Should it not be remembered that in setting a garden we are painting - a picture of hundreds of feet or yards instead of so many inches, painted with living flowers and seen by open daylight - so that to paint it rightly is a debt that we owe to the beauty of flowers and to the light of the sun.

William Robinson - The English Flower Garden and Home Grounds (1883)

Surely green is the colour of Pan, god of Life . . .
It is all around, so omnipotent that it is no longer recognized as a colour in its own right. One day when I was working in our long double hosta border, surrounded by its golds, emeralds and dusty greys, a garden visitor remarked: "I am glad they are having you do some planting. It needs a little colour." (I was planting Nicotiana langsdorfii, the green tobacco plant.) She could not see the colour she was knee deep in.

Nori and Sandra Pope - Colour by Design (1998)

don't underestimate the therapeutic value of gardening. It's the one area where we can all use our nascent creative talents to make a truly satisfying work of art. Every individual, with thought, patience and a large portion of help from nature, has it in them to create their own private paradise: truly a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.

Geoff Hamilton, Paradise Gardens (1997)

Akebia quinata

Above and left: Akebia quinata.