Garden as a Unit of Composed Plants

For much of the year it is quietly lovely, especially in spring time. There are five dwarf rhododendrons which grow only 12 to 18 in. high – Rhododendron sargentianum with yellow flowers, R. pemakoense, lilac pink, R. keleticum, purple-crimson, and two blue- flowered R. fastigiatum which have in addition grey leaves.

Sixteen years ago I planted a few specimens of the arboreal alpine to add height to a corner of the heather garden. Now the plants 4 ft. high and the soft green foliage on erect is seen in contrast to the bare branches of the birch woodland beyond adding a touch of some green to the inhospitable winter scene.

That Stranvaesia davidiana is so frequently said as an erect branching shrub surprises me. I know three 20-year-old bushes at Harlow Car and all have developed an umbrella habit which I find becoming. Planted round with the evergreen hummocks of Genista hispanica it makes a perfect group to soften the hard angle between border and lawn.

Gradually over the years the picture was filled in first by adding Chamaecyparis lawsoniana wisselii which forms a narrow dark green column and then by planting, just to one side, a maple with its intricate twig pattern.

Conifers play a dominant role in the second group which began with a specimen of Juniperus x media pfitzeriana and then had a Chamaecyparis pisifera plumosa aurea added for contrast with its yellow cone outline showing up well against the tiered grey-green of the juniper.

In the winter hornbeam recovers individuality after spending the summer looking like a poor relation of the beech. Once the leaves go, all the masculine beauty of fluted stems and downward arching branches stands revealed. Strange that a tree such as this should give rise to Carpinus betulus fastigiata which makes a symmetrical pyramid, ideal for the small garden. Indeed, I use it to hide telegraph poles and similar ugly objects.