It’s Good to Repeat Yourself: Design Lessons from My Mistakes

Two of my “foundation plants,” siberian iris and tradescantia

All gardeners — whether amateurs like me, certified Master Gardeners, or professionals with degrees in horticulture — learn by doing. And for most of us, that means a process of trial and error and learning from our mistakes. Perhaps because of my poor spatial reasoning skills, learning principles of good garden design has been especially challenging for me, and my mistakes have been a critical part of that learning process. This is the first in a series of posts that focus on design lessons I have learned from my mistakes. Like many novice gardeners, I began by falling in love with individual plants and planting them one-by-one. The result was the familiar one-of-this, one-of-that hodge-podge. I did notice early on that the only flower bed that was visually pleasing was the iris bed, where I had planted several divisions of siberian irises given to me by a friend. But it was only when these irises needed to be divided further and I began to add them to other parts of the garden that I learned my first important design lesson: it’s good to repeat yourself.

I’m not a gardener who thinks plants should only be planted in large drifts or in groups of 3-7. My flower beds usually combine some repeated plants with others that are singular specimens. For example, the circular bed at the entrance to my driveway is designed with a single tall delphinium at the center and three concentric circles of plants around it. The inner ring surrounding the delphinium consists of five plants, one each of Allium giganteum,  Liatris spicata, Platycodon, Iris sibirica, and Heliopsis. What provides coherence to all this variety is the repetition of geranium – and to a lesser extent, daylilies, in the outer two rings.

In June, the focal point in the circular bed is provided by Allium giganteum ‘Globemaster’ or by an unidentified Iris sibirica (depending on whether you approach from the road or from the house).
In August, the focus is on the profuse blooms of Heliopsis ‘Bressingham Doubloon.’ Throughout the garden season, unity is created by the repetition of Geranium varieties around the outer perimeter.

I do sometimes use the ‘plant in groups of three’ rule, particularly in the blue and yellow border, which is my largest flower bed and which needs a fairly bold planting style to set it off from the adjacent woods.  Both siberian irises and daylilies are planted in groups of three here, but not in groups of three identical plants. Rather, I have grouped different varieties in similar colors and with overlapping bloom times. The early daylily, Hemerocallis flava is planted in a group with the mid-season ‘Mary Todd’ and the late-blooming ‘Yellow Pinwheel,’ providing yellow daylily blooms from early June through August. The photo to the left shows a grouping of Iris sibirica ‘Superego,’ at the height of its bloom, with an old fashioned iris that is near the end of its bloom period and with ‘Tiffany Lass,’ which is just beginning to bloom.

If repeating plants within a flower bed gives coherence to that planting area, repeating the same plants from one part of the garden to the next can give coherence to the garden as a whole. Because my philosophy of gardening includes embracing plants that tell you they want to grow in your garden (see Love the Plant You’re With), this repetition happens naturally. I have identified a number of plants that are particularly happy in my growing conditions as “foundation plants” for my garden. These include siberian iris, tradescantia, daylilies, hardy geraniums, hosta, and platycodon, each of which can be found in 5 or more different areas of the garden. Repetition of these foundation plants may include many different cultivars of the same plant or repeated divisions of the same variety.

I sometimes use repetition very deliberately to link adjacent planting areas. This is particularly true in my back garden. Here, the deck border and the blue and yellow border face each other across a long walkway that leads from the deck down to the driveway. Not only are varieties of all my foundation plants present in both these flower borders, but Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo,’ which grows along the front edge of the deck border for much of its length, is echoed by similar but larger foliage on repeated plants of Alchemilla mollis across the walkway. I’ve planted the front edge of the semi-oval fence border (which is located where the walkway curves away toward the driveway and perpendicular to the deck border and the blue and yellow border) with a mixture of Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ and G. x cantabrigiense ‘Karmina,’ punctuated by several Alchemilla mollis plants. This not only repeats a very pleasing combination that a visitor first encounters at the front of the property in the circular bed, but also ties the front edge of the fence border to the front edges of both the deck border and the blue and yellow border.

In this way, even as individual plants get to be stars and individual flower beds have their own personalities, repetition creates a sense of family resemblance and cohesion. While it may not be a good idea to repeat yourself a lot in conversation, it is good to repeat yourself in the garden.