Why a bed with Photinia fits every season

A bed with Photinia is not just a real eye-catcher, but it's also creative! Mainly because Photinia Devil’s Dream® does not shed its foliage, it provides special highlights throughout the year. It starts with fiery red shoots in the spring, which then turn into a dark red. This morphs into a rich, shiny green colour that adds fresh splashes of colour to the winter garden. In front of this "canvas", accompanying bed plants can perfectly unfold. Depending on the plant selection and how they are combined, exciting beds can be created.

Designing Themed Beds: From Fire and Ice to Minimalism

In thematically designed gardens, Photinia can play an impressive major role. Their red leaves form a fiery contrast to blue, white, and silver tones. These appear almost cool next to them, creating a fire and ice effect. This can be beautifully implemented in a bed. For this, you place your Devil's Dream® in the center and add blue flowering perennials such as lavender, monkshood, or sage. The latter are available with blue and white flowers as well as in versions whose foliage shimmers silver.

A bed with Photinia is minimalist yet impressive, where the shrub is clearly structured and combined with only a few selected plants. In this bed design, Photinias are the center of attention. They are planted in a row or as a group. Low ground covers like ivy or periwinkle grow at their feet, on which the Photinia appear to be sitting on a green cushion. You get an exciting effect when you combine ground covers in different shades of green. With ornamental grasses growing between the shrubs or at the edge of the bed, movement and an additional level are added.

Devils Dream in the sunset

Photinia as the focal point of the bed design

Do you want to plant a bed where there is something to discover all year round? Then choose plants that bloom at different times. The Photinia acts as the basis and focal point in these ensembles. Use it as a semi-high bed border or position it as a soloist in the center. Maybe as a tree or shaped into a ball? Thanks to its high tolerance for pruning, Devil’s Dream® is very suitable for creative design measures.

A new highlight with each season

Photinia in spring

Spring.

Early bloomers like tulips, crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils kick off spring at the foot of your Photinia. When their soft pastel-colored or brightly yellow and orange-colored heads are in full bloom, your Photinia also begins to show its first red shoots. Geraniums and larkspur provide contrasting ground covering green and add more blooming spots of color.

Photinia in summer

Summer.

Summer follows, dominated by bright colors and fully blooming perennials and flowers. Perennials like Echinacea, catnip, and coreopsis attract insects, while tall ornamental grasses supplement the design with additional levels. In such a flower bed with Photinia and Co., hydrangeas with their different colors and flower forms serve as an additional highlight.

Photinia in autumn

Herbst.

Die goldene Jahreszeit gehört Pflanzen, die bis in den Herbst hinein blühen. Stauden wie Sonnenhut oder Herbstaster zum Beispiel. Sträucher wie die Berberitze versorgen das Ensemble mit roten Highlights, wenn das Laub von Photinia Devil’s Dream® seine Grünfärbung angenommen hat. Heidekraut und Efeu sorgen für spannende Strukturen und bieten Insekten eine reichhaltige Nahrungsquelle.

Planting an insect-friendly flower bed

If you want to plant a flower bed specifically aim to be particularly friendly to insects, then choose plants that serve as a buffet for wild bees, butterflies, and the like all year round. In the summer, for instance, these are grape hyacinths, pansies, violets, and larkspur. Yarrow, marigolds, and phlox invite to the summer party, while stonecrop, asters, heather, autumn anemones, and others provide pollinators with the food they need to prepare for winter.