Would You Like a White Garden or a White Flower Border?

Would you like a white garden or a white flower border? A white garden filled with white flowers and flowering shrubs is many people’s dream garden. But how easy is it to achieve without the planting appearing bland? And are there white flowers for the winter months or would this be a summer garden only?

The White Garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent is world famous. Created by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicholson, it forms part of a much larger garden. The more recently planted white garden at Kensington Palace was created in memory of HRH Princess Diana. My inspiration for this blog came from those two particular white gardens and from the larger of topic of women gardeners, horticulturists, designers and garden teachers.

That said, the suggestions for planting up a single colour themed garden also comes out of meeting client requests for a white flower border, or a garden only filled with white plants.

Why Would You Like a White Garden?

Simplicity is often one of the reasons that clients like the look of a one colour garden. It’s a theme that can work particularly well in –

formal gardens
contemporary garden styles
herb gardens, both formal and informal

With informal styles such as cottage gardens, it doesn’t work quite as well because the underling feel there is a more relaxed ‘anything goes’. But it is possible to create if you know your plants.

If you feel an all-white garden is too much, perhaps because you also love purple, a solution can be to have an all-white border instead. But, once you’ve eyed up a border that needs a total refresh, how do get started on your dream?

The Planning Stages of Your White Garden

There are plenty of things to think about after you’ve chosen the place in the garden for your white flower border. If your whole garden is being transformed into the frothy whiteness of whipped cream and wedding dresses, there’s even more to consider. For example, will you have white porcelain paving to continue the theme? Let’s just look at some of the queries and items that would be on a designer’s list.

Garden Designer tips for single colour gardens

Consider the full range of tones and shades within your colour
Your chosen colour can be from flowers; leaves / foliage; berries / fruit; seed heads; stems / trunks
Be aware of the texture of foliage, flowers and stems
Consider the differing heights and shapes of your white plants
You will probably need a contrasting or background colour, this is usually green, but doesn’t have to be

And then the more usual questions to ask yourself which may affect planting choices: –

What type of soil do you have?
Will this be a year-round garden, a single season only, or a spring and summer garden?
How sunny is the border you’re planting? Does it catch morning sun or afternoon sun?
Would you like a further theme to your garden?
Will your garden include edible plants?
Are your plants trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, climbers, annuals or tender exotics?

White gardens can be stunning, but if it’s a diy creation, you will find it considerably easier to create a border full of white plants rather than a whole garden. There is a reason why garden designers spend years training to make beautiful, practical gardens for you, after all!

Layering textures, using different plant species and shapes is crucial. And you may be surprised at the range of shades within the description white flower. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it creates variation within your planting design.

Planting Design Inspiration for White Gardens and White Flower Borders

As you may be feeling a trifle overwhelmed at this point, I thought giving you examples might be helpful. And so we have three easy maintenance, small white gardens or flower borders for inspiration. Hopefully, a better way of ‘getting you going’ than just a list of white plants, although I do suggest a few plants.

Would You Like a White Flower Border for Evening Relaxation?

White gardens can be highly effective in a garden where the owners view it mainly in the evening, after work. Think moonlight not sunlight, as the reflective qualities of pale colours in low light can be quite magical.

This is likely to be a mainly spring, summer and early autumn planting design. I am presuming that the longer, warmer evenings will be when you’re sitting out with a glass of wine after work.

Imagine sitting in the soft dusk, entranced by the night insect pollinators who are enjoying the scented white flowers as much as you are. Have your seats in a corner, backed by scented white climbers such as Jasmine. In summer, curved white flower borders on each side envelop you with tall Nicotiana sylvestris and Rosa ‘Desdemona’. Cover the ground with scented Nemesia ‘Wisley vanilla’. This is a tender perennial so you may need to treat it as annual bedding.

Edge the borders with evergreen, silver leaved Santolina chamaecyparissus for its aromatic foliage. Add a couple more silver leaved shrubs with different foliage shapes to add texture. Convolvulus cneorum has white flowers which will bloom over a long period. Evergreen Ballota pseudodictamnus has furry aromatic foliage carried on curving stems.

Or Possibly a White Herb Garden?

In this white herb garden, all the herbs have foliage or flowers which have a culinary use. I have visualised the setting as a free-standing planting design set around a Quince tree. Quince has beautiful white blossom in spring, and the edible fruits are covered with silvery hairs until ripe. You could also use a white flowered Rosemary bush grown. Both should be grown as standards, to allow light to the herbs below. This is set in the centre of a diamond shaped border, surrounded by white flowered lavender.

The outer edge has creeping white flowered Thyme to spill over and soften the formal diamond shape. Internally, low hedges of Thyme ‘Silver posie’ break the space into 4 sections. These sections are all planted with white variegated Marjoram for ground cover and to suppress weeds.

That would make a pretty feature as it stands. If you wanted to add more herbs, edible Rocket would grow through the Marjoram and has white flowers. So too would Wild Carrot, which with its feathery foliage is very pretty in early summer.

What about a White Front Garden Design with Topiary?

Strong sun bleaches out the white unless backed by, for example, a solid green yew hedge. Which is why topiary and white flowers go so well together. With an air of formality, simplicity and chic, this style works particularly well in small city gardens, courtyard gardens and front gardens. As part of a larger country garden, keep it as separate area, surrounded by walls and yew hedges. Much as at Sissinghurst, in fact.

Look on your topiary as the skeleton of the design and include silver leaved evergreens for winter interest. For example, in a slightly shady front garden, plant out a square formal garden. Use an edging of Santolina punctuated by Buxus cones at the corners. A smaller square of Buxus hedging inside with standard white flowered Lavender as corner stops. You could use white variegated Lamium as perennial ground cover. Or fill in with a pale decorative aggregate to continue the white theme.

For a centre piece and focal point plant either a large Box cone in the centre or Cornus alternifolia Argentea, aka silver pagoda dogwood. This is a great shrub for year-round interest with layered branches and white flowers.

More Inspiration for a White Garden and White Flower Borders

The question posed at the beginning was: “Would you like a white garden?” Hopefully I have gone some way to helping you decide whether you’d like a garden filled with predominantly white plants and flowers. Or whether a smaller project of herb garden front garden or a scented white flower border is more your thing.

For further gardening advice and inspiration on single colour planting designs and topiary, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below

You may also enjoy Plews monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram @plewsgd Pinterest and Facebook too.

On that note, you can have a peek at my new garden in the (new) Instagram account @spitfiresandslowworms where its mainly the green of overgrown brambles, nettles and conifers and more – but things will change…

And of course, if you’d like Plews to create a white herb garden or white flower border for you, this is how the process begins!