THE SHAPE OF THINGS

In planting design, we often consider colour, says Nigel Dunnett, but the form of flowers can be just as important

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When we think about choosing plants for their flowers in the garden, we almost always think first about colour.

Whole books have been written about using and combining plants with colour in mind. But colour is only one facet of a flower’s characteristics — their shape and form can be equally important.

Imagine a British hay meadow in full flower in early summer, with sheets of starry white ox-eye daisies and drifts of airy, goblet-shaped yellow buttercups interspersed with the slender plumes of red-pink sorrel. Colour plays a crucial role in the pictorial effect, but if all the shapes of the flowers of the different species were all the same, then it would be nowhere near as interesting as having a diversity of flower forms.

Exactly the same point could be made about North American tall grass prairie. Having a multitude of different flower forms and shapes adds sparkle and interest that goes beyond the foundational qualities of colour. Thinking about meadows and prairies when we consider flower shape is relevant, because it reminds us why plants have different flower forms in the first place. Evolution has resulted in these different outcomes so that flowers are adapted to attract the pollinators upon which they depend.

While some flowers might attract a wide range of pollinators, others may be so specialised as to only allow one insect or bug to pollinate them. Botanically, this means an almost infinite variety of possibilities, and there's a whole range of technical and scientific terms to describe the precise differences between them all.

Thankfully, we can simplify things considerably when it comes to considering flower shapes in planting design and limit ourselves to just a few main categories, and variations within them.