Choosing planting

7 ideas for white garden beds

Discover our ideas and inspiration!

Contents

Modified the Wednesday 13 August 2025 by Alexandra 7 min. Difficulty: Beginner

White-flowered plants fit very easily into the garden and complement other colours beautifully, but it is also possible to create a garden or border entirely in white! White gardens are particularly soothing. They have a dreamlike, timeless quality, seemingly outside time, and give the impression of a dream. Flowering evokes clouds of flowers (especially with plants such as Gypsophile paniculé, Phlox or Hortensia ‘Annabelle’). White gardens are a genuine balm for eyes and mind, far from the bustle brought by colours. They invite contemplation and create a sense of space and freedom. They are not oppressive and work very well in small spaces. In fact, by combining plants in a single light tone rather than a mix of bright colours, you make the space feel larger, and the garden appears more spacious. White also brings a lot of brightness and is perfect for brightening a shady corner of the garden. However, to avoid a garden that is too monotonous, you will need to play with shapes, textures and volumes! Give the garden more dynamism by adding a few structural plants with a distinctly vertical habit, alongside lower-growing plants. Finally, far from all being the same, you will discover on this page that white gardens can take a variety of styles! Discover the best plant combinations for this garden style.

Also find Gwenaelle’s advice for creating a white garden.

Difficulty

For a silvery-white border!

Plants with white flowers pair beautifully with silver foliage to create a chic and elegant garden! Their foliage reflects light beautifully. We particularly recommend the foliage of Artemisia, cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) and Stachys byzantina. You can also plant alongside them Eryngiums and Euphorbia characias ‘Tasmanian Tiger’, as well as rose campion, Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’, which bears silver foliage and offers white flowering in summer. Also enjoy the fine, silvery-blue foliage of fescue Festuca glauca. In shade or partial shade, rather plant the fern Athyrium niponicum (for example ‘Pewter Lace’) as well as Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, which has silvery-grey leaves with dark green veins and margins! In addition to these foliage, you can pair white flowering with white or silvery bark, for example with Himalayan birch (Betula utilis Jacquemontii) or Acer davidii ‘Viper’. This will give you a lovely white–silver garden.

Inspiration – Silver-white garden

Dahlia ‘Lady Liberty’, Stachys byzantina (photo Plenuska), Cynara cardunculus, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and Eryngium giganteum (photo Kurt Stüber)

A white garden in a very natural style, in the woodland understorey!

Use white-flowering plants to bring light to a shady corner of your garden! Create a garden with a very natural, wild style by including, for example, Hostas, Asperula odorata, Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum), Geranium nodosum ‘Silverwood’… Also discover the surprising Cornus canadensis, a dogwood with a creeping habit! Include plants with lush, generous, deep-green foliage: ferns, hostas, rodgersia… They will maintain a very natural effect. Also benefit from the staggered flowering of Asian primrose Primula japonica ‘Alba’, as well as the small delicate flowers of Gillenia trifoliata. Your garden will thus give a lovely impression of a walk in the forest. At woodland edge, in partial shade, plant white foxgloves, which offer a splendid, very upright flowering, as well as aquilegias (like ‘Munstead White’) and Dicentra spectabilis ‘Alba’, which bears charming heart-shaped flowers. Also enjoy the splendid flowering of the white martagon lily!

Cornus canadensis (photo Brian Gratwicke), Dryopteris wallichiana, Gillenia trifoliata, Asperula odorata (photo David J. Stang) and Polygonatum multiflorum

A clean, contemporary garden with bushes pruned into topiary!

By nature a sober shade, white is ideal for creating a formal, pared-back, contemporary garden. Create beds with simple, clean shapes, using straight lines or gentle but well-defined curves. In borders, plant Allium ‘Mount Everest’, white agapanthus, asphodels, or the splendid Eremurus himalaicus! You can also place, in background or in a container, bamboos or horsetails for the very vertical effect they provide. Outside the border, provide an area of short grass meadow, well maintained. Introduce structure with edges and pruned bushes: for example Lonicera nitida, which you can prune into waves. Topiary pyramids can also help to structure and give rhythm to the border. Incidentally, the magnificent Jardin d’Eyrignac in Dordogne, with its many topiaries, also includes a white garden! We also recommend adding some mineral elements, with a gravel area, stepping stones, or a slate mulch. This will produce a pared-back, contemporary-style garden.

Another option would be, within the border, to create contrast by planting plants with a free habit: Gaura, cleomes, salvias, Cosmos ‘Purity’, Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, grasses… as in Jardin plume, where trimmed hedges sit alongside perennials with an airy habit. This will create a lovely contrast of form that will energise the border!

Allium stipitatum ‘Mount Everest’, Eremurus himalaicus, Yew topiaries, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, pruned box and Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ (photo: Clive Nichols – MAP)

For a romantic garden!

