Garden Design (2015)

PLANTING STYLES

Bold drifts of colourful summer-flowering perennials and ornamental grasses jostle in a naturalistic-style planting in the Hot Garden at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon.

DESIGN BY ROGER WEBSTER

Plants are the living elements that enhance the character of a garden. Over time, signature plants have become associated with particular styles, helping to define the look with their habit, shape, the colour of their flowers and leaves, and seasons of interest. The trick is to marry your garden conditions with a palette of reliable species and varieties that convey the style or theme you want to achieve. Also consider the level of care your chosen plants will require. Designs involving annuals and short-lived perennials, such as cottage gardens, will take more time to maintain than a garden filled with shrubs, so select a style that matches your lifestyle too.

In this section we take a look at a range of planting styles, starting with old favourites ‘Cottage to country’, and showing how to give these quintessentially English designs a contemporary spin. Designers from Europe and the United States launched the ‘Naturalistic style’, which mimics nature and includes ornamental grasses and tough perennials. We also consider the Mediterranean garden in this section. Warmer winters and foreign travel have fostered the rise of the urban jungle, the plants for which are outlined in ‘Exotic planting’. Its antithesis can be seen in ‘Architectural planting’, which employs shaped and trained trees and shrubs to create sharply trimmed green rooms. ‘Waterside planting’ explores the lush interface of the bankside, with planting ideas for the water and surrounding boggy soils. Many gardens include shady zones and ‘Shade planting’ provides solutions for gloomy areas beside trees or buildings. And finally, the creative use of turf and planting of flower meadows is explored in ‘Lawns and meadows’.

Clipped evergreen trees and low box edging outline and punctuate the framework of this design, providing visual interest when flowers and other ornamentals have faded.

DESIGN BY JAMES SCOTT