June 2008                                                                                                                                                                                             © Janet Davis

 

 

Most gardeners understand the importance of creating a bed or border around plant characteristics such as color, height and shape.  These, after all, are the sturdy building blocks of successful garden design.  But there’s another, more ethereal, quality shared by a relatively small roster of plants that makes them ideal for adding movement, light and even a sense of mystery to a planting scheme. 

 

These are the “see-through” or “scrim” plants.  In theater parlance, a scrim is a gauzy, transparent curtain that allows the audience to see through it to a scene being played out in the background.  In garden design, it defines a plant that fulfils its own role while letting viewers look through it to other plants or distant corners of the garden.  Using plants as filmy screens helps sustain the illusion that a garden is not an open book to be seen at one glance, but something to be discovered and savored slowly, perhaps requiring a stroll to fully appreciate.

 

In his book Designing With Plants (Timber Press, 1999, new paperback pub. date Sept. 08), renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf calls see-through plants “screens and curtains” and describes them this way:  “Transparent plants are mostly air, and their loose growth creates another perspective as you look through them to the plants growing behind.”  As always, Outdolf pays special attention to see-through plants with persistent seedheads and stems that add fall and winter interest too.  

 

The best see-through plants feature tall, wiry stems or very loose branching and airy flowers or inflorescences that move easily in the wind, bending and swaying in delicate contrast to their more stolid neighbors.  They catch the light in a way that densely-structured plants do not and, if placed well, their leaves look spectacular backlit by late-day sun.   Ideally, their foliage should be very fine or consist of a basal clump of leaves that does not interfere with the hazy effect above.

There are several types of see-through plants and myriad ways to use them throughout the season.  Perennials with tall, branching stems topped with cloud-like inflorescences of tiny flowers are excellent to use as gauzy screens.  Giant kale (Crambe cordifolia), with its coarse basal leaves and tiny white flowers held aloft on airy stems is one; lime-loving baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) with its masses of tiny, white, summer flowers is another; and false aster (Boltonia asteroides) topped with small, white daisies in early fall, is a third.  These plants look lovely screening other perennials, of course, but really sparkle in front of a dark-leafed shrub like Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ or purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria ‘Purpurea’).  Of the many meadowrues (Thalictrum spp.) with loose panicles of tiny blossoms, one of the best see-throughs is T. delavayi ‘Hewitt’s Double’.  Though it might lean a little without staking, the effect of its small pink flowers twinkling in front of other early summer shade-lovers like astilbe is magical.  Golden lace (Patrinia scabiosifolia) has chrome-yellow, late summer flower scapes that make a brilliant scrim for other late bloomers such as red cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and fall asters.   Another perennial with see-through flowers is gaura (Gaura lindheimeri), often called “whirling butterflies” for the fluttery effect of its white and pink flowers.  

 

Many perennials feature tall, wiry stems topped with colorful, button or bottlebrush flowers that almost seem to dance in front of a contrasting foliage or floral background.  Piet Oudolf is fond of using the dark-red flowers of Japanese burnet (Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Purpurea’) and greater burnet (Sanguisorba officinals ‘Asiatic Form’) as a scrim, sometimes in front of the feathery white blooms of white fleeceflower (Persicaria polymorpha).  As he notes:  “Their being spaced out on stems means that it is possible to see through clusters of buttons; they are effectively transparent, in the same way that groups of narrow stems are transparent.”   Perennials with a similar habit include Macedonian scabious (Knautia macedonica) with its burgundy-red pincushion flowers; giant scabious (Cephalaria gigantea) with small yellow flowers on rangy stems; and shade-loving masterwort (Astrantia major) with small blossoms in white, rose and red.  Then there are the spiky flowers of globe thistle (Echinops spp.), sea holly (Eryngium spp.) and rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), all loosely-branched, architectural perennials that tolerate dy conditions.  

 

Plants with slender flower spikes and spires can also do scrim duty, provided they’re planted sparsely enough to retain the openness needed to see through them.  A few tall, blue delphiniums, while challenging to stake discreetly against wind and rain, nonetheless look beautiful in front of feathery, white goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus).  A good native see-through is  summer-blooming culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) with candelabra spikes of white, pink or lavender flowers  And the creamy-white spires of the tall, summer and fall snakeroots (Actaea spp.) look luminous placed in front of a dark-green hedge.  Other good plants with slender or airy spikes include rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea); drought-tolerant Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia); black-caned bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra); and, where it is not too tender, horsetail restio (Elegia capensis). 

 

Ornamental grasses with tall, wispy inflorescences can be dramatic scrim plants, responding to the smallest breeze with constant movement and swishing sound.  Among the best are the tall moor grasses Molinia arundinacea ‘Skyracer’ and M. caerulea ‘Transparent’ (an Oudolf favorite), whose strong but slender stems and airy flowers make a delicate veil and a delightful foil to summer daisies like false oxyeye (Heliopsis helianthoides) and sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale).  The zingy little flowers and seeds of native switch grass (Panicum virgatum) are constantly in motion and look lovely screening the big, bold flowers of swamp hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos).  Similarly, the airy flowers of prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) make a lively, textural scrim for other prairie natives, such as pink-flowered Echinacea purpurea.  And many grasses with thin, silky leaves and flowers, like tufted hair grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), look transcendent when backlit by late-day sun.  Other excellent see-through grasses are pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris); blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens); feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’); giant feather grass (Stipa gigantea); Mexican feather grass (Nasella tenuissima); and leatherleaf sedge(Carex buchananii) with its fine, curly, copper-brown leaves.  

 

Bulbs and annuals can be see-throughs too.  Drumstick allium (Allium sphaerocephalon) is a hardy summer bulb with spherical, crimson flowers on bobbing stems.  Other good bulb choices are fairy wand’s (Dierama pulcherrimum) with small pink flowers on slender dancing stems and ‘Lucifer’ crocosmia (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) with scarlet flower scapes on arching stems.  As for annuals, lacy-leafed umbellifers like dill (Anethum graveolens), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and bishop’s weed (Ammi majus) have sparse flower umbels consisting of hundreds of small florets.  And there’s no livelier see-through annual than Brazilian verbena (Verbena bonariensis) with its butterfly-friendly purple flowers topping tall, wiry stems. Try this self-seeder in a mass planting of Zinnia angustifolia ‘Profusion Orange’ for knock-your-socks-off summer color. 

 

The best way to perfect a planting scheme using see-through plants is to do a little research first, checking out some of the plants mentioned here in books and nurseries and snapping photos of good combinations you come across in your travels.  Above all, make sure your cast of  “screen stars” performs well in your own garden, for delphiniums can be divas, fennel can pop up all over the stage and gaura can miss too many spring openings.  But once you’ve assigned the starring roles and directed a few performances, the scrim scenes in your garden are sure to garner lots of rave reviews.  

 

 

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Adapted from a story in The American Gardener

 

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