Plants with variegated foliage offer unusual possibilities in a garden. They may be used to create dramatic effects and are particularly valuable in shade or where flowers are scarce.
However, there should be a reason for using plants with variegated markings, whether for accents, for borders with green and white as the motive, for ground covers, or the effect of intermittent light and shade.
My garden is damp, with high shade and sonic deep shade, and is planted almost entirely with perennials. In many cases, I have only a few of a kind, but enough to study their likes and dislikes.
I feed them generously and use liberal amounts of compost. To provide for better air circulation, low-growing plants are combined with those of higher growth. Contrasts in the shape of the leaves, such as large, flat leaves contrasted with finely cut leaves, is a Feature for which Mil continually strives.
As an accent in green and white, a large plant of hosta fortunei albomarginata, one of the tall-cluster plantain lilies, makes a superb mound of large, green leaves edged with a band of white.
Its graceful mass of leaves will grow to three or four feet across in six years, depending on the amount of food and moisture available. Plants grow best in high shade. In the sun they become very ragged and the leaves turn yellow. All plantain lilies prefer some shade, but some take sun better than others.
Edged with Green
In the spring, H. fortunei viridi marginata, a tall-cluster plantain-lily, has lemon leaves with a green edge. These large, handsome leaves turn green later in the season. There is a variety, probably of H. glauca, with a gold or clear yellow edge, which is half an inch or wider.
This coloring remains all summer. A large, very striking plant, it needs a setting with other hostas, with large gray leaves or with fine-leaved plants, such as meadow-rue or ferns.
Another hosta, with a white edge in the leaf, in the middle-sized group, is the mid-summer plantain-lily (H. erromena), which is said to withstand abuse and sun better than the others, so it is worth trying. I have had my plant for a short time.
A pleasant border along a path is created by using one of the narrow-leaved plantain lilies, II. lancifolia albo-marginata. The narrow leaves, with a white line along the edge, grow about eight inches high. The leaves of my plant remained in good condition, and green, through the hot summer.
Another host for a border is the attractive, low-growing, blunt plantain-lily (H. decoriaa). Plants are characterized by their rounded leaves, with a border of white. They spread into clumps and perhaps are better suited to the end of a flower bed, as an interesting pattern in green and white.
In the summer, my leaves became torn and jagged. I think it was the heat that seemed to disintegrate them, For plants in the cooler part of my yard stood up better.
Plants Tend to Vary
Wavy-leaved plantain-lily (H. undulata) makes an attractive border plant. Its leaves have splashes of green and white. Plants from different places vary, with some having whiter markings than others.
Toward the end of the summer, the leaves of this species will become greener, with darker green lines. A variety of the wavy-leaved plantain-lily (H. undulata univittata) also makes a good border plant, though it is larger. Its leaves are green, with a white stripe down the middle. This variety keeps its contrasting appearance all summer.
Both these wavy-leaved plantain-lilies may send out shoots that have large leaves of plain green, which, if cut out and replanted, will become huge plants. Three of my plants in front of different localities have acted this way, and I have seen it happen in several other gardens.
Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius tuberosum) makes a delightful, low-edging plant, with clear green and white leaves. It grows a little straggly but can be kept compact by clipping. Another grassy edging, about six inches high, is the Japanese sweet flag (Acorus gramineus pusillus). Variegated, big, blue lily-turf (Liriope muscari variegata) will form a grassy edge about 10 inches high. With me, it seems to be perfectly hardy.
Variegated wall rock cress (Arabis albida variegata) develops into a spreading specimen. It is an excellent green and white combination, needing sun and a dry location. Mine is merely tolerating its location, and I mulch it with sand.
Several plants in green and white can be used for ground covers. Spotted dead-nettle or cobbler’s bench (Lamium maculatum), with dark green leaves, marked by a white stripe on the middle vein, and pink flowers, is most attractive.
This form is huskier than the one with light green leaves and white flowers. Seedlings of both of these often have plain green leaves. If a plant with green and white leaves is moved into deep shade, it loses much of its white markings.
The variegated-leaved carpet bugle (Ajuga reptans variegata), with silvery veining, is cranky and seems to need some sheltered spot. Even then it may not be like that. Ribbon-grass (Phalaris arundinacea pieta), a rather rampant ground cover, gets untidy, but looks fairly well and keeps more green and white in its leaves if it is cut back now and then.
Vinca minor aureo-variegata, a white flowering form, makes a good evergreen ground cover. In the spring and again in the fall the ends of the low, spreading shoots are a lovely gold.
Green and White Thymes
There are several rhymes with green and white leaves, speckled with gold. I have had a few of these, but they rot in my damp garden.
The lungworts make satisfactory eight to 10-inch ground covers, with their gay spring flowers. Common lungwort (Pulmonaria Officinalis) has white spots on its leaves. More striking is Bethlehem lungwort (P. saccharata), with its prominent white spots and blue and pink flowers. P. saccharata Mrs. Moon has white markings, while the flowers are almost entirely pink, with a very little blue. The leaves of lungworts come out early and look well even late in the fall.
