Edging plants are positioned around the edge of the planting scheme and are 150 – 200 mm in height. The purpose is to bring definition and sometimes a sense of structure to the design, so they will often be in a contrasting colour or texture.
Groundwork (infill) plants make up the majority of the bed and are 300 – 400mm in height. Groundwork means the main bulk of the planting scheme, so the plants forming the body of the bedding scheme, these are not necessarily ground cover plants.
These ‘groundwork’ plants can be distinguished from ‘dot plants’, which the RHS define as follows: ‘a dot plant is a basic component of a bedding scheme. Dot plants give focal interest, height and scale to the surrounding groundwork. For winter and spring bedding a dot plant needs to have winter interest, architectural form and in most instances is evergreen.’
The examiners’ note: “Dot plants are used within a bed to break up the groundwork by the use of plants with a different texture of foliage or a different colour flower.”
Dot plants can also be defined as follows “feature plants in a bedding design, providing a focus in a group of other plants. They can also be used to provide an accent or contrast to other planting bringing more definition to the design.”
