05 Nov 10 Plant Palette Ideas

Posted at 04:23h in Plant Palettes, Training by

This article is intended to give you a few (10) ideas for some clever palettes. These palettes will save you time when you are building your plant lists. If you want to follow step by step instructions on how to create palettes, please read the training article titled Create a Palette.

 

PlantMaster user, Damien McAnany – Design Director, Permaculture Artisans, sent us this note regarding Plant Palettes:

“Besides loving PlantMaster in general, I LOVE the Plant Palette tool. I currently have twenty palettes, although I may use it in different ways than other users. I generally use it for two things: categories that PlantMaster doesn’t have and categories that PlantMaster may have, but that I may have some disagreements with their categorizations.

For example, I am a Permaculture designer, so I need to have plant list for nitrogen-fixing plants. The palettes make it easy to add or remove plants from that large category. Deer resistance is a category that PlantMaster has, however, there is a lot of regional variation in this category. It’s a lot easier for me to make my own list than to try to edit all of the plants that I think are resistant or not in custom plants that I make.

In short, Plant Palettes save me lots of time and keeps me organized.”

 

10 Plant Palettes Ideas

Inspired by Damien’s creativity, here are 10 plant palette ideas you can use to create your own custom plant palettes – hopefully this will spark a few ideas of your own!

 

Unusual Features – Create a palette of all the plants with variegated leaves.

 

Tolerances – To utilize Damien’s ideas, group all the plants that are deer resistant. You can use the PlantMaster filters to start your list and refine from there.

 

Regions – create palettes based on USDA or Sunset Zones.

 

Favorites – why not create a master palette with all your favorite go-to plants!

 

Characteristics – Full sun, low water use trees, 15ft tall, with red flowers = done!

 

Permaculture – Make a palette with nitrogen fixing plants (Courtesy of Damien)

 

Nurseries – Make a complete list of the plants that your favorite Nurseries are sure to have in stock.

 

Seasonal Interest – How about a palette of shrubs that bloom in the Winter?

 

Soil Type – Make a palette of plants that grow well in clay soils.

 

Wildlife – Create a plant a palette with all the plants that attract hummingbirds or bees.

 

PRO TIP:

Use the PlantMaster plant search to give yourself a head start, then refine or add any plants from there. Remember you can combine your projects together to create palettes!

Need a refresher on how to create and manage Plant Palettes?