White Flower Garden or Moon Garden

Among theme gardens, the white garden may be the most popular. When white flowers are combined with silvery or blue toned foliage, the overall effect can be said to create a moon garden for evening enjoyment as well. One of the most famous white gardens is at Sissinghurst, but a successful white garden can be planted anywhere using easy to grow annuals and perennials along with roses, vines, trees and shrubs. Subsequent articles will discuss some of the many plants you could use in designing a white garden or a moon garden. To design and plant a white garden or moon garden, begin by following these simple principles.

Enclosure

A sense of enclosure heightens the special quality of a white garden, especially if it is to be enjoyed in the evening as a moon garden. Enclose your white garden with a fence or hedge, or place it in a secluded corner of the landscape. A white picket fence can work particularly well if it is placed beside plants with dark foliage.

Dark Background

A dark background sets off the bright white flower color and silvery or blue foliage as well as white variegated foliage, so outline the beds or planting area with a darker foil. Use dark hedges such as yew or boxwood or privet, or set your white garden against a dark colored or brick wall to highlight the bright whites. If that’s not possible, a plain background of green lawn will help show off your white garden.

Formal or Informal

You can arrange your white flowers and silvery foliage in any way you like. At Sissinghurst, the white garden is divided into formal planting beds arranged along paths that bisect at a pavilion at the center. Each rectangular bed is edged in a low clipped hedge, and each bed is planted with just one or two kinds of flower. When in bloom, each bed overflows with a solid mass of white blooms erupting from inside the dark green hedge outline. This is a highly controlled and orchestrated combination of plants.

You can try that sort of formal scheme, or you can mix and match your white flowers together in one bed. Or, you might plan a mixed border white garden planting to include flowering shrubs and trees as well as flowers. You can design a formal planting or an informal one. You can mix bulbs, annuals, perennials and vines along with white flowering trees, shrub, and of course white roses. It is entirely up to you!

Read All of the White Garden Series:

The White Garden

Flowers for the White Garden

Foliage for the White Garden

Vines for the White Garden

Roses for the White Garden

More Roses for the White Garden

Trees for the White Garden

Shrubs for the White Garden

The White Garden in Shade

Designing the White Garden

All Flower Gardens Articles So Far