A flower garden with only white flowers??

I'm planning a flower garden (about 50'x 15'), and I'm thinking of using only white flowers with hosta and some other greenery.

Has anyone ever seen a garden of all white flowers? Does it look good, or odd, or visually unsettling? Our house is mostly white with some dark green; we live on a river and you can see the river from the garden. I hope to appeal to butterflies and hummingbirds. Can this be done with white flowers?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to respond!!

White Flowers
Gulf Coast - Texas

It can look stunning with the right staging. Vita Sackville-West created a white garden at Sissinghurst, here's a link to some photos http://www.invectis.co.uk/sissing/sswhite.htm

Edited to add
There are 4 pages to the white garden http://www.invectis.co.uk/sissing/

This message was edited Jan 31, 2004 7:23 PM

Whiteflowers, I think a white garden could be quite dazzling, particularly if it is a shade garden, but even in sun, it can be visually interesting if you add textures, such as your hostas and perhaps some lacier foliage. One white beauty with contrasting dark foliage is lavatera Mont Blanc.

Whiteflowers, it would look wonderful in the night. I love all the white flowers with the black of night around them.

Yes, I guess that was why I was thinking of a 'shade' garden.

Sounds wonderful. A house I pass going to the village has a garden with white flowers, hosta and Dusty Miller. It is absolutely stunning! Go for it. D

You've given me a thought..
I love purple and lavender,
would just those shades look
okay together, or do I need
other colors added?

I think it just depends on the heights, textures, etc., but a bit of contrast is always good. I think the whites are a dramatic statement, but with lavenders and purple, I'd definitely have some paler shades of lavender to set it off, or add something like some creamy yellow faceless pansies along the border, etc.... now you've got ME thinking! Oh, well, I guess that's what winter is for!

I love white in the garden. I usually plant a whole flat of white Petunias in my patio pots. I think your idea would be gorgeous. I may imitate. Imitation is a perfect form of flattery.

Anastatia, last year I bought a package of seed from Select Seeds called 'Rainmaster' Petunias. They are white and seem to hold up quite well in rainy areas, if that is the case for you.

I, too, have come to appreciate pure white flowers. Faceless white pansies are very showy in a colorful pot.

Oh, thank you all for the encouragement for my idea of a garden with all white flowers (and green, of course). And Baa, thank you for sending the link to those photos--that was very helpful. I'm delighted to hear that the white flowers look good in the dark. Out here, there is only the moonlight (no street lighting or city lighting), so I'm most encouraged.

My garden area is shaded/partial east sun. I hope to attract butterflies and hummingbirds within my white limitation. I'm optimist enough to believe I can do it all.

The bed is cleared now and my plans are shaping up!

Thanks again to each one of you who responded.

Whiteflowers

I allow only white-flowered companion plants in my hosta gardens, they are wonderful with the white variegated hostas in particular. It does work well to brighten a shady area. Campanula persicifolia alba is a star! This peach-leaved bellflower does not stay where I plant it, but seeds itself where it prefers. On rainy days, however, the white sort of recedes, and the golden-chartreuse hostas come into their own. And a white garden is beautiful by moonlight, or even a few well-placed solar lights.

I am not expert on hummingbirds, but don't they prefer orange/red colors? I do know my white Asclepias attracts lots of butterflies though.

Weez, Faceless pansies? Yours are beautiful. Will check them out. I have never successfully grown from seeds. Twinlakes sent me some seeds and I am ready and willing to learn the trick. My seeds grow into long long things that really never take off or stand up.

I am developing a mostly white garden next to our patio. I love when I have seen them in the past. I have a friend in Montana who does a large garden that is mostly white but she spreads a little pink around too for a touch of color and that shows up well in the dark too.

Baa, Thanks for the links! I had seen pictures of Sackville-West's White Garden years ago, and always remembered it. I'd love to have enough space to do a garden all dedicated to one color.

anastatia, pansies and violas are some of the easiest plants to start from seed. I think your problem is light. Window light is just not good enough to keep them from getting leggy. If they fall over and die, they are most likely 'dampening off'. Start them under fluorescent light in sterile soil, and they'll do fine.

I've grown Atlas Whites, Clear Crystal Whites, and I believe the Crystal Bowl series has white faceless ones, as well. This year, I am trying the Swiss Giant whites. If you are looking for seed, try Stokes Seeds:http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront Stokes offers pansies and violas in individual colors and in larger, cheaper lots when you are planning a large bed or selling plants. Their seed always does well for me.

I will go price a fluorescent light. Thanks for the advice. I really would like to grow from seeds.

Whiteflowers, here is a picture of a half whiskey barrel with huchura (sp), some spikey silvery green plant, some white faceless pansys and some white ones with pruple faces. The huchura is getting too big so it's going to a flower bed possibly to be replaced by a smaller one. The spikey thing is comming out. I have 2 of these barrels planted alike, they only get about 2-3 hours of sun in the morning and show up quite nicely at night. I have them between the parking area and the front gate, the grass here gets mowed semi occasionally so if I took better care of mowing the whole effect would be better. Anyhow, I'm posting it so you can see the white with purple accent effect to add to your idea list.

This message was edited Feb 1, 2004 1:13 PM

Darius

I've heard Sackville-Wests' white garden slated so often by garden designers and yet I think it's rather bold. I've not been to Sissinghurst myself, just seen the piccies. It was good to find someone on the net who'd enjoyed their time there and I really like the use of silver and green foliage too.

Can't say I'd go for an area with one colour, my idea of a garden design is to cram as many plants in as poss without hacking the neighbours fences down ;) But it is great to see others doing something other than plant collecting.

MaryE, I really like the Purple Coral bell with the white purple faced pansies... nice mix.

MaryE, your potted display of white with purple touches is splendid. Thanks!!

Whiteflowers

Speaking of white flowers, here is another of my favorites.. the single white rose. Many of the more impressive roses don't winter over well here, but this little beauty was salvaged from the demolishion site of our old medical clinic, so I call it my Clinic Rose. The leaves are small, the blooms are single, but it has won my heart.

I love flowers of all colors, but the idea of an all-white garden was also appealing. My compromise was to devote one planter to be my white garden. For year-round flowers(well almost, with the exception of Dec and Jan) the season starts off with white anenome, followed by white Dutch iris, white ranunculus, white bletilla,Thalia daffodils, white tree peony, herbaceous peony-Festiva Maxima, gladiolas, Hymenocallis festalis, dahlias, tuberose. This is all crammed into a 6x6 foot planter. Whiteflowers - I don't know if your area is sunny enough for the above plants, but they have worked well for me. The casa blanca lilies I planted two years ago petered out but they are good bloomers for July/August.