Francoa: 6 successful pairing ideas
For colourful and harmonious flower beds!
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Francoa is a stunning perennial native to Chile, producing clusters of soft pink flowers in early summer. They consist of four petals arranged in a cross, light pink, and maculate with darker spots. This plant is unfortunately still relatively unknown and undercultivated, but it truly deserves its place in the garden. Its flowering has an unmatched lightness and delicacy! Francoa thrives in partial shade or in non-burning sunlight, and it appreciates humus-bearing, cool, and well-draining soils. Its flowers easily blend into various styles of borders: romantic, rustic, bucolic, and very colourful… Discover our tips and inspirations for pairing Francoa and creating stunning borders with it!
In a romantic garden
With its very delicate, soft pink flowering, Francoa is ideal for creating a romantic-style garden. You can thus create an intimate space in your garden, conducive to daydreaming, with soft and fragrant blooms. To achieve this, prioritise pink and white flowers, possibly with touches of mauve, and perhaps a bit of dark red to bring intensity, for example with the flowering of a Ingrid Bergman rose or Le Grand Huit. Indeed, roses, with their refined flowers, will be the centrepiece of this romantic space… choosing a variety with a more pronounced hue than the other flowers will truly highlight it. Don’t hesitate to set up a small garden lounge, topped with a pergola on which a clematis or climbing rose climbs: this will create a welcoming and very warm place, inviting you to sit and enjoy the garden. On either side, create abundant flower beds with the very elegant flowering of foxgloves, hardy geraniums, gypsophila, astrantias, hollyhocks, Phlox paniculata, and lupins. Also consider the decorative foliage of lady’s mantle. Finally, bring softness with the silvery, finely cut foliage of wormwoods, such as Artemisia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’ and the velvety leaves of Stachys byzantina.
Francoa easily integrates into a romantic garden with other delicate blooms! Astrantia major ‘Ruby Star’, Rose ‘Red Ballerina’, Cleome ‘Violet Queen’, Francoa sonchifolia (photo Jean-Michel Moullec), Artemisia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’ and Digitalis purpurea ‘Alba’
In a cottage garden
The Francoa will also fit perfectly in a cottage garden. This typically English garden style brings together an abundance of plants in irregularly shaped beds, resulting in a wild and lush appearance. Well-suited to highlight old stone country houses, this garden gathers a multitude of perennials, annuals, vegetables, and herbs in a walled space in front of the house. To create a lush feeling, install plants with generous foliage: hostas, ferns, rodgersia, acanthus, Macleaya… and don’t hesitate to plant densely! For flowering, choose soft shades: white, blue, mauve, pale pink, light orange… Think of clematis, delphiniums, Oriental poppies, lupins, hardy geraniums, hollyhocks… You can integrate small touches of dark blue sparingly, for example by growing the beautiful clematis ‘Hudson River’. And don’t hesitate to mix in a few vegetable and herb plants among your beds.
Create a stunning cottage garden with Francoa! Here, a scene featuring ‘Suttons Apricot’ foxgloves, ‘Jane Phillips’ iris, and ‘Patty’s Plum’ Oriental poppies (photo Clive Nichols – MAP – The Old Rectory, Haselbech, Northamptonshire), Francoa appendiculata (photo Peter A. Mansfeld), clematis ‘Hudson River’, Delphinium ‘Pacific Summer Skies’, and Lupin ‘Mini Gallery Blue’
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Available in 1 sizes
In a naturalistic garden
Because it offers a light and delicate flowering, with soft hues, Francoa has all the charm of wild plants. Thus, it will integrate seamlessly into a naturalistic style border. The queens of this type of garden are bushes, such as Pennisetum and Stipa: with their fine leaves and spikes that undulate in the wind, they evoke wild meadows and fields of wild grasses. Alongside them, choose perennials that bear small flowers atop long upright stems, preferably ramified, as this creates a very wild and airy, unruly effect! In addition to Francoa, consider gauras, penstemons, Buenos Aires verbenas, Buphthalmum salicifolium, Allium sphaerocephalon… Also discover Cephalaria gigantea, a spectacular scabious that can reach 2 m in height! You can particularly highlight these flowers by defining the borders with clean edges, paths where the lawn is perfectly mown, or neatly trimmed shrub borders, such as box, Ilex crenata, and euonymus… This will create a lovely contrast.
