Aren’t you a little tired of green? When you look outside, everything is always green: the grass, the shrubs, the trees, even the patio furniture, which a few years ago was bright white, has now turned dark green. It’s nice, but… it lacks a bit of personality.
Personally, I dream of an all-red landscape.
A Completely Red Landscape
Not fire engine red (there are flowers of this color, but leaves are rare), of course (that would be far too pretty). Rather, the purple color that characterizes the purple-leaf sand cherry, which horticulturists refer to as “red”, “purple” or even “bronze” (bronze? I don’t know who first used that term, but they must have been color-blind!)
Firstly, a red scheme would open the door to all kinds of new combinations. In today’s gardens, green is the unnoticed leader in our color choices. Granted, the colors of the flowers in a flowerbed must work well together, but first and foremost, they must not only coordinate with the green of the foliage, but also stand out from this base color. When was the last time you saw a beautiful green flower? Well, there are some, and if all the leaves were horticultural red, you’d see them… but I’m not sure that the ever-popular shades of blue would be as popular: they don’t seem to go with purple.
Horticultural Red
Let me stress right away that the plants themselves would not suffer from this color change. Horticultural red would simply consist of a background of green, from the chlorophyll that all plants need to live, and red pigments naturally present in plants, but in increased quantities. If a plant’s foliage looks green, it’s because chlorophyll is predominant. On the other hand, if it appears purple, it’s because red pigments are in greater abundance. All plants have a variety of red pigments, because this coloration acts like an anti-UV cream, preventing them from burning in the sun. This red color, moreover, resurfaces in autumn when the chlorophyll disintegrates. All you have to do is develop plants where this pigmentation dominates the green, that’s all.
Harmful?
Proof that red isn’t harmful is that plants with purple foliage grow just as vigorously as others. A ‘Royal Red’ Norway maple, to name just one of the many purple-foliaged Norway maples, grows just as fast as the all-green ‘Emerald Queen’ Norway maple. Variegation, the green-and-white, green-and-yellow or green-and-pink coloration of many ornamental plants, on the other hand, is an example of harmful coloration. Variegated plants grow less quickly and usually flower less than other plants, as variegation results from a chlorophyll deficiency in certain sections of the leaf.
Watch out for Norway maples!
Norway maple (Acer platanoides) is considered an invasive species in many parts of North America. Its abundant seeds disperse easily and quickly form dense stands that crowd out local species. Give preference to native species better adapted to the local ecosystem, such as sugar maples.
Similarly, golden foliage (another strange term, no doubt chosen by the same color-blind horticulturist who described purple foliage as bronze, since these plants have lime-green leaves) is due to more diffuse green pigmentation than normal. As a result, the plant lacks vigor. But red doesn’t take the place of chlorophyll, it merely hides it from our eyes and doesn’t even stop the sun’s rays other than UV from entering; a red plant is as strong as any other.
The Major Obstacle
However, there’s one major obstacle to my dream of an all-red horticultural landscape: I don’t know of any hardy lawn grasses in this color. I could fill my beds with purple-foliaged perennials, such as penstemon ‘Husker Red’ or sedum ‘Mohrchen’, to name just two of the many perennials with leaves of this color. In the background, I’d have a sandy purple plum, a ‘Diabolo’ physocarp or a purple fustet, all dominated by red Norway maples or red crabapples. In the shade, there would be carpets of ‘Braunherz’ creeping bugles. As for red-foliage annuals, there are tons of them: bloodleaf, amaranth, coleus, to name but a few. To complete the picture, there are even red-leaved vegetables, including several beets and many lettuces.
What’s missing, however, is a nice purple “mowable” grass. There is cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’), which is really red, but you can’t mow it and, what’s more, it lacks a bit of hardiness for general use in Quebec. In tropical countries, there are completely red lawns (go to the Balata garden in Martinique if you don’t believe me). Why don’t nurseries here also offer red sod? I’m sure that mutant grasses with foliage that’s at least a tad purple have appeared in the past. But once you’ve got that basic shape, it’s easy to cross-breed to bring out the color.
My Order For Horticulturists
Horticulturists, the order is now placed. Do your research, do your cross-breeding: I want a purple-red lawn to complete my red landscaping, a lawn that, rather than blending in with all the green lawns in the neighborhood, would slice like a knife, so that everyone would instantly know where my yard begins and my neighbors’ yards end. Because, without that red grass, I have to do what all my neighbors do and let the green dominate… and I hate doing what everyone else does.
Larry Hodgson published thousands of articles and 65 books over the course of his career, in both French and English. His son, Mathieu, has made it his mission to make his father’s writings accessible to the public. This text was originally published in Fleurs, plantes et jardins in April 2020.
Interesting article focusing on foliage. I have a several ‘red’ plants/shrubs in my garden. Recently listening to Doug Tallamy on the role of plants as host plants, he mentioned when breeding for the red, the chemistry has changed to get the colour and now the plant in some cases is toxic or available as host. Somethink work investigating.
Oh, I find this to be amusing, because, when I was a kid, I worked in a red garden. It was different though, since most of the red was floral, with less emphasis on foliar red. What is funnier is that the home garden to the east was the yellow garden, and the home garden to the east of that was the blue garden. The colors were determined by the ladies who lived there and instructed me on what to plant for them. Now, I maintain my White Garden at work, although there is not much to bloom there in the shade. A blue garden is developing next door, and a yellow garden is developing right down the road. I really would like another red garden, but do not want to obsess about it.