“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” Jenny Han. “August is a time of transition, where we bid farewell to summer’s warmth and embrace the beauty of autumn.” Ralph Waldo Emerson. “August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil everything I’ve been listening to in the late spring and summer.” Henry Rollins. “August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” Sylvia Plath. “The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzled.” Sue Monk Kidd. “If June was the beginning of a hopeful summer, and July the juice middle, August was suddenly feeling like the bitter end.” Sarah Dessen.

Vibrant colors, rich textures, and over-the-top adornments make maximalism a favorite new trend for gorgeous gardens. A few examples include big, bold banana leaves, vibrant, orange-speckled canna blooms, birds-of-paradise in brightly colored containers, topiary boxwoods shaped like turtles, tiki torches, a brightly-painted cocktail bar, and a funky mannequin dressed in a hula skirt and lei.

Have you wondered how to create an over-the-top, fabulously fun outdoor space? Maybe you already love indoor décor that boasts rich layers, and interesting displays of your favorite collectibles. Why play it safe and opt for subtle outside? By transitioning your maximalism design aesthetic to your outdoor space, you’ll make your home and garden feel cohesive and connected.

But what is maximalism? Maximalism involves the exuberant use of color and lush layers to create a rich, brilliant, interesting space. Maximalism evokes an “anything goes” vibe in the garden. While the term often describes indoor décor, many gardeners and landscape designers adopt the maximalism aesthetic to design over-the-top, never-dull outdoor spaces.

It showcases your personality, elevates the unusual, employs surprise, and brings joy to garden spaces. But a good maximalist garden works best with an organized, informed approach to design. The design considers color, texture, focal points, layers, and seasonality. A mix of big, colorful plants makes a garden feel full of life! But it can also create a chaotic environment if not planned well.

Like any good garden design, a rich tapestry of plants produces a vibrant, luxurious look in the garden. However, with maximalism the design leans into planting as much as possible, experimenting with combinations of color and texture—and choosing unique, accents.

As with indoor décor, maximalist gardens mix colors, textures, and patterns. But remember—the eye needs to rest. A hodgepodge of colors gives the garden an unsettled feel. Instead, make one color the boldest, with others playing supporting roles. Use the primary color throughout the garden, employing color echoes in foliage, flowers, hardscaping, and textiles. For supporting players, the rules of the color wheel still hold true, even when designing an over-the-top garden: choose complementary or contrasting colors. But you can let your favorite color dominate!

Embrace maximalism with bold reds, yellows, and oranges for a tropical landscape, from vibrant cannas to big, beautiful dinner-plate dahlias to scarlet sage and tropical-looking hibiscus. Lush greens and crisp whites offer a maximalist garden for serenity. Let white carry through a richly planted garden space to fashion a lavish look that’s never dull.

Bold, white flowers of hydrangeas, white roses climbing an arbor, variegated hostas creating a cooling groundcover, and white buddleia adorning a seating area. A few others are heart-shaped leaves of white caladium, cascading blooms of pieris japonica …the options are endless. Plus, with a white-themed maximalist garden, the flowers and foliage will glow in the moonlight, making the space inviting for evening enjoyment, as well as daytime relaxation.

Use your favorite palette in textiles in your favorite colors but with contrasting patterns and textures, like pillows or umbrellas. Big, bold blooms and fabulous foliage star in the garden, but layers of smaller flowers and textural leaves make the garden feel rich and interesting.

Creating wide swaths of underplanting with the lacy foliage of ferns, delicate leaves of astilbes, or intricate patterns of rex begonias provides a soothing foundation for your garden showstoppers. The spiky arms of agaves, highly-toothed artichoke leaves, or the foliage of a big, bold monstera that’s vacationing outdoors for the summer look lovely as they add a wide variety of textures and patterns in your maximalist garden.

If you’re not sure that maximalism is for you, try it out this summer with annuals. Pick your favorite flowers and foliage and go wild! Fill dozens of hanging baskets and containers with pretty petunias, angelonia, and zinnias, then echo those container plantings with the same annuals in landscape beds. By choosing just a few varieties of plants in beautiful, bold colors—and planting them everywhere in the garden—you’ll make a gorgeous impact that’s sure to turn heads.

If you adore garden maximalism after a trial run with annuals, begin incorporating perennials, bulbs, and shrubs for your future garden design. Maximalism is not just a summer fling. When creating a maximalist garden plan, consider garden interest throughout the seasons. While it may seem easier to create a bold, dazzling summer garden, gardens should be interesting and attractive all year.

This fact sheet is provided as an educational service of the National Garden Bureau (www.ngb.org/maximalism-garden) with Duane Pancoast.

“O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.” Psalm 7:9. [Jesus said,] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:20. [Speaking to the Israelites about their enemies, Moses said:] “Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.” Deuteronomy 7:21.