Golden ribbon grass, purple-leaf
Heuchera, and bergenia create
a harmony of contrasting colors,
textures, and shapes.

Preserve the Pattern

Speckled, striped, or margined, multicolor leaf patterns serve up a little something different on the foliage color menu. Two-tone leaves are bicolored, whereas patterned leaves are variegated. The most common variegations express themselves in cream-, yellow-, or white-and-green foliage. Other, rarer, color patterns include the silver streaks in Heuchera, Tiarella, Pulmonaria, and Lamium leaves, as well as the rainbow splatters found in Japanese maple hybrids, Leucothoe, and other plants.

Vegetable leaves also display wildly variegated colors. Be sure to include red-speckle leaf lettuces, the frosted blue-green and lavender found in ornamental kale and cabbage, plus 'Rainbow' chard in your foliar palette of special effects.

 

'Tricolor' sage pleases the eye
as well as the taste buds.

Overall, variegated plants lighten and refresh a border, especially when blending green and white or green and cream. Plants naturally develop multicolor leaf mutations; then plant breeders discover, preserve, and copy them. Due to the instability in a hybrid's genetic makeup, it takes extra effort to help these plants thrive in the garden and sustain their showy leaves. Adequate fertilizer and plenty of sunlight preserve the showy foliage. Cut off flower stalks of variegated plants, such as polka-dot plant (Hypoestes), coleus, lamb's ears, ornamental cabbage, flowering kale, lettuce, and basil, to ensure leaf vigor and continuous color.