Christine Shaw - Architectural Plants

If space is a bit limited, it is surprising how many large plants can fit into one small area if the varying heights are taken into account. The photo shown opposite below is a brilliant illustration of professional design and imagination (alas, not mine!). A canopy of tall Eucalyptus glaucescens provides the first layer. Underneath these, a few Cordyline australis nestle to provide the next layer and also provide shade and shelter for tree ferns ( Dicksonia antarctica ), which are tall enough to leave room for ground-level plants such as Astelia. It’s inspirational stuff indeed, and there’s no reason why amateur gardeners can’t create something reasonably similar.

Beautiful as architectural plants are by day, they still have some hidden talents up their sleeves. It is easy to forget about the garden once the sun sets, but some of these plants are so sculptural and shapely that they can even look fantastic at night with some carefully positioned up-lighting to accentuate their silhouettes. The plants with the strongest shapes such as palms, Yucca and Agave work best with spotlights on them.

One last comment to add about planning your own garden is not to be too strict in your choice of plants. After reading up on plants you like the look of, it’s usual to write down a few favourites and compile a list of those that you’d really like. The longer the list, the less chance there is of obtaining them all during one shopping trip. However good your preferred nursery is, to expect it to stock every size of every plant all year round is being unrealistic. It is better to make a very short list of essentials, then visit the nursery and spend time looking around to see what looks good at the time. Make your final selection from what you see on the day. Otherwise you could spend a long time tracking down every single plant on a long wish-list.

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Pseudopanax crassifolius is an essential ingredient for a New Zealand-style garden.

Themed planting

Most architectural plants enthusiasts start with just one or two specimens at a time and gradually build up a wider selection later on. It is not unusual for the entire garden to be filled with these beautiful plants eventually. Some gardeners take things one step further and theme their garden in one particular foreign style. This is often done straight after a particularly enjoyable holiday when you are wishing you were still there. Theming the garden allows the mind to be transported back to whichever part of the world you recently visited.

Settlers new to a particular country sometimes like to be reminded of their homeland, and they plant their gardens accordingly: New Zealanders and Australians living away from home seem to have a special passion for doing this. As the choice of architectural plants is wide, it is easy to develop gardens that are reminiscent of one particular country or region. The provenance of the plants doesn’t have to be strictly correct as long as the look of it suits what you are trying to create. For example, a Mediterranean-style garden could be created using plants such as Italian Cypress ( Cupressus sempervirens ), Umbrella Pines ( Pinus pinea ), Magnolia grandiflora, olives and palms, together with Trachelospermum jasminoides and Pittosporum tobira to add the familiar scent found in Tuscany or the south of France.

Some might prefer a Japanese look, with the emphasis on Black Bamboo ( Phyllostachys nigra ), together with trees such as Podocarpus macrophyllus and Phillyrea latifolia, and maybe some Japanese topiary as well, such as Ilex crenata and formally clipped Buxus sempervirens or curved mounds of Hebe rakaiensis.

Jungly gardens can be very dramatic using palms, bamboos, Banana Plants ( Musa basjoo ) and anything else with large leaves such as the Foxglove Tree ( Paulownia tomentosa ) and Rice Paper Plant ( Tetrapanax papyrifera ). Loud splashes of colour can be introduced with any of the Canna or Ginger Lilies ( Hedychium ), and all types of large-leaved ferns could be used for the underplanting.

Australian-type gardens would have masses of all types of Eucalyptus, Acacia dealbata, Acacia pravissima, Callistemon subulatus and Solanum laciniatum, probably planted densely around a summer house with a corrugated iron roof and a shady verandah.

New Zealand gardens can easily be created in cooler areas that have a high rainfall. With a mix of Cordyline australis, Dicksonia squarrosa, Phormium, Astelia and the fabulously weird and wonderful Pseudopanax crassifolius, pulling back the curtains every morning and gazing out on plants such as these could make you forget which country you actually live in.

My favourite group of plants is the spiky and succulent one, and any choice of these can look fab together. To look out of the window and see a scene that could easily be from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona always gives me a real buzz. A mix of Agave, Yucca and Dasylirion can be used to good effect, although postmen, meter readers and visitors to the house don’t seem to share my enthusiasm for these plants – they’ve probably been on the receiving end of the sharp thorns once too often.

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Leafy tree canopies underplanted with palms give a jungly feel.

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Loud and vibrant flowers remind us of trips to the Caribbean.

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Rows of formal Cupressus have an air of the Mediterranean about them.

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The rich scent of Magnolia grandiflora flowers fills the air in Italianate gardens.

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Planting schemes like this remind me of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, but they can be created in even the chilliest garden.

There are enough plants in this book to create gardens with Chilean and South African themes too. Depending on how vivid your imagination is, you could replicate the planting of just about any country in the world. There are also plenty of plants that can be used to make much more traditional gardens, as well as those where the emphasis is on fragrance. Believe it or not, it is possible to create unusual, bright, flowery gardens – there are just about enough exotic blooms among these plants to satisfy the floral needs of gardeners, despite the emphasis being on their foliage. There are also lots of plants here that have excellent salt resistance, which makes them very practical for seaside gardens.