begonia and New Guinea impatiens. Torenias are compact with dainty flowers of blue, purple or pink with yellow throats, and are suitable for edgings, beds, pots, hanging baskets and window boxes. - Saturday Star

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