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Plant texture in the garden

August 30, 2014 By Jim 5 Comments

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Whether we notice it or not, texture is all around us. When we were newborns, we would touch whatever we saw. We learned the textures of objects through touch. Often our first reaction to a new thing is still to reach out and touch it.

Plant texture in the garden featured image
No babies were harmed in the writing of this post!
photo credit: texasgurl via photopin cc

This is true for gardeners too. When seeing a new plant, we commonly reach out to touch it’s leaves.

Texture is one of those words that has a lot of meanings. One is the “way that something feels when you touch it.” Feels refers to it’s smoothness, roughness, softness, etc.

Seeing texture

Not only do we feel texture, we see it. We learn what rough textured stone feels and looks like. After petting a few dogs, we learn to recognize the soft feel of a dogs fur coat just by seeing it.

Not only do rocks and dogs fur have texture. All things do. When we look at a garden scene we see plants, patios, paths, and other parts that have a color, form, and texture. Texture is not something we consciously think of. We do however recognize it subconsciously.

When we see texture in the garden, we view it as one texture compared to another. Texture is fairly easy to see when comparing the leaves of plant material. A large boldly textured Hosta leaf compared to the fine texture of a fern is an example of strongly contrasting textures.

Plant texture Bold textured Hosta leaf and fine textured fern
Bold textured Hosta leaf and fine textured fern
photo credit: ngawangchodron via photopin cc

A garden of colors only is limited

When most gardeners are shopping for plants for their garden, they are often looking at flowers. Specifically flower color.

Mixing tones and shades of different colored flowers is an art form. It can also be a lot of fun.

While this warm garden scene may not appeal to everybody, most will agree it is pleasant enough.

Plant texture -Fine textured garden scene photo credit: colemama via photopin cc
Fine textured garden scene
photo credit: colemama via photopin cc

What happens to our opinion of this garden scene if we removed the color?

Why would we do that?

For one thing, when the sun starts to go down, the color we see in our yards is removed. So a garden after dusk will look a lot less colorful then one an hour earlier.

Also flowers don’t last on most plants, so we are usually left with a garden with less color than when it is at peak flower.

Here is our same scene with the color removed.

Plant texture - fine textured garden in B&W
Same picture in black and white
photo credit: colemama via photopin cc

What do you think?

Looks pretty uninspiring. Actually to me it just looks busy.

Why?

All of the plants have small leaves and flowers. These small plant parts all have a fine texture.

Different textures of garden plants

It’s often easier when working with plant textures to group them into categories. That way we can select and arrange plants from these different categories. Doing this can help uscreate an interesting textural variety and flow.

Plant textures can be grouped into three basic categories

  • Fine
  • Medium
  • Coarse

We can get a bit more refined if we add intermediate categories like Medium Fine and Medium Coarse. These indicate textures that fall between the different categories.

How leaf size impacts plant texture

We usually look at the leaf size to determine it’s texture during the growing season. It seems past associations make us associate larger leaves with a coarser texture. While smaller leaves are considered to be finer textures.

Ornamental grasses and ferns would be an example of a fine or medium fine plant texture.

Plant texture - Fine textured blue oat grass
Blue oat grass is a fine textured perennial with a nice blue color.
photo credit: nautical2k via photopin cc

Oakleaf hydrangea and Canna lilies are large leaf examples of coarse textured plants.

Plant texture oakleaf hydrangea coarse
Oakleaf hydrangea with it’s large leaf presents a coarse texture

Other factors that influence plant texture

It’s not only leaf size that makes us think of a plant texture as coarse or fine. Its also how widely spaced the leaves are from one another.

For instance, large leaves that are widely spaced appear coarser in appearance then large leaves that are closely spaced.

The reason is that when larger leaves are closer together they overlap each other. This overlapping causes us to not see the large size of each individual leaf, so we in effect don’t see how large the leaves are.

Plant texture large leaves spaced far apart
When leaves are spaced far apart the individual leaf size has more of an impact on the overall texture of the plant.
Plant texture large leaves spaced close together
When leaves are spaced close together the large individual leaf size has less impact and the plant appears to have less coarse of a texture.

 

How glossy or dull a leaf is impacts texture

Plant texture whitespire birch shiny leaf
The Whitespire birch leaf has a bit of a shinnyness to it that reflects light and gives a finer texture appearance.

Besides leaf size and how far apart they are spaced, texture is also impacted by how shinny or dull a leaf is.

Glossy leaf surfaces reflect light in different directions. This gives the effect of even smaller leaf surfaces and therefore makes the leaf look finer textured then if it was dull textured.

Dull leaf surfaces absorb light without giving off the effect of highlights. This causes us to see the whole leaf as one which results in the leaf appearing coarser. An example of this would be the oakleaf hydrangea shown four photos above.

White on the undersides or edges of leaves

When plant leaves have very light or white colored undersides, this increases the light that is reflected from that part of the leaf.

This has the effect similar to the glossy leaf of making the leaves appear to be smaller. This results in an overall texture that appears finer.

The white poplar (Populus alba) is the classic example of a tree with a white underside.

Plant texture White Poplar white leaf undersides
The white poplar’s leaf underside is pure white making the tree take on a finer appearance.
photo credit: My brain hurts! via photopin cc

Plants that have white variegated leave margins create a similar effect. An example is the variegated winter creeper with it’s white margins.

Plant texture variegated leaf margins
White variegated leaf margins can also make a plant appear finer textured.
photo credit: pépiniériste 85 via photopin cc

As you can see there are many factors that impact how we “read” a plant’s texture during the growing season.

Plants that shed their foliage in the winter will have different textures when they are leafless. This texture will be determined by the plant parts you see in the winter, the stems and trunks. We will look at that another time.

Next time, we will look at how we can use texture in designing planting combinations that are compelling whether they have flowers in color or not.

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Filed Under: Design

Comments

  1. Yokpo Edem says

    May 2, 2022 at 9:59 am

    Can we say, composition of leaves can not be use to determine the plants textures

    Reply
  2. lalita waldia says

    December 12, 2018 at 8:59 am

    Really good..
    Helpful for my study in landscape architecture

    Reply
  3. rhean rachelle says

    January 21, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    this article help a lot in my course especially in the field of biology 🙂 it answers my questions in regards with the leaf textures and margins. THANKS!

    Reply
  4. Dara says

    June 22, 2016 at 11:18 am

    Thank you so much for this article! Texture is a new concept to me in home gardening and this was very straightforward and easy to understand for a layperson home gardener like myself!

    Reply
    • Jim says

      June 22, 2016 at 11:46 am

      Your welcome. I’m glad it was helpful.

      Reply

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