Rosy's Planting Plan for a Sunny Border - Mocha Mousse

Rosy designs a peat free outdoor grown border of herbaceous perennials using Pantone's 2025 colour of the year, Mocha Mousse. 

The Pantone Color Institute selected for 2025,  "PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse: a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort."  And as Pantone outline, Mocha Mousse teams well with the following floral colours Tendril green, Cornflower Blue, Viola, Rose Tan, Cobblestone, Willow and Gardenia. 

Mocha Mousse is a colour you're likely to be seeing currently as it reflects the tones of our gardens in autumn and winter.  Plants will have become dormant,  leaving just their skeletons to provide structure and form.  The now brown stems and flower heads of plants such as Angelica archangelica and Stipa gigantea become the focal points of our once colourful borders.   This plan builds upon these autumnal and winter hues and identifies flowers which will bring spring and summer pastel tones. These pastel coloured blooms will blend effortlessly together with the warm brown and golden hues evoking a sense of calm.   This plan provides colour and form all year round, from Spring to Winter.    

This sunny border plan is for an area 6m x 3m or 18m2 of reasonable soil. Adapt this plan for smaller or larger gardens.

Print a copy of the plan above

Print a copy of the plant key below

 Key

1.Angelica  archangelica x 3 

A biennial which has wonderful architectural structure and form, making it a great statement plant in the mixed border towering above other plants. In its first year it produces a crown of foliage. In the second year it will send up tall fluted stems which are fragrant and topped with clusters of buds that will open green to yellow in July. Flowering will be followed by seed heads which persist well into late autumn.  

2.Aster  x frikartii  'Monch' x 6 OR Aster amellus 'September Glow'

Aster x frikartii 'Monch' is one of the tallest forms of the single flowering daisy Aster, ideal for the front to middle of the border.  Sought after for the copious bright lavender flowers with golden yellow centres produced from late summer into autumn, this reliable form is much beloved by bees and butterflies too. By leaving the stems standing over winter you and the birds will be able to enjoy the seed heads. 

3.Baptisia 'Chocolate Chip' x 3 OR Baptisia 'Dutch Chocolate' (Decadence Series)

Baptisia 'Chocolate Chip'. This beautiful 'False Indigo' forms clumps of delicate blue green clover-like foliage above which soar spikes of dusky soft brown and yellow flowers in summer. The dark grey seed pods that follow in autumn are an added attractive bonus.

4.Briza media x 3

Quaking grass, Briza media produces masses of delicate nodding oat-like flower heads which start green,  held on sturdy stems they create texture and movement within the border. As the season progresses the seed heads turn to a wonderful golden brown.

5.Carex comans bronze-leaved x 6

Native to New Zealand, this attractive evergreen sedge forms compact dense clumps of gently arching bronzed narrow leaves that almost skim the ground.  Attractive seed heads form in late summer increasing the frothy effect.

A great choice for adding texture, movement and sound into a garden, the fact that it retains its colour and structure over winter only increases its appeal, especially when dusted with frost. 

6.Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy' x 4 Available summer 2025

In summer purple strap-like foliage creates a rosette at the base of this plant. The fantastic flower spike appears in late summer covered in pale pink starlike flowers topped with a cluster of foliage, hence the common name Pineapple Lily. 

7.Geum 'Pink Frills' x 7

Ruffled, nodding flowerheads with pale pink notched petals, darker pink veins and red bracts are carried above a rosette of creased green foliage. The colour combination of this late spring flowering Geum is quite exquisite and much sought after. 

8.Heuchera 'Green Spice' x 3

H. 'Green Spice' produces green flower spikes during the summer however the main attraction is the foliage. Decorative silvery green foliage is overlaid by prominent burgundy veins which stretch out from the dark centre of the leaf. As summer turns to autumn the foliage takes on soft pinky brown tones.  

9.Lysimachia ephemerum x 5

Commonly known as Milky Loosestrife, Lysimachia ephemerum forms a columnar clump of green/grey leaves. During summer tall spikes appear swamped in white buds. Buds open to fantastic cream flowers from bottom to top.

10.Phlox paniculata 'Willow Lodge' x 6

'Willow Lodge' has panicles of rounded white flower blooms which open from dark green buds and age to pink through the summer. Erect stems are covered by lance-shape green leaves . 

11.Stipa gigantea x 5

'Giant Golden Oat Grass' forms clumps of arching, narrow green foliage, below a fountain of slender stems with oat-like greenish-purple flowers that shimmer in the breeze. Flowering during the summer, the seedheads then fade to old gold before dropping their seeds, but their bearers stay upright long into the winter, looking beautiful when edged in frost

12.Symphyotrichum 'Vasterival' x 3

Recently introduced to the nursery, 'Vasterival' has become one of our most popular 'Michaelmas Daisies' for its height and flower hue.  Come September loads of lilac-pink single flowers each with a yolk-yellow centre erupt from the deep pink buds that stud the ends of its dark multi-branched stems.  

13.Verbascum (Cots. Grp) 'Cotswold Beauty' x 6

V.'Cotswold Beauty' has delightful apricot flowers with beautiful purple stamens, during the summer months. This short lived perennial has a basal rosette of broadly ovate, hirsute green leaves beneath the tall flowering stems. Remove the spent flowering stems to the base of the plant to encourage a second flush of flower. 

14.Verbena bonariensis x 3

Commonly known as Argentinian Vervain, Verbena bonariensis has a columnar habit. This native to South America is a tall perennial with branching stems that bear clusters of tiny violet flowers during summer. The flowers are beloved by butterflies and the seed heads which follow provide food for birds. The stems persist well into the winter providing structure and form within the border. 

15. Viola 'Belmont Blue' (C) x 6

'Belmont Blue' produces masses of clear blue flowers with darker blue veins, throughout the summer months, held above a low carpet of green heart-shaped leaves . 

Why not pop in a few Ipheion 'Alberto Castillo'  and or Ipheion uniflorum 'Hardy's Hybrid' into your border to help extend the flowering season. These small bulbous plants start flowering in the depths of winter but once the summer comes  their leaves die away, making them the perfect plant to dot around within the border. 

Pantone provides a universal language of colour. Each year, Pantone selects a colour that captures the global zeitgeist—the Colour of the Year express a global mood and an attitude, reflecting collective desire in the form of a single, distinct hue. For more information see: PANTONE® UK | Pantone Color of the Year 2025

For Mail Order.  Our mail order team is very small, so we’re unable to advise you on bespoke design, the specific numbers of plants you’ll need for borders which are bigger or smaller than the plans detail, or to complete quotes for online purchasing.  We can only do this type of work if you visit the nursery.  If you wish to purchase the plants online, use the links in the plans to find the plants.  We may not have all the plants listed on the plans for mail order delivery at any one time.  Our nursery shop often has alternatives and substitutes, but we can only advise and provide these if you visit us.