Unifying the garden through whites.

White, white, white. I can't emphasize white enough. The human eye perceives it as a brilliant color.” (Beatrice Eiseman)

White is the color of purity, innocence and peace. It offers repose and rests the eye. It is not by coincidence that brides usually wear white.

“White is the light of the forest,” Chloe told me she had heard once.

White flowers are the workhorse of the summer garden, and help with the transition from color to color.

With the strong light of the summer sun, pastels (soft pinks and lavenders for example) don’t work well in the garden any longer. They go unnoticed. So we rely on oranges, yellows, reds, strong purples to bring life to the landscape. White then becomes a necessity to break up these colors. We therefore weave whites throughout the garden beds to either break up the monotony or reduce the gaudiness of those other strong colors.

The summer garden is very different from the spring one. Only certain plants can thrive in the intense summer heat. Usually Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta (Asteraceae)) , dahlias, cannas and gladioli are the general menu of the summer beds. But they need white to break the groupings up and soften up the overall look.

Here is another example:

In the garden, white does not have to be expressed through flowers alone. White can show in variegated leaves. And even in garden accents, which will be the motive for a future blog. Here is the picture of a variegated hydrangea:

As we stroll through the garden, it is a relief to see whites here and there breaking up what would otherwise either be the monotony of just one color, or the cacophony of an unruly garden.

I was walking with Chloe once, and she stooped to pick up a flower. It wasn’t much bigger than a pin head.

“Look at the detail,” she told me. I would have passed by without noticing. That brings me to the delicacy of this Queen Anne’s Lace. What grace, and what perfection! And it is just a wild flower that Chloe has introduced into her garden.
From Wiki:

Daucus carota (common names include wild carrot, (UK) bird's nest, bishop's lace, and (US) Queen Anne's lace) is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe, southwest Asia and naturalised to northeast North America and Australia; domesticated carrots are cultivars of a subspecies, Daucus carota subsp. sativus.

In early spring white azaleas do the job for us throughout the garden.

As well as do peonies.

White is used for control, and even rhythm and harmony.

"White sings in the garden!" Chloe likes to say.

The light going through this pansy says it all: