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.

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

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Print a copy of the plant key below

1. Actaea 'Queen of Sheba' x 6

Statuesque and elegant, 'Queen of Sheba' has sweetly scented white bottlebrush-like blooms they are slightly smaller and finer than those of other cultivars. They gently arch like fingers away from the dark stems and deeply divided purple almost black foliage .

2. Aruncus 'Horatio' x 5

An eye catching new introduction with lots of delicate flower spikes that splay finger-like from red stems above fresh green finely cut foliage. Soft white on opening in midsummer the spikes age gracefully from the base upwards turning cream then brown resembling a caffe latte. The warm autumnal foliage is a great bonus. It makes a fabulous frothy addition to the partially shaded border.

3. Astrantia 'Buckland' x 6

This very pretty variety has green and white outer bracts encircling a soft pink inner pincushion. Grows very successful in a moisture retentive soil in part shade or sun, but especially so in clay soils.

4. Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'^PBRx 6

From spring to early summer graceful sprays of deep blue Forget-me-not-like flowers are held aloft on dark stems above beautiful heart-shaped silver leaves with defined green veins and margin.

5. Corydalis Purple x 6

Form In spring lilac blue, two-lipped tubular flowers stand in clusters above the fern-like, purple foliage. This perennial has a mat-forming growth habit, it is summer deciduous, which means its top growth dies away after flowering - don't forget where you planted it and accidentally dig it up.

6. Dryopteris erythrosora x 6

A semi-evergreen fern, often with attractive coppery-pink fronds when young and pink spore-heaps. As the fronds age they turn dark green.

7. Hosta 'Sum and Substance' x 3

Beautiful, large golden green, heart shaped leaves with prominent veins form a large clump from late spring until autumn.'Sum and Substance' is meant to be the first slug resistant Hosta and in our experience this certainly seems to hold true for the majority of the time.

8. Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight'^PBR' x 3

Limelight' is an upright bushy deciduous shrub, its yellowy green broad leaves have a serrated margin. Panicles form a dense cone that starts green. Sterile florets start cream and turn to white. 'Limelight's' fancy blooms appear during late summer.

9. Lamium maculatum 'Pink Pearls' x 3

Commonly known as Spotted Dead Nettle, this mat-forming perennial has subtle pale pink whorls of flower during summer. The semi-evergreen foliage is made up of heart-shaped green leaves with a silver stripe through the centre.

10. Monarda 'Croftway Pink' x 6

Shaggy, tufted flowerheads of narrow, rose pink petals are held on strong, upright stems cloaked with very fragrant, mid green, dagger-shaped foliage. Deservedly popular for its long flowering and prolific display.

11. Phlox divaricata 'White Perfume' x 8

Clouds of fragrant, starry white flowers dance above gently spreading clumps of fine, glossy green foliage. Charming and rather beguiling, 'White Perfume' is perfect for lighting up a partially shaded area of the garden in late spring/early summer.

12. Primula vialii x 3

Commonly known as Vial's Primrose, this fire-cracker of a perennial has gorgeous red buds which open (bottom to top), revealing small lilac flower spikes. These fancy blooms appear in early summer over rosettes of oblong-shaped green foliage.

13. Tellima grandiflora x 6

Commonly known as Fringe Cups, Tellima grandiflora bears small, understated, highly fragrant, fringed cup-shaped flowers held on upright stems above a mound of green, lobed rounded foliage, during early summer.

14. Veronicastrum virginicum f. roseum 'Pink Glow' x 6

During late summer and heading into the autumn 'Pink Glow' produces fantastic spires of pink blooms, whorls of linear narrow leaves cover the tall stems. This is a plant with a bushy upright erect habit.

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.