Plants with variegated leaves
Plants with leaves striped, edged or splashed with white, cream or gold, and how many a bed can take.
A variegated leaf is striped, edged or splashed with white, cream or gold, and it lightens everything near it. Two-thirds of the plants here take shade, where white-edged hostas and sedges brighten the gloom; in sun, cream-striped grasses and yuccas sparkle.
Use them sparingly. One variegated plant among plain green ones is an accent; a bed of them is restless, because the eye finds nowhere to rest. Pair a variegated leaf with a plain leaf in one of its colours: a cream-edged hosta beside a cream flower, or a gold-striped grass beside a golden-leaved one.
The pale parts of a variegated leaf have little chlorophyll, so these plants grow more slowly than their green parents. If a plain green shoot appears, cut it out at the base: it grows faster and in a few years takes the plant over.
67 plants: 33 perennials, 1 fern, 6 bulbs, 11 grasses and 16 shrubs.
The dozen to start with
-
Canna
5 ft · early July to early October · host plant
Huge, paddle-shaped leaves, green, bronze or striped, topped with bright flowers in red, orange, yellow or pink from midsummer to frost.
-
Caladium
20 in · grown for its leaves
Paper-thin, heart-shaped leaves in mixtures of white, pink, red and green, veined and splashed, from early summer until the first cool nights.
-
Hosta
18 in · grown for its leaves
The classic shade plant, prized for its bold leaves in endless shades of green, blue and variegated patterns.
-
Dappled willow
6 ft · grown for its leaves
New leaves open shrimp pink, turn white mottled with green, and finally green, on arching, coral-red stems.
-
Japanese forest grass 'Aureola'
16 in · grown for its leaves
Gold-striped blades cascade in one direction like flowing water.
-
Bugleweed 'Burgundy Glow'
6 in · early May to late May
A tricolour bugleweed: each leaf is splashed with cream, pink and green, and flushes burgundy in cold weather.
-
Yucca 'Color Guard'
2½ ft · late June to mid July · evergreen · host plant
A yucca with a broad, creamy-gold stripe down the centre of each sword-shaped leaf, flushed pink and coral in cold weather.
-
Abelia 'Kaleidoscope'
2½ ft · mid June to early October
A compact abelia whose leaves change through the year: lime and yellow in spring, gold in summer, and orange and fiery red in autumn and winter.
-
Strawberry begonia
8 in · mid May to late June · evergreen
Round, scalloped leaves veined with silver and red beneath, with airy sprays of small white flowers in late spring.
-
Winter daphne
4 ft · early February to late March · evergreen
A glossy evergreen with clusters of rosy-pink or white flowers in late winter, and one of the most powerful and delicious scents of any plant.
-
-
Greigii tulip
10 in · mid April to early May
Short, sturdy tulips with large, brilliant flowers and broad leaves striped and mottled with maroon.
A bed planned only from these plants
The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and part shade, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.
The plants
- 1 Strawberry begonia × 22, white
- 2 Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven' × 8, blue
- 3 Hosta 'Gold Standard' × 1, chartreuse leaves
- 4 Northern sea oats 'River Mist' × 3, green
- 5 Hosta 'So Sweet' × 3, white
- 6 Variegated Solomon's seal × 8, white
- 7 Variegated lilyturf × 16, lavender
- 8 Hosta 'Praying Hands' × 3, dark green leaves
- 9 Winter cyclamen × 5, pink
- 10 Yellow trout lily × 8, yellow
- 11 Hardy cyclamen × 3, pink
Planned as an English border: 9 of the 11 groups (82%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 50% of the visual weight and the right half 50%. Strawberry begonia is planted in six places along the bed, which gives it rhythm.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 1 Good, 2 Satisfactory, 1 Needs revision. Its weakest point is height and scale: Heights average about 10 in at the front, 10 in in the middle and 24 in at the back. Along the back row the heights step up and down, between 14 in and 2½ ft, and no two neighbours are the same height.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 67 plants
Show all 67, by where they go in a bed
Front of a bed 32
- Bugleweed 'Burgundy Glow' 6 in · early May to late May
- Caladium 20 in · grown for its leaves
- Dwarf weigela 'My Monet' 18 in · late May to mid June
- Greigii tulip 10 in · mid April to early May
- Hardy cyclamen 5 in · late August to mid October
- Hosta 18 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Fire and Ice' 14 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'First Frost' 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Golden Tiara' 14 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'June' 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Praying Hands' 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'So Sweet' 14 in · early August to early September
- Hosta 'Stained Glass' 16 in · early August to late August
- Jacob's ladder 'Stairway to Heaven' 12 in · early May to early June
- Japanese forest grass 'Aureola' 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Japanese sedge 'Ice Dance' 14 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Lemon thyme 10 in · mid June to mid July · evergreen
- Lungwort 12 in · early April to early May
- Lungwort 'Raspberry Splash' 12 in · early April to mid May
- Sedge 'Everest' 12 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Sedge 'Evergold' 12 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Sedum 'Frosty Morn' 18 in · late August to early October
- Sedum 'Tricolor' 4 in · late June to late July
- Strawberry begonia 8 in · mid May to late June · evergreen
- Sweet flag 'Ogon' 10 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Variegated broadleaf sedge 8 in · grown for its leaves
- Variegated Japanese sedge 12 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Variegated lilyturf 14 in · early August to mid September · evergreen
- Variegated shield fern 18 in · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- White-margined wavy hosta 18 in · grown for its leaves
- Winter cyclamen 3 in · early February to late March
- Yellow trout lily 6 in · mid April to early May
Middle of a bed 21
- Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' 2½ ft · mid June to early October
- Culinary sage 24 in · early June to early July · evergreen
- Hosta 'Francee' 22 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Frances Williams' 24 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Gold Standard' 22 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Great Expectations' 22 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Liberty' 2½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Patriot' 20 in · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Sagae' 2½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Hosta 'Wide Brim' 22 in · grown for its leaves
- Northern sea oats 'River Mist' 2½ ft · late July to mid September · host plant
- Pieris 'Little Heath' 2½ ft · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Purple moor grass 'Variegata' 24 in · mid July to mid September
- Society garlic 20 in · late May to mid September
- Spurge 'Ascot Rainbow' 20 in · late April to early June · evergreen
- Sweet iris 'Variegata' 2½ ft · late May to mid June
- Variegated fairy bells 20 in · grown for its leaves
- Variegated Japanese iris 2½ ft · late June to mid July
- Variegated Solomon's seal 2½ ft · early May to late May
- Yucca 'Color Guard' 2½ ft · late June to mid July · evergreen · host plant
- Yucca 'Golden Sword' 2½ ft · late June to mid July · evergreen
Back of a bed 14
- Canna 5 ft · early July to early October · host plant
- Daphne 'Carol Mackie' 3½ ft · early May to late May
- Dappled willow 6 ft · grown for its leaves
- Drooping leucothoe 'Rainbow' 4 ft · early May to late May · evergreen
- Feather reed grass 'Avalanche' 5 ft · mid June to early October
- Feather reed grass 'Overdam' 4 ft · late June to mid September
- Golden Japanese euonymus 6 ft · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Holly osmanthus 'Goshiki' 5 ft · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Japanese aucuba 6½ ft · grown for its leaves · evergreen
- Japanese pittosporum 10 ft · mid April to mid May · evergreen
- Rose of Sharon 'Sugar Tip' 8 ft · mid July to mid September
- Tatarian dogwood 'Ivory Halo' 6 ft · grown for its leaves
- Variegated red twig dogwood 6½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Winter daphne 4 ft · early February to late March · evergreen