If you’re keen to use mostly one colour in your outside space, there are so many plants, shrubs and trees to choose from. With a predominately white planting scheme, there will be no risk of clashing colours, and you’ll find there’s pleasing subtle variation, as most white flowers are not pure, but have touches of pink, blue, green or yellow in them.
Designing a garden this way works particularly well in smaller spaces, though it can also look lovely in larger plots, too. Take a look at the ideas here, and visit famous gardens, such as the White Garden at Sissinghurst in Kent, for more inspiration.
Kate Eyre Garden Design
Stagger your blooms
Make sure when planning a white garden that you stagger the flowering times, so you have a continuous display throughout the year. To keep the garden looking fresh, you’ll need to deadhead frequently, picking off any faded blooms.
There’s a huge range of white-flowering plants, including self-seeders such as Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll Alba’ (love-in-a-mist) and Lunaria annua var. albiflora (honesty), bulbs, and ground-cover plants such as Viola cornuta Alba Group. Then there are perennials such as Astrantia major ‘Large White’, as well as shrubs, climbers, white-flowering evergreens, including Sarcococca ruscifolia (fragrant sweet box) and hebe, hedging and, of course, trees.
Some white-flowering varieties of plants will make a big impact in the garden, such as the blousy blooms of Paeonia lactiflora ‘duch*esse de Nemours’ (peony). Others are more dainty in their displays, such as Gillenia trifoliata, with its masses of tiny, white, star-shaped flowers, and the billowing clouds of white, frothy blooms of the flowering sea kale, Crambe cordifolia.
You’ll also find that many white-flowered plants and shrubs will grow well in the shade, including Astilbe chinensis ‘Vision in White’; Helleborus, Epimedium, and Polygonatum.
Laara Copley-Smith Design
Close in on climbers
Apart from the many white-flowering rambling and climbing roses, there are other deciduous and evergreen varieties of climber that will fit this palette.
If you have a sunny wall, a good choice is the self-twining evergreen Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine), which produces pure white flowers and has rich dark leaves that turn a lovely bronze in winter. The common white Jasminum officinale flowers from June to August and spreads quite quickly, so be careful where you plant it.
An even more vigorous climber is Solanum laxum ‘Album’, also known as the potato vine, which produces black autumn berries. Be warned, though – it could take over your tree or wall!
Wisteria make a great choice for the white garden. W. floribunda f. alba provides amazing vertical scent grown over a wall or even as a standard, as it’s less vigorous than most wisteria.
If you need a climber for a shady spot, look for Hydrangea petiolaris. It has aerial roots, so will cling to a wall, heart-shaped, dark green leaves, and masses of white lacy flowers from spring to summer.
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Don’t forget your foliage
Foliage plants are a vital ingredient in a single-colour garden or border. Foliage acts as both a foil for the flower colour and a calming backdrop that brings all the different elements together.
Using green foliage as a backdrop will lend much-needed structure to the flowering plants and reinforce the tonal variations. Topiary shapes will further enhance the space and add interest.
Le jardinet
For grey foliage, the Artemisia family is invaluable, and there are several varieties to choose from, including Artemisia arborescens ‘Powis Castle’.
Many foliage plants have a green and white variegation to them. Hosta ‘Fire and Ice’ makes a bold statement, with its bottle green margins and white centres, and looks great among ferns. It does produce purple flowers in the summer, but you can always remove these.
For a denser evergreen variegated shrub, try Euonymus japonicus ‘Paloma Blanca’, which emerges greenish white but, as it ages, gradually darkens to a deep, rich green.
Helen Rose Wilson Garden Design
Grow tall
Spires of blooms add impact in a white garden. Plants to try include Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora; Delphinium ‘Centurion White’; Campanula persicifolia ‘Alba’; Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’, and Phlox paniculata ‘Mount Fuji’, to name but a few.
Do make sure you keep on top of cutting back once the plants have finished blooming, as this encourages the smaller side shoots, which will prolong flowering.
For a tall, imposing, silvery-leafed plant that works best in a dry area of the garden, or in gravel, look for Eryngium giganteum (known as Miss Willmott’s ghost). It’s named after horticulturist Ellen Willmott, who liked to scatter the seeds of the plant in other people’s gardens. This variety of sea holly will look great with grasses and in flower arrangements, though beware its spiky bracts.