Silver edge goutweed (Aegopodium podograria variegatum), which is growing in a damp place with ferns, shows contrast in leaf shapes. It can be made into a wide edging by keeping the spreading roots cut with an edger. Fortunately, it does not spread as much as the green form, which is a terrible pest.
Virginia water-leaf (Hyrdrophyllum virginianum) will grow in deep shade and spread to make a covering about a foot high. In spring the leaves have cream-colored markings.
Others with white markings on their leaves are British Columbia wild ginger (Asarum caudatum), Sierra wild ginger (A. hartwegi), and A. Shuttleworth. Their heart-shaped, shiny leaves are most pleasing.
They are low plants, which grow in deep shade. Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria striata), with a white line up the middle of the leaf, might become a ground. cover, but mine did not survive and seemed to be a weak plant. Gill-over-the-ground (Nepeta hederacea variegata) has a creeping habit of growth that spreads around gently.
It is an excellent plant to put in window boxes and hanging baskets.
Variegated Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis variegata) is an attractive evergreen of clear green and white. Mine happened to get started, years ago, among some English ivy. I was troubled at first, but both have grown well together. Give it plenty of compost and spray with an oil spray to prevent scale.
Plant for Effect
Variegated stonecrop (Sedum kamtschaticum variegatum) has yellowish tones and looks somewhat sickly. It looks better with a foil of gray nearby. If you can choose from a nursery a Euonymus fortunei gracilis with good coloring, not on the yellow side, you will have a low, shrubby evergreen cover that will be attractive.
Stripe-leaf Adam’s needle (Yucca filamentosa variegata) is another evergreen that, with space and food, will probably spread as well as the green species. Mine has not had such care.
Pineapple mint (Mentha rotundifolia variegata), with curly white-edged leaves, is an appealing plant. The flower stalk confuses the leaf pattern and can be cut off. This mint, not a rapid spreader, is not always hardy.
Golden apple mint (Mentha gentilis) is entirely hardy and shows its golden markings on the lower leaves of young shoots in the spring. The leaves are delightfully fragrant, but the flower is not pleasant.
European meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), with variegated leaves, has prominent white on its basal leaves, which form an attractive pattern against the soil of the flower bed. However, Japanese beetles are very fond of the leaves on the flower stalks.
Two stonecrops that may be obtained with variations that tend toward yellow coloring are a variegated form of the showy stonecrop (Sedum spectabile variegation) and blush stonecrop (Sedum alboroseum variegatum). These may be used for variety with other plants of the same height of a foot or more.
The first year’s growth of the variegated form of the dollar plant or honesty (Lunaria annua) is effective with its triangular leaves edged with white. Plants grow about a foot high. In the second year, the lower leaves dry up more or less as the plant makes its stalk of flowers.
I used to grow the annual snow on the mountain (Euphorbia marginata), with its showy green and white leaves. Because the juice of this plant causes dermatitis, I no longer grow it.
Some Low Kinds
I am trying some unusual low-growing plants in my garden at present. They need a location where they will have surroundings that fit their daintiness. Hardy, one is the silver-edge primrose (Primula marginata), which has white bits along the margins of its leaves.
Others, European cyclamen (Cyclamen europaeum) and Neapolitan cyclamen (C. neapolitanum) have white veins. The fern (Goringeanum pinetum) has fronds of a very attractive shape, silvered and about six inches high.
A shrub to be used for an accent or in a group of shrubs is the variegated Tatarian dogwood (Cornus alba Argenteo-marginata). The white edges of the leaves of this dogwood are clear and distinct, and the growth is attractive.
Some Taller Kinds
There are several variegated leaved plants of taller growth, with long, grass-shaped leaves, that are excellent to place with plants that have leaves of a different shape. About two feet high is sweet iris (Iris pallida variegata), with green and white leaves that, in my shaded bed, hold in good color all summer.
Yellow flag (I. pseudacorus variegata) has cream color markings in the spring, which it loses later in the summer. There is also a sweet flag (Acorus calamus variegatus), which I am recently trying. It looks as if it likes my damp and shaded beds, so it stays green and white.
A variegated form of tawny daylily (Hemerocallis fulva Kwanso variegata) has leaves of green and white, but new shoots are apt to be plain green, so I cut them out. In full sun it seems to have more green shoots and will spread over a large area.
There are three Eulalia, with slightly different markings. All are six feet tall and over some time will make large bushy growth. I have striped Japanese rush (Miscanthus sinensis variegatus), with a white midrib; Zebra-grass (M. Sinensis zebrinus), with white or cream bands on the leaves; and maiden-grass (M. sinensis gracillimus).
The plumes of the first two are buff color, while the third has plumes of a pinky buff, a trifle darker than the others and opening a little later. This third has left, long and very narrow, with a white line. It mounds over in a very graceful way.
All of these variegated plants blend into my planting. In addition, there are many plants with gray leaves, which soften the effect, while a few with purple tones add variety.
44659 by Frances R. Williams