Francoa is ideal in a naturalistic garden with plants that have a very free and airy habit. Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, Francoa sonchifolia (photo Virginie Douce), Buphtalmum salicifolium ‘Alpen Gold’ (photo C.T. Johansson), Penstemon ‘Plum Jerkum’, Cephalaria gigantea, and Stipa barbata
In a cool, semi-shaded rockery
Francoa grows naturally in mountainous rocky environments and therefore appreciates well-draining substrates that do not retain too much water. It is particularly suited for cultivation in cool rockeries, in partial shade, for example at the edge of woodlands. Create a raised bed, perhaps on an existing slope or bank in your garden, and fill it with a draining, gravelly substrate, along with large stones to hold the soil. Plant Francoa between the stones, and to accompany it, consider the lovely Alpine Lady’s Mantle, with the starry flowers of Saxifraga arendsii ‘Pixie’, or the airy spikes of Tiarellas, which will echo those of Francoa. Also discover the unique fern Coniogramme emeiensis, and the pink-mauve flowering of Gentian ‘Little Pinkie’.
Francoa fits perfectly into a rockery. Francoa sonchifolia (photo Stan Shebs), Alchemilla alpina (photo Udo Schmidt), Gentiana ‘Little Pinkie’, Saxifraga arendsii ‘Pixie’ and Coniogramme emeiensis
In a mixed border, with very colourful flowerings!
You can also compose a vibrant flower bed with Francoa! For a bed full of vitality, consider the majestic bright red flowers of the Gladiolus primulinus ‘Atom’. Pair it with crocosmias, daylilies, Verbascums, kniphofias, monardas, achilleas, penstemons… The Francoa will bring a soft hue, adding a touch of lightness among these vivid flowers, which could otherwise seem overwhelming, especially in small spaces. A few touches of mauve white will be perfect to balance the whole and add nuance. It will pair beautifully with the flowers of the penstemon ‘Harlequin Magenta’. To add colour, you can also rely on the foliage of heucheras, which come in a wide range of shades depending on the varieties.
Feel free to create a very colourful flower bed with Francoa! Gladiolus primulinus ‘Atom’, Francoa appendiculata, Achillea millefolium ‘Feuerland’, Verbascum ‘Costowld Queen’, Crocosmia crocosmiflora, and Penstemon ‘Phoenix Magenta’
For a border full of softness and lightness!
As it offers a light flowering that resembles small pinkish-white plumes, you can create a very original, soft, and comforting border with Francoa, reflecting our inspiration “Cuddle trend and candy floss”. For this, favour airy, light, and delicate flowers, as well as pastel shades: soft pink, but also cream white and orange… Also consider grasses, whose fine leaves and flowers undulate gracefully with the slightest breeze. Choose plants that are very soft to the touch, whether in terms of leaves or flowers. Think of the downy foliage of Stachys byzantina or Senecio ‘Angel Wings’, and the charming little spikes of the grass Lagurus ovatus, affectionately known as “hare’s tail”. Also enjoy the airy flowering of paniculate gypsophila, and the large rounded inflorescences of Hydrangea ‘Sweet Annabelle’. These plants will together create a poetic atmosphere, a garden conducive to daydreaming, like a cocoon where it feels good to take refuge. Obviously, avoid all thorny or rough plants (roses, pyracantha, gorse, berberis…) in this type of border to favour soft and silky textures.
You can also create an original border in soft white – pink tones, with plants that have rounded shapes and are soft to the touch. Gypsophila ‘Pink Flamingo’, Stachys byzantina (photo Jean-Pol Grandmont), Sanguisorba obtusa, Francoa appendiculata, Lagurus ovatus (photo Krzysztof Ziarnek), Hydrangeas ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Sweet Annabelle’ (photo Visions Pictures – Biosphoto)
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