With the ruby blooms and vivid purple foliage of Red Diamond™ Midsize Loropetalum, it’s easy to make a memorable first impression. Design a dramatic entryway or add curb appeal with the grace and energy of Red Diamond™.
Design Elements of a Dynamic Entry Garden
Tell visitors they have come to the right place with a spirited Red Diamond™ First Impressions Garden. This design creates drama through color and texture. The rich burgundy foliage of Red Diamond™ is set in sharp contrast against the golden hues of ‘Lemon Lime’ Nandina. High contrast is a trick to awaken the senses and involve viewers in the garden experience.
Contrast is further enhanced in the planting through placement of dark, colorful foliage against the light-toned house as well as the mixture of cool and warm colors used throughout the design. Such contrast creates visual tension, the interplay of opposing elements that add interest and energy to a design. Tension brings the design to life and engages garden visitors.
Once engaged, the viewer’s eye is drawn across the garden through a mixture of textures and plant forms that create a sense of movement in the planting. Oakland™ Holly provides a vertical element, giving the garden elegant upward motion. Flowing Platinum Beauty™ Lomandra lends energy and grace, while pulling the eye back toward the colorful shrub layer. The sleek blades of Platinum Beauty™ contrast the foliage of the shrubs. Overall, the effect is anything but static.
Too much tension and motion are distracting and disruptive to the overall design. The composition is balanced through mass planting and the use of symmetry. Planting shrubs in large masses provides visual weight that works to settle the planting into the ground. The size of each plant mass is well-proportioned to the overall space occupied by the garden as well as the size of the house. The near-mirror image planting of Red Diamond™ and ‘Lemon Lime’ Nandina unites the two halves of the garden into a single space.
Applying These Concepts
In more simplified terms the Red Diamond™ First Impressions Garden employs the following design techniques:
- Pairing of contrasting colors: light and dark, warm and cool
- Diversity of forms: upright hollies, mounding shrubs, arching grasses
- Visual weight: Shrubs planted in groups, blocks of color
- Balance: near-symmetry, mass plantings
- Textural contrast: fine and coarse, large and small
- Try applying these concepts in your own garden design or download the Red Diamond™ First Impressions Garden Plan to install in your landscape.
