Modern planting design has tended to be non-geometric and expressive. Designers have considered plants as abstract shapes and patches of color, and have used them as a foil to the geometry of Neo-Plastic and Cubist art. The inspiration for this device is uncertain but the images which can be formed by overlaying random biological patterns on a structured geometrical background are highly characteristic of modern gardens. The two possible sources for the imagery are Japanese gardens and Abstract Expressionism. The former are known to have influenced particular designers and the latter is a movement which has educated us all in the appreciation of abstract and random patterns.