But first you've got to write it.
"Everybody knows how to write a sentence," says Nagel, who lectures on "Punctuation in the Garden" at garden events around the Northwest. "Everyone is acquainted with what a period is, or a comma."
So why not translate grammar to the garden?
"He was giving a talk on plants as exclamation points," she says. "It was one of those times when my brain wandered off. I started to think about other punctuation marks in the garden."
Not long afterward, Nagel's daughter, Wendy Plew, called, frustrated that there wasn't a book on garden design that, as she said, "didn't start in the middle."
"She was a beginner," says Nagel, who has been a garden designer for 33 years. "All the books began with garden design principles. She wanted to know what happened before that."
The "before," Nagel told her, is a process of figuring out what you want before planting a plant or planning a path: the theme that allows you to outline your story, look at your space and decide how you'll tie it together. Where will paths go to move people through the tale?
"Then you'll start to think, 'Here's a place I need ending points; this is where a period makes sense. And that nice, long area could be divided into three sections with strong separations like semicolons.'"
As Nagel answered her daughter's questions, an outline emerged. They sent it back and forth, and Wendy told her, "Mom, you should write this book." So she did. In 2010, "Understanding Garden Design" was published. Now Nagel is on to her second, "The Designer's Guide to Garden Furnishings."
Pulling together your own story doesn't mean you have to use -- or even know -- every punctuation mark. Start out with the easy parts of a sentence, like a tall, thin plant for an exclamation point that gives excitement and significance to an area. Or a weird, wiggly plant to stand for a question mark that makes you wonder, "What is that?"
Don't worry. You don't have to be an English major to get it right. Punctuation is a tool.
"You can rewrite as you go," says Nagel. "People have kids, they travel, their kids grow up. People rethink things, learn new things. A garden is a way to express yourself. The story is always changing."
As you might expect, plant periods are meant as stop signs. Small and medium-size plants -- usually rounded or kept rounded -- emphasize an ending. Use a group of plants to tell part of a story, perhaps a tale of shade plants such as hellebores, epimedium and Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema). Finish with a round plant that completes your shady story. Leave it at that, or write another sentence and end again with a round plant. The period can be the same as the first but doesn't have to be. Keep in mind the scale of your garden. You want the period to be a strong symbol but not overwhelming.
Three period candidates
Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea 'Bagatelle' and 'Concorde' (red-leaf Japanese barberry)
Buxus sempervirens 'Suffruticosa' (dwarf English boxwood)
Cryptomeria japonica 'Little Diamond' (Japanese cedar)
Commas are one of the hardest-working punctuation marks in the garden. They connect sentences with repetition. One plant, such as black mondo grass, interspersed amid a planting of golden creeping Jenny, collects a simple idea into an easy-to-read sentence. Or, that same plant distributed throughout a mixed bed can pick up colors of foliage and flower on each side to gather a more complicated garden area into a cohesive thought.
Comma plants also set off introductory elements. Nagel says an example of that in the garden could be an introduction of a grouping of toad lilies (Tricyrtis) and small hostas. A Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) would act as a comma, and then a larger, similarly colored hosta with Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa) as the second part of the sentence. In all three situations, the comma plants pull you along, urging you to read the entire area or sentence of the garden.
Three comma candidates
Brunnera macrophylla 'Emerald Mist'
Ferns, especially evergreen, such as deer fern (Blechnum spicant), western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) or Christmas fern (P. acrostichoides)
Like a comma, but stronger, with a greater emphasis on the separation between two plant groups within one part of the garden. Picture a 25-foot-long bed along the side of a house. Design two or more interesting groupings and then choose a significant plant to divide them. That semicolon plant should be larger and more notable than a comma. You still want to have some sort of connection, like a sentence with two distinct thoughts that make a whole. But the first area does not lead into the second in the way that a colon does.
Three semicolon candidates
Fatsia japonica, including 'Spider's Web' (Japanese aralia)
Mahonia x media 'Charity' or 'Winter Sun'
A colon plant connects one plant collection to another, with the second group enhancing the sentence. Variegated plants work well because they have the ability to relate to both plant combinations by picking up colors and textures on either side. This could be accomplished with a plant in the first group repeated in the second grouping, but with all of the other plants different.
Three colon candidates
Aucuba japonica 'Picturata'
Buxus microphylla var. japonica 'Variegata' (variegated Japanese boxwood)
Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki' (variegated false holly)
Two plants that separate areas of the garden. They should make a strong statement like exclamation marks, but be placed intentionally for separation, such as two upright cypress, arborvitae or yew on both sides of the entrance to a courtyard. In a tropical setting, use two large hardy bananas on either side of a bed to enclose the plants in between. Even a boxwood hedge edging a path qualifies.
Three parentheses candidates
Cornus sanguinea 'Compressa' (dwarf bloodtwig dogwood)
Cupressus macrocarpa 'Wilma Goldcrest' (Monterey cypress)
Thuja, various, including 'Emerald Green' and 'Rheingold' (arborvitae)
The easiest mark to visualize, exclamation points say, "Look here, there's something to see." Tall, thin plants are used to bestow significance on an area of the garden, to draw you in to see plants you might not otherwise notice. "Place an exclamation point just as you would in a sentence," says Vanessa Gardner Nagel, "only when you really need it."
Three exclamation point candidates:
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Ellwoodii' (Lawson false cypress)
Juniperus communis 'Compressa' (juniper)
Picea glauca var. albertiana (white spruce)
A quizzical plant that presents a puzzle. What is it? What do you think of it? There's no need for an answer. The purpose is to force the brain into gear. It should be situated in a prominent place, where people will see it and wonder. "It should be a little wonky," Nagel says. "From a distance, there's got to be some wiggle." Rather than making a statement, the twisted limbs of a plant such as Harry Lauder's walking stick (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') present a puzzle. Your brain goes into gear looking for an answer, but there isn't one.
Three question mark candidates
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Wissel's Saguaro' (Lawson false cypress)
Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (Harry Lauder's walking stick)
Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum' (weeping giant sequoia)
Info: Vanessa Gardner Nagel, Seasons Garden Design, seasonsgardendesign.com, 360-546-2746, 503-621-2746