Creating a stunning walkway border can transform your garden into a picturesque pathway. The right plants can add color, texture, and structure, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of your garden. Here are nine captivating plants that make perfect additions to any walkway border.
1. Thrift (Armeria maritima)
Thrift is a charming perennial known for its petite pink pom-pom flowers that bloom from late spring to early summer. Its grassy foliage remains attractive even when not in bloom, making it perfect for border planting. Thrift is drought-tolerant, thrives in full sun, and is hardy in Zones 3-9. This makes it an excellent choice for a low-maintenance yet visually appealing border.
2. Impatiens
Impatiens are quick to bloom, with irregularly shaped flowers in vibrant colors like purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, or white. They are among the easiest annuals to grow, flourishing with consistent watering. Their bright and varied colors can add a lively splash to any garden, making your walkway look vibrant and welcoming.
3. Creeping Juniper
This low-growing evergreen shrub, known as creeping juniper, adds consistent structure to seasonal gardens. It requires minimal pruning and is drought-tolerant once established, thriving in full sun. Creeping juniper’s dense, spreading habit can help define garden borders and add year-round greenery to your walkway.
4. Dianthus
Dianthus, a showy flowering herb, offers smaller varieties suitable for edging, adding both color and a delightful clove-like fragrance to garden borders. These perennials are known for their frilled petals and come in various shades of pink, red, and white. Their compact size and fragrant blooms make them ideal for planting along walkways.
5. Lamb’s Ears
Lamb’s Ears are prized for their fuzzy silver foliage, adding texture to colorful borders. This tough perennial herb spreads easily to form dense ground cover, complementing purple flowering plants. Its soft, woolly leaves provide a striking contrast to more vibrant plants, creating a visually appealing and tactile experience as you walk by.
6. Dahlia
Dahlias offer a wide range of sizes, shapes, textures, and colors, making them versatile additions to border gardens. While they behave like perennials in warmer regions, they act as annuals in cooler climates. Their large, showy flowers can add a dramatic focal point to your garden borders, drawing attention and admiration from visitors.
7. Astilbe
Astilbe adds long-lasting color to partially shaded borders with its plumelike flowers in white, pink, or red. Its fernlike foliage provides a textural contrast to broad-leaved plants like heucheras and hostas. Astilbe thrives in moist, well-drained soil and partial shade, making it perfect for adding color and interest to shadier parts of your garden.
8. Daylily
Despite their short-lived bell-shaped flowers, daylilies are popular edging plants due to their mounds of green foliage. Planting a variety of daylily cultivars ensures a continuous display of color from spring to fall, blending seamlessly with any garden palette. Their robust growth and low maintenance make them an excellent choice for walkways.
9. Coral Bells
Coral Bells are prized for their vibrant foliage, which enhances the colors of other border plants. Feathery spikes of tiny pendant flowers adorn coral bells in spring and summer, though their foliage is the main attraction for many gardeners. The wide range of leaf colors, from deep purples to bright greens, can add a striking visual element to your garden borders.
