The plants you select and plant in your landscape can create a dramatic effect to accentuate the positive or ruin its charm.
Choose Plants to Suit the House
If a house is high and narrow, use tall, spreading shrubs such as lilac or honeysuckle placed beside the front corners. This "pulls it down," especially if you plant smaller shrubs next to them to taper off to ground level.
Emphasize upright lines of Georgian or Colonial doorways by framing them with columnar cedars or junipers, or "pull them down" by planting low, globular cedars or mugo pines. If the house is wide and rambling, use soft, spreading deciduous shrubs to match its lines and upright, columnar ones to break the monotony.
Ranch style houses call for low shrubs and trees that have a rounded or horizontal branching form. You can also use more contrasting textures and colors with these homes than with older ones.
Plants Alter Proportions
Plants can do much to modify the proportions of the house and the size of the lawn. Just as narrow houses can be made to appear wider by planting shrubs and candle bush beside them, or wide wall spaces can be broken up by upright-growing shrubs and candle bush, so parallel lines of flower borders or street trees give an illusion of added length. On the other hand, any line that cuts across our line of vision, such as a hedge or a terrace slope, foreshortens distance and gives breadth.
Plants in the center of a lawn draw our attention and seem to reduce the size of the lawn.
Small areas appear larger if you use shrubs with foliage of tine texture. Large areas need large shrubs with stout branches and large coarse-textured leaves for proper proportion.
Take advantage of the textures and colors of shrubs to lend emphasis to particular spots. Variegated, golden, or red foliage stands out against the darker green of other shrubs and holds attention. A large-leaved, coarse-twigged shrub stands out boldly against a background of finer foliage. Profuse bloom, particularly of light color, also draws attention for its period but it may spoil the general effect if it is in the wrong spot. - 30228
Choose Plants to Suit the House
If a house is high and narrow, use tall, spreading shrubs such as lilac or honeysuckle placed beside the front corners. This "pulls it down," especially if you plant smaller shrubs next to them to taper off to ground level.
Emphasize upright lines of Georgian or Colonial doorways by framing them with columnar cedars or junipers, or "pull them down" by planting low, globular cedars or mugo pines. If the house is wide and rambling, use soft, spreading deciduous shrubs to match its lines and upright, columnar ones to break the monotony.
Ranch style houses call for low shrubs and trees that have a rounded or horizontal branching form. You can also use more contrasting textures and colors with these homes than with older ones.
Plants Alter Proportions
Plants can do much to modify the proportions of the house and the size of the lawn. Just as narrow houses can be made to appear wider by planting shrubs and candle bush beside them, or wide wall spaces can be broken up by upright-growing shrubs and candle bush, so parallel lines of flower borders or street trees give an illusion of added length. On the other hand, any line that cuts across our line of vision, such as a hedge or a terrace slope, foreshortens distance and gives breadth.
Plants in the center of a lawn draw our attention and seem to reduce the size of the lawn.
Small areas appear larger if you use shrubs with foliage of tine texture. Large areas need large shrubs with stout branches and large coarse-textured leaves for proper proportion.
Take advantage of the textures and colors of shrubs to lend emphasis to particular spots. Variegated, golden, or red foliage stands out against the darker green of other shrubs and holds attention. A large-leaved, coarse-twigged shrub stands out boldly against a background of finer foliage. Profuse bloom, particularly of light color, also draws attention for its period but it may spoil the general effect if it is in the wrong spot. - 30228
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