specimens. Although such a nursery is not for the timid, closer inspection will reveal that this type of gardening is not just about large plants.
You will also find on display a massive selection of smaller, easily affordable plants lurking throughout and underneath all the greenery. There is usually plenty of stock readily available that doesn’t require a second mortgage. So, if you’re new to this type of gardening and are bowled over by the choice of plants on offer, where do you start?
Garden design
There is a lot of pretentious nonsense bandied about garden design. If someone thinks that a selection of plants looks good together, who’s to say that they are wrong? As long as the gardener or client is happy with the result, that should be all that matters. But, many of us are happier with a few guidelines to assist, so here are just a few.
Choose plants that suit your type of garden and learn as much as you can about what keeps them happy.
It is important to choose plants that are right for your garden and to learn as much as possible about the growing conditions that would suit them best. (This is discussed in detail on page 16 and also in the individual plant entries.) Also, try to learn a bit about their eventual size – there is little point planting small plants near the back of the border where they will be obscured from view in a couple of years. This is, of course, all common sense that applies to any type of gardening, not just gardening with architectural plants.
Another common-sense strategy when planting – but one that I completely ignore – is to allow space around each plant so that it can spread without being crowded by its neighbours after a few seasons. Common sense it may be but, to impatient people like myself, this is something far too boring even to contemplate. I like to see a wonderful lush garden within two years, not ten. If plants start to crowd together, then I either get out the shears and do some serious pruning or, better still, thin out the number of plants and transplant the spare ones somewhere else.
Using the same plants throughout the garden to carry on a theme, rather than just having one of each type of plant, is something I am very keen on. It is much more pleasing and organized to look at. If one of your favourite plants happens to be, for instance, a Yucca gloriosa, start by planting one in a position where it is easily seen, and then plant several more along the length of the border or garden at various intervals. This effect gives the impression that a deliberate planting plan has been thought about, rather than appearing as a random hotchpotch. It is a commonly held misapprehension that using the same plant more than once is boring and shows a lack of imagination. Plant one of each only if you are an avid collector or the curator of a botanic garden.
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A specialist nursery will contain plants of all sizes to suit every budget.
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Multiple planting of the same type of plant (here, Blechnum spicant) gives much more dramatic results.
Still on the subject of multiple planting, small plants such as some ferns, grasses or groundcover plants are much more noticeable and give a more dramatic effect when planted in large sweeping groups of all the same type.
And, when using architectural plants as screening, groups and rows of bamboos or trees do the job very well but, again, the effect is less messy if all the same types of bamboo or tree are selected. Not only is the result more visually appealing, but the growth rates will be the same, keeping the screening more uniform as it matures.
Using the same types of climbing plants across a fence or over a pergola also looks tidier, but I usually fail miserably in persuading clients to go for this option. Gardeners expect climbers to work hard, providing screening, flowers, fragrance and a bit of colour for the whole growing season. Indeed, choosing from the range of climbing plants in this book, this is certainly possible to achieve but, from an aesthetic point of view, lots of the same is easier on the eye. And if they all intermingle with each other, it doesn’t matter at all.
Larger plants such as trees, palms and bamboos look perfectly okay when planted as single specimens and as the main focal feature of the garden, but they can also be effective in small groups. Palm trees look particularly good planted together in groves, with all the plants of slightly different heights. Grouped in this way, you can almost kid yourself that they grew there naturally.
With architectural plants, the emphasis is on the foliage, not the flowers, so it can be great fun experimenting with all the different shapes, textures and shades of green to make different effects. For example, in a shady corner, the large glossy leaves of a Fatsia japonica, the fat crinkly foliage of Eriobotrya japonica, the blue-green spiky leaves of Yucca x floribunda and the emerald-green, soft foliage of Hebe parviflora angustifolia look lovely all grouped together.
In a sunnier position, the combination of the small, bright green foliage of a bamboo such as Phyllostachys aurea, the spiky sword-shaped leaves of Phormium tenax, the large, shiny leaves of Acanthus mollis all underplanted with the dense groundcover of Rosmarinus repens makes an interesting mix.
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Pleioblastus variegatus makes a pretty contrast to other larger bamboos.
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Strongly shaped architectural plants do not need flowers or colour to make them noticeable.
Generally, because of the lack of too many gaudy flowers, architectural plants can be mixed and matched in almost limitless combinations. At this point, it is time to throw in a few words about variegated plants. With architectural plants, the colour green obviously dominates, and with all the hundreds of shades of green, little else is really needed. Even the absence of a constant array of flowers is not much of a loss. But, just occasionally, introducing a contrasting plant can add that bit of extra interest. If a coloured-leaved plant such as Rhamnus alaternus variegata, Yucca gloriosa variegata or Phormium tenax variegata is planted among masses of green, the effect can be quite stunning. However, if too many coloured-leaved plants are added, the whole contrasting effect can be diluted to the point of being lost. So, think green, and you can’t go far wrong.
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Beautifully shaped palms are striking enough to grab anyone’s attention.
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This photo shows a perfect choice of plants for a layered effect in a small garden.
After introducing architectural plants to a garden, other ordinary garden plants can start to look dull, which usually leads to the buying and planting of more and more shapely specimens. If you plan to turn the whole garden over to architectural plants but you are on a fairly tight budget that allows only a gradual transformation,
