The Jury Gospel on Garden Ornamentation

Garden ornamentation is a matter of personal taste. It is a pretty clear statement about the owner, just as the interior of somebody’s home gives a very good indication of the personalities and interests of those who live there.

I talked about my conversation with the landscaper in a recent column where he gave me food for thought on relationships of space and gardens. Another comment he made also made me stop and think. Waving an arm airily down a potential vista, he threw off the comment, “and you need a focal point at the end. A plant will not give a strong enough focal point.”

Hmmm. I know what he means. It is hard to get a plant which makes a strong visual statement twelve months of the year. But we struggle here with dropping inorganic focal points into our garden.

We have had many conversations about sculpture in gardens. There are a number of gardens around the country which feature sculpture and some where an annual exhibition of sculpture is a major visitor drawcard. A piece of sculpture can certainly provide an instant focal point and there are any number of splendid garden photographs which focus on examples of this.

It is just not a look we favour personally. A splendid piece of sculpture shouts “Look at me! Look at me!” The garden and the plants become support players to this new star. We are happy to see the garden as the stage, but prefer special plants to be the stars. Ornamentation we see as part of the stage setting or, to extend the theatre analogy, as taking on a cameo character role. So we are more likely to drop it discreetly into the undergrowth so it is a surprise discovery.

It is, as I started, all a matter of personal taste.

Mark’s rule of thumb is that any garden feature should have a logical sense to it and an appropriate identity. So a gazebo or summerhouse should be in a place where the owner is most likely to use it which may not be where the designer might think it will look best as a feature. Similarly, seats should be in the best locations for sitting which is not necessarily the same thing as being in the best locations as focal points. For the same reason, Mark opposes using ornamentation which is a direct copy of overseas styles in our garden. Too derivative. So we will not be getting Italianate statues, Asian figurines or Grecian urns. He wants carefully chosen pieces which are relevant to us and to the country we live in. So we remain steadfastly in the “less is more” school of garden ornamentation at this time.

Readers who have the October issue of the New Zealand Gardener to hand might have noticed the photo feature entitled “Pastoral Artistry”. I really like the large black spider’s web with paua shellls shown in a Paekakariki garden. It was created from a coil of black rope found washed up on the local beach and is now a garden feature well anchored in its local environment. I also like the windy wandy bullrush sculptures shown, just as I have always admired the nikau sculptures outside Wellington City Council even if the other half’s response was to ask why I might want bronze nikaus when we have plenty of the real thing.

But no matter where your personal taste lies, there are some standard guidelines for the use of ornamentation in gardens. Placement – if you are going to create a feature or a focal point it needs to be in a position that justifies being highlighted. And the object that is the feature also needs to justify its existence by being worthy of being made into a star attraction.

Stark white and bright colours look best in cutting edge, new or hard edged gardens. They just look garish in older, softer gardens whereas they can look dramatic in more contemporary settings.

Wit and whimsy are great if they are one-off, original wit and whimsy. Take a look at Paloma Garden in Wanganui for genuinely creative wit and whimsy. But anything mass produced, by definition, is not original and is unlikely to be creative. You can not expect to buy quirkiness at the Warehouse.

Ornamentation used to be the preserve of the well heeled and rank and file garden owners simply could not afford it thirty years ago. Now every man and their dog has big pots everywhere, repro classical sculptures and garden seats – some more stylish than others. In this embarrassment of riches, it is really hard to predict what will become the valued antiques of the future, but we would hazard a guess that in New Zealand gardens, it will be ornamentation that reflects our own country and style, not that copied from overseas.

Bromeliads The Connoisseur's Guide

Author: Andrew Steens

Publisher: Random House, Godwit $45

The opening words of this new book by an eminent New Zealand specialist grower read:

This is a book for gardeners who have progressed from having a garden full of mixed plants, with 20 to 30 different bromeliads, to being completely addicted to bromeliads, with a bromeliad collection that is taking over the house, the conservatory and the lawn, prompting mutterings of enclosing the whole property in one large greenhouse.

Taken literally, that should narrow the potential readership to a few score only because while broms are a common feature these days and enjoy a popularity which rivals conifers in the seventies, most gardeners still prefer to do some mixing and matching.

