Adam Schwartz wrote:

I'm curious about garden design. Are there any rules you all use to
plan your gardens (specifically pots)? For example:

Group flowers of the same color
Only one or two types of plants per pot
Mix certain colors (i.e. purple and yellow,, blue and red)
Use white sparingly
Group plants by texture
etc.

Thanks for the input,
Adam

For container plantings, I tend to follow this general guideline: something
tall to provide height, something full to provide body and something drapey
to cascade and soften the sides. It doesn't necessarily have to be a single
"something" for each of these elements, but typically if you combine things
in uneven numbers, you will get a visually interesting and pleasing
combination. I also tend to follow a color scheme, but it doesn't require
strict adherence and sometimes a pop of a single bright color can really
jazz things up. And since I seldom design based on flowers, foliage color
and texture play a very significant role in my container planting, with the
flowers only complimenting the composition rather than driving it.

This same process governs the rest of my landscape as well - generally there
are three primarily layers of interest (and a few sub-layers as well) with
emphasis on foliar texture and color, flowers secondary. I do use a lot of
white to unify different areas of the garden - it is the single color that
draws the entire garden plan together as it is the one color that combines
with anything. Besides, white gives the garden luminance at night and many
white flowers have fragrance. It's a good thing!

pam - gardengal