PURE BLISS

Cloud like wisps and ethereal drifts - the delicate beauty and simplicity of white flowers will create a serene setting in your garden

- LOUISE CURLEY AND RACHEL CROW

The verdant minimalism of a garden or border filled with white flowers offers a natural respite to plant-choice overwhelm. And the world-renowned white borders at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, designed at the end of the 1940s by novelist and poet Vita Sackville-West, show what can be achieved with this limited palette. White flowers have an elegance that works in both a contemporary setting and a more traditional cottage garden design. They also appear to glow in low evening light, giving the garden a magical feeling. "The White Garden at Sissinghurst is quite formal, with paths and small box hedges on a grid pattern, with white blooms providing the infill for the evergreen borders,' says head gardener Troy Scott Smith.

FORM, FOLIAGE AND FLOW 

'Structural hedging, including yew, provides an evergreen frame and will "show off" whites,' says garden designer Claudia de Yong, who suggests including topiary to provide form and contrast to white blooms.

You can also avoid monotony in a white garden by varying plant height and shape. Spires of tall flowers add impact, while those with blowsy blooms, such as peonies, add weight. Plant the same varieties in large groups, repeating the combination,' advises Claudia.