But this is the best book around for the aficionado. The beginner may be better with Steens’ 2003 book, “Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden” because that focuses more on the use of these curious plants in gardens and landscaped settings as well as giving sound cultural information and technical info on the different genera. This new book is dedicated to those who are hooked on the rare and the exotic, to collectors rather than gardeners. It covers hybridising and importing but the greater part of the book is specialised technical detail on individual members of the extended brom family.

It has many gorgeous photographs and good information written by an author who is passionate about his topic and who makes it readable. It is a great specialist book. It is just a shame that Random House are economising so much on the production of their books – I have the same complaint that I had on the recent Julian Matthews book from this publisher. It has a cheap and nasty cover which curls and bends and will not last the distance.

October 12, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide

  • It is 3P1F this week. That is Panic, Plant and Prune. And Feed. Get woody trees and shrubs into the ground as fast as you can now so they can settle in before we start to dry out. We are only a few weeks off the time when temperatures can start to rise dramatically.
  • Most plants are best pruned straight after flowering. This is particularly true for rhododendrons, including vireyas. As soon as they have done their seasonal spurt of flower power, get in with the loppers if they need it. Rhododendrons only put on one growth spurt in spring so you need to prune before that happens so the plant can grow in the right places and channel its energies where you want it.
  • It is important to allow bulbs such as daffodils and bluebells to take their own time to die down and become dormant. Do not cut off their green leaves and tying the foliage in knots is pretty tacky. If the splayed foliage worries you, tying a clump loosely with a narrow thread of flax leaf looks greatly preferable to knots.
  • If you grow lilies, watch for aphid infestations now. These nasty little suckers may be responsible for spreading virus in lilies and are best eliminated. Serious inorganic growers will use Orthene but there is a range of pyrethrum based aphid sprays which are less heavy duty.
  • It is full steam ahead in the vegetable garden preparing for L Day (that is Labour Day planting, a time honoured tradition). Corn can be started in little pots to be planted out in three weeks time.
  • Thin out early sowings of vegetables.
  • Earth up potatoes and keep a copper spray on them to keep blight at bay. Broad beans also need a copper spray every few weeks to stop rust.
  • If you want to boost growth in the vege garden, a light sprinkling of blood and bone is a good move at this time.

Mark releases vireya rhododendron Sweet Cherry

 News Article: Taranaki Daily News

Mark Sweet Cherry Launch

October 5, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide

  • Weeds are growing madly. Be vigilant at this time of the year and prevent anything going to seed or you will be fighting the successive waves of germinating weeds all summer. While glyphosate or Round Up will kill weeds, this takes a few days to work so you still need to hand pull any weeds with seed heads formed – particularly the bitter cress which pops everywhere and goes from germination to seeding in what seems like days.
  • Rejuvenate tired citrus trees at this time by pruning hard, fertilising and mulching. If you prune very hard, you will sacrifice the crop of fruit for the next season or two but you should have a better looking bush or tree. Citrus trees are grafted so do not cut off at ground level because all that will regrow will be the thorny root stock. If you have a problem with borer, cut out the infected branches.
  • Evergreen azaleas and most camellias, however, can be cut to ground level if you have ugly old specimens and they will grow again though you are unlikely to get flowers next year. Make sure you feed and mulch any plants you have subjected to extreme decapitation.
  • If you want a summer bedding plant display, you should be getting your annuals in now. If you have bought “potted colour” (the larger specimens which are sold in garden centres), removing the current crop of flower buds at time of planting allows the plant to establish better before it puts its energies into a floral display. Deadheading them throughout the season can be tedious but will considerably extend the flowering. The plant’s drive is to set seed and reproduce itself so if you delay that process by preventing it seeding, it will keep on trying by setting more flowers.
  • In the vegetable garden, don’t rush planting out if your soil is still cold. It can in fact delay the growth of the seeds and plants whereas if you wait until later in the month, they are more likely to grow away unimpeded. Experienced vegie gardeners learn to judge the optimum times and conditions for getting early crops in but Labour Weekend is traditionally the magic planting time.