Since white is also a colour of elegance and delicacy, why not use it to create a romantic garden! Of course roses will be indispensable in this type of garden. You can choose bush varieties or climbing roses. Plant alongside them Geranium sanguineum ‘Album’, Gypsophilas, Cosmos ‘Purity’, Campanula persicifolia ‘Alba’, Phlox paniculata ‘Fujiyama’, Dahlia ‘Snowstorm’, white sweet peas, lupin ‘Gallery White’… Also discover beautiful star-shaped flowering of Astrantias, as well as superb pompom flowering of Achillea ptarmica ‘The Pearl’ or ‘Perry’s White’. Also discover Acidanthera, Gladiolus calianthus, a gladiolus that offers beautiful white flowers with slender petals and a lovely purple maculate blotch at centre of the flower! You can also install an arbour or pergola to provide shade for a garden seating area, and train a climbing rose, a clematis or jasmine (Jasminum officinale) over the structure. Enjoy, for example, beautiful flowering of rose ‘Iceberg’. We also recommend placing large urns, a fountain or statues in the garden to enhance this romantic feel. Regarding bushes, we particularly recommend Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’ and Hydrangea paniculata ‘Great Star’. You can add, sparingly, a few plants with flowers in pastel tones: pink, pale blue, apricot…

Discover our white and blue garden inspiration.

Climbing rose ‘Iceberg’, Astrantia major ‘Super Star’, Campanula lactiflora ‘Alba’ and Achillea ptarmica ‘Perry’s White’

Playing with contrasts

To showcase white flowering effectively, create contrast by introducing into the border a few plants with dark, black or purple leaves. You will achieve a lovely light-and-dark effect. Use mainly white-flowering plants (Allium ‘Mount Everest’, Gaura, Geranium sanguineum ‘Album’…) and plant beside them heucheras ‘Obsidian’, Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’, morning glories (for example ‘Illusion Midnight Lace’ or ‘Sweet Caroline ‘Purple’)… Regarding bushes, consider Physocarpus ‘All Black’ or elder ‘Black Lace’. Dark tones should, however, remain in the minority, used sparingly so as not to darken the border too much. White must remain the main element! You can also reinforce the white with plants with variegated foliage: dogwood Cornus alba ‘Ivory Halo’ (or Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’), hostas… You will obtain an original garden with a contemporary style. Black and white can also be expressed through furniture, pot colours, etc. Place black flower pots next to the white border. Cimicifuga ‘Atropurpurea’ has the advantage of bearing both white flowers and dark purple foliage. Don’t hesitate to install lighting in the borders — spotlights that will illuminate these beautiful white flowering displays at night.

Cornus alba ‘Ivory Halo’, Agapanthus ‘Double Diamond’, Gaura lindheimeri, Heuchera ‘Obsidian’, Phlox paniculata ‘Fujiyama’ (photo Dominicus Johannes Bergsma) and Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’

For a bright springtime display!

Create a superb white late-winter to early-spring scene, just as vegetation begins to wake. Plant, for example, tulips ‘Hibernia’ with pansies ‘Matrix White’ and Hostas ‘Silver Crown’. You can add small forget-me-nots ‘Snowsylva’ as well as other spring bulbs: hyacinth ‘Carnegie’, narcissus ‘Misty Glen’, Muscari aucheri ‘White Magic’, lily of the valley….

To accompany them, you can add small daisies, for example Bellis perennis ‘Tasso Blanche’, white oriental hellebores and Anemone blanda ‘White Splendour’. Add some plants with decorative foliage, such as ferns. For bushes, choose lilac ‘Dentelle d’Anjou’, azaleas, and Spiraea arguta, which literally becomes covered in flowers! Also discover the superb Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’!

Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Alba’, white pansy, tulip ‘White Liberstar’, tulip ‘Hibernia’ scene – pansy ‘Matrix White’ – Hosta ‘Silver Crown’ (photo Clive Nichols – MAP), Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’ and Anemone blanda ‘White Splendour’

For a naturalistic, country-style border!

You can easily create a light, naturalistic flower bed that evokes a flower meadow using white flowers. Choose plants with airy flowering: for example Gaura ‘Snowbird’, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and paniculate gypsophila. Their flowers, borne on slender stems, will undulate in the slightest breeze and enliven the garden. Also enjoy superb flowering of Epilobium angustifolium ‘Album’! Like those of Gaura, its flowers resemble small butterflies. You can incorporate some grasses, such as Pennisetum orientale, or, more unusually, Stipa pennata, which bears very long floral spikes. This will create a dreamlike garden, perfect for daydreaming. Achillea and Penstemon ‘White Bedder’ will also fit well in this style of garden. Also discover Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’, which bears long, erect floral spikes. You can also add texture and structure with trimmed borders and hedges. For autumn, plant asters, for example the variety ‘Herbstschnee’, as well as Sedum spectabile ‘Stardust’.