Claudia De Yong Garden Design
Cultivate a meadow
Leucanthemum vulgare (ox-eye daisy, pictured) is a native species often seen growing on verges. Perfect for naturalising in a wildflower meadow, these tall, white flowers will bloom from May to July, creating bold swathes that will often flower again later in the season if they’re frequently deadheaded.
Another native plant you can try is the tough, spreading wildflower, Achillea millefolium (common yarrow), which has umbel-like white flowers floating above green stems.
The bulbous perennial Camassia leichtlinii ‘Alba’ will also look wonderful in a long grass meadow, but would equally look spectacular planted in a bed against a dark green hedge.
Karen Rogers at KR Garden Design
Work your walls
White will stand out against a wall or fence in a garden where smaller flowers may struggle to be seen. Plants such as Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (pictured) work particularly well, as do the tall spires and heads of Lilium regale ‘Album’. Allium ‘Mont Blanc’ will create another shape and texture in the space.
Consider flowering shrubs such as Choisya ternata, Philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile’ or ‘Snowbelle’, Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’ and, if you have plenty of room, Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Mariesii’.
Claudia De Yong Garden Design
Please noses with roses
Many white (or white-ish) roses, such as ‘Iceberg’, have been popular in recent years, as there are climbing and shrub varieties, but there are many other white flowering roses to try.
Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ is a very good repeat-flowering and robust climbing rose that works well on a house or wall. It has more of a creamy white bloom tinged with pink, but the added bonus of a sweet, fruity fragrance.
Perfect for a pergola, obelisk or fence is ‘Princesse de Nassau’. This rambling rose flowers late in the season and well into the autumn and bears semi-double, creamy white flowers with a musk-like fragrance.
For a rose that makes good ground cover, choose the long-flowering Rosa ‘Kent’. This repeat-flowering, bushy, semi-double rose blooms from July right through to October, when the flowers are followed by lovely red autumn hips.
A beautiful shrub rose to try is ‘Desdemona’, which has a pink hue and a fragrance similar to almond blossom.
Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ is often found in hedges, as it’s robust and forms a vigorous spreading shrub. The single flowers are followed by huge orangey-red hips.
Claudia De Yong Garden Design
Mind the gaps
Annuals are useful for filling any holes that might appear in the garden and there are many white-flowering varieties to try.
Cosmos is invaluable for late-summer colour. Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’, which bears large, open flowers in purest white that sit above delicate foliage, can easily be grown from seed, and will flower continuously if deadheaded.
If you want a taller annual, try snapdragons such as Antirrhinum ‘Snowflake’.
The Abyssinian gladiolus, Acidanthera murielae (pictured), has delicate, arching stems and white-scented, nodding heads, and is a fantastic flower to grow annually from a corm. These gladioli make a great cut flower that lasts brilliantly in a vase.
London Garden Designer
Work in some trees
Trees can be also used in a white-themed garden. The white bark of Betula utilis var. jacquemontii, for instance, can look wonderful planted either as a single specimen or in groups.
There are various trees with wonderful white blossom. Prunus ‘Shirotae’ (Mount Fuji cherry) is a good choice for a smaller garden, but it does need space for its wide canopy. It has pure-white, semi-double flowers on pendulous branches in April-May.
Another tree that works well with a white colour scheme is the weeping silver pear, Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’. This ornamental pear tree has beautiful, narrow, grey-green leaves that have a silver downy underside. The single white flowers appear in April-May.
The Garden Trellis Company
Perfect your pots and planters
A white theme can extend to pots, and there are so many plants to choose from when it comes to these mini gardens.
A small roof terrace or patio area will benefit from a restricted palette. Keeping it simple and limiting the number of colours not only enhances the space, making it feel larger, but also helps to make a small area look neat and tidy.
Good flowering plants to try with a trailing habit for pots and containers include Petunia Surfinia White; Euphorbia Diamond Frost; Dicentra peregrina alba (bleeding heart); Brachyscome ‘White Bliss’; Bacopa cordata ‘Gulliver White’; Lobelia erinus ‘Fountain White’; Erigeron karvinskianus, Vinca minor f. alba ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, and Impatiens ‘Infinity White’.
Tell us…
What do you think of gardens with a restricted palette? Do you have one – or do you prefer a multi-coloured display? Share your thoughts and photos in the Comments section.
