The Finest Patio Plants: How To Select, Grow, And Arrange

What is a patio?

• A garden room
• Usually paved
• Word means walled, enclosed space, but now often not completely walled.
• In winter cold air fills walled patio like water in a swimming pool.
• Patios are California’s main garden gift to the nation. Now they exist coast-to-coast.
• Patios have a long history

History Of Patios:

• Roman atrium: Typical plants would be ivy, fruit trees, bay laurel, herbs, clipped  hedges, grass, grape vines.
• The Roman bath and the swimming pool developed concurrently.
• Middle Ages in Spain/Italy/ the monastic cloister: clipped hedges, citrus, herbs.  Old examples now contain modern exotics: Bougainvillea, Monstera, Pittosporum, impatiens, garden geraniums (Pelargonium).
• Moorish patios sometimes contain “tanks”. (A sort of swimming pool, for swimming, bathing, wading, cooling off.) India and Mexico also.  Medieval Moorish garden in Spain: Citrus espaliered on walls.
• Generalif gardens, summer palace at Granada: Citrus, climbers, Italian  cypress, clipped box hedges.
• Water is a major design element.
• 14th century Moorish/Spanish patio in Cordoba, Spain: Bougainvillea, variegated ivy  (Hedera sp.), garden (Pelargonium), Star jasmine (Jasminum or Trachelospermum, New Zealand cabbage palm (Cordyline australis), not a true palm; unknown in medieval Europe.
• Elements of the Spanish patio: citrus trees and central fountain. (Cordoba, Granada, and Sevilla, Spain).
• Sunny wall covered with hanging terracotta half-pots of geraniums.  Interior patios often glimpsed from street through locked gate.
• Greece: Bright blue pots filled with geraniums cover patio walls.

Choose A Style:

• Ideally, Style of garden should be harmonious with the style of the house.
• Possible styles: Spanish, Moorish, Moroccan—(brilliant colors on background  walls, tapestry throws and pillows on benches), Mediterranean: (Greek, Roman, or Italian.) California-Mission, Cottage Garden Style, “Kitch” or “Found-Object” Style, The Artist-Garden Look, The Meditation Garden Look, The Hollywood-Stage-Set Look, Mid-Century Modern, Drought-Resistant California native-plant style (often accompanies CA bungalow or Craftsman houses, English, Oriental, Contemporary (simple, sophisticated,     au-courant plants in rectangular beds and large containers), American Family Style: (Utilitarian, lawn, swimming pool, barbecue, hot-tub, fire-pit.)

Use Color Schemes:

Coordinate colors. You wouldn’t decorate a room inside your house without a color     scheme; why do this in the garden? When you go to the nursery, instead of  grabbing what appeals to you, arrange the colors in shopping cart. See how they look and if they go together. A good color scheme will “sing” out.

Various Color Schemes:  (When you go to a nursery, try using 4-inch containers and pony packs to put these color schemes together in your shopping cart and see how they look.)

• “The Sun Colors”: All the colors of sunshine: red, orange, yellow, peach, pink, some blue for the sky and white for the clouds. Skip lavender!
• “The Spring Colors”: (Start with Red, White, and Blue. Then: Switch Red to Pink and add Yellow. Yes,  you can add lavender and plenty of white as a frame on your “painting.” Don’t add orange; it kills this look.)
• “South of the Border”: Brilliant, clashing purple, orange, chartreuse, shocking pink, fuchsia. Goes well with white walls, red tile Spanish roofs.
• “The Magic Touch”… Silver or Gray (dusty miller, for example, with pink geranium. Or gray foliaged ivy with pink cyclamen,  or try gray with lavender, or with bright purple, Just see how gang busters it looks with orange. (Also use gray and silver to separate colors that clash.)
• “Cool Sophistication”—All green, All white, or All green, blue, and white. (Watch out can be boring!)
• “The Nautical Look”—Blue and white, looks super by the sea.

WAYS TO GO: You can do a whole color scheme with containers and furniture and a few plants.