THE MODERN MINT BLOG

May25

Dan Pearson’s Must-Have Plants: Ferns, Grasses & Half-Hardy Perennials

This is the second in our plant inspiration guide from garden designer Dan Pearson… he has been sharing the plants he loves to use, and I think it is a fascinating series and major help when trying to work out what you can add to your garden.

My own love in the garden is topiary, but topiary really works best when planted with and around some of the plants in this blog.

So check them out below and see act you might add to your borders this year!

(Do check out this review of his excellent book ‘Spirit’.)

Ferns

Adiantum venustum

Asplenium scolopendrium

Athyrium ‘Ghost’

Dryopteris wallichiana

Osmunda regalis

Grasses

Briza media

Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’

Molinia caerulea subsp. Arundinacea ‘Transparent’

Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’

Stipa barbata

Thamnochortus insignis

Half-hardy Perennials

Dahlia merckii ‘Alba’

Pelargonium tomentosum

Salvia discolor

Read Part 1, part 3, Part 4.

Further Reading:

Natural Selection: A Year In The Garden

Designing With Grasses

Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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Apr14

Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson

The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …

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