Gardeners worldwide know that white just goes with everything and beautifully enhances the colours of surrounding plants. Great English garden designer, Vita Sackville West, started the trend in 1930 when she planted a white border at her home at Sissinghurst Castle. The border still stands today and has inspired generations of gardeners. Essentially, gardens are all about colour - the flowers, foliage, walls, gates, pottery, furniture and even artwork. Gardens are like our very own sanctuaries and they enhance our quality of life as well as helping our homes look even better!

White flowers provide a sense of coolness and calm that temper the summer heat and also glow when you view them in the evening and at night. If you are using your patio or lapa after dark, make sure you add an abundance of white flowers and silver foliage plants nearby. This will enhance your summer outdoor entertainment area while also creating a gorgeous white Christmas feel.

Here are some tips on how you can use white in the garden to create a cool, calm, and collected feel:

• Used as a border, white plants like Agapanthus or impatiens can make a small garden look larger or a pathway look wider.
• Placing white flowering plants like verbena next to a plant that you want to stand out will make the colours of that plant pop!
• Mixing white flowering plants with silver or grey foliage plants like lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantine) or dusty miller (Senecio cineraria) will create a very calm and soothing effect.
• White-flowered plants are great when paired with green foliage plants.
• White is also a good colour to use when you need to break up clashing colours in the garden, for example, white impatiens separating pink and orange impatiens. This allows the separate colours to stand out on their own.
• Bands of white-flowered plants like alyssum can help guide the eye further into the garden.

Have fun with white by using any of the following plants which should be in flower at this time:

• Verbena – a flat groundcover for a sunny bed or pot.
• White alyssum – always a winner either as a border plant or cascading over pots, walls or hanging baskets.
• Gardenias with beautiful strong fragrance - should be in bloom now.
• White Argyranthemums or daisy bushes – the mainstay of most gardens.
• Petunias – cascading and upright growing.
• Bougainvillea ‘Apple Blossom’ - is a stunner with a touch of pink in it.
• Annual vinca - is so rewarding.
• Portulaca – waterwise and easy to grow.
• Calibrachoa – these are proof that dynamite comes in small packages.
• Pelargoniums – or geraniums are available in bush or trailing.
• Poinsettias (creamy-white)- for that real Christmas spirit.
• Pandorea ‘Lady Di’ which is a climber with white bell-shaped blooms.

Tip: Don’t forget the firm favourites like Iceberg roses that come with the bonus of a gentle fragrance.