Make space for lovely leaves

FLOWERS are the glory of the garden, but most of them remain in their prime only for short periods of time. Foliage is much more lasting, and in a well-planned garden beautiful leaves of many kinds play a role that is often more important than a fleeting show of bright blooms.

A tremendous splash of colour, such as a huge bed of scarlet salvias, can look fine in a public park, but is seldom pleasing in a private garden – and certainly not in a small one, where a mixture of many plants of different habits, colours and seasons of bloom