Upon visiting my garden for the first time, a designer friend of mine walked around shaking his head, saying, “The texture, oh, the texture!” At first, I wasn’t sure this “texture” he was speaking of was a good thing. It turns out he was responding to the fact that I layer different types of foliage.

To test your texture quotient, take several photos of your garden and look at them on your computer in black and white. You’ll quickly see if there’s enough variance in shape and foliage style to make things more than a sea of green sameness. Here are a few of my must-haves for garden texture.  Get design ideas for how to use these plants successfully in A Cohesive Garden Built From Uncommon Plants.

Red Abyssinian banana Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ Zones: 10–11 Size: 8 to 10 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist soil Native range: Eastern Africa	Japanese emperor oak Quercus dentata ‘Pinnatifida’ Zones: 4–8 Size: 15 to 20 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil Native range: Japan	Shredded umbrella plant Syneilesis aconitifolia Zones: 4–8 Size: 2 feet tall and wide Conditions: Partial to full shade; moist, well-drained soil Native range: Eastern Asia and Japan
Curlicue sage Artemisia versicolor ‘Seafoam’ Zones: 4–10 Size: 8 inches tall and 24 inches wide Conditions: Full sun; normal to dry, well-drained soil Native range: Western North America	Ground cover grevillea Grevillea × gaudichaudii Zones: 8–10 Size: 6 inches tall and 36 inches wide Conditions: Full sun; average to dry soil Native range: Australia	‘James Stirling’ whipcord hebe Hebe ochracea ‘James Stirling’ Zones: 7–10 Size: 3 feet tall and wide Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to dry soil Native range: New Zealand
Trifoliate orange Poncirus trifoliata* Zones: 5–9 Size: 10 to 20 feet tall and 6 to 15 feet wide Conditions: Full sun; average to dry, well-drained soil Native range: China	Wire netting bush Corokia cotoneaster Zones: 8–10 Size: 6 to 10 feet tall and wide Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; average to dry soil Native range: New Zealand	Tropical pitcher plant Nepenthes alata Zones: 10–11 Size: 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide Conditions: Partial shade; consistently moist soil Native range: Philippines

*Invasive alert: Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata)

This plant is considered invasive in North Carolina.

Please visit invasiveplantatlas.org for more information.

Loree Bohl is the author of Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, and Grow What You Love. She gardens in Portland, Oregon.

Photos: Claire Takacs Photography