THE MODERN MINT BLOG
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
Further Reading:
Brought By Bike – Topiary Making
Brought By Bike is an excellent website I found last month, where businesses offer their services by (of course) bicycle. Modern Mint and my topiary work is now live on the site offering my topiary services, via bike, to the following two postcodes – CM1 CM2 Now I can imagine I will need to borrow a ladder should anyone have a larger shrub, but most town gardens in the Chelmsford area have a need not just for privacy but to let light into the house… so a balance must be struck when shaping hedges and shrubs to cover both needs. …
Transforming Topiary
Transforming Topiary – a video made for the European Boxwood And Topiary Society by Charlotte Molesworth and I, in her garden. We take a dog topiary and work out how to update it, turning it into a bird. Worth a watch I think, and hopefully useful to you! You can see more of my clipping on the topiary page. Or read my Spring 2021 Topiary Provocation here.
Phillyrea From 1682
Phillyrea is one of my favourite plants for topiary. I have been using it for quite a few years as a specimen shrub, mostly due to the fact it clips well and has a tough habit – all good characteristics for a topiary plant. It also has a reputation for being an excellent nectar source for bees… Read more about Phillyrea here. Mentioning this to Malcolm Thicke, a market garden historian and writer, he sent me a some photos of topiary and phillyrea mentioned by John Worlidge in Systema Horticulturae from 1682…. incredible! He also mentioned to me that in …