Monday, April 06, 2009

Trimmings

With all the knocking about they're doing round here I'm having to go the long way round to get home some nights: they've closed a couple of roads for to build new houses and whatnot. It's an opportunity to have a nosey at some different gardens as I walk along. Most are pretty nondescript but every so often something catches my eye. One garden is decked out in shingle and birch logs and planted up with sorrel and delphiniums (where did that combination come from?) Another is so densely planted with Berberis that you still smell of honey two blocks down. With all due deference to The Topiary Cow, I cannot for the life of me condone the topiarising of a Camelia. The poor thing is awash with flower now, lush and pink and glossy, but the overall effect is to look cramped and bodged and hurt. I should feel the same about the two Forsythias a few doors further along: they've been trimmed into perfect children's lollipop trees but they actually look quite splendid, like big Belisha beacons slowly turning emerald green as the leaves unfurl. Very nice.

9 comments:

Ms Scarlet said...

I don't know anything about plant combinations. I just stick lavendar and sunflowers everywhere and hope for the best...
Sx

Gadjo Dilo said...

We've got wild sorrel in our garden, but unfortunately the winters are generally too harsh here for camelias, which I love.

Kevin Musgrove said...

Scarlet: lavender and sunflowers works for me (or would if the slugs left the sunflowers alone!)

Bad luck on the camelias, Gadjo. Have you nowhere west-facing and sheltered? (it's dawn's rosy light burning the frosted buds that does the damage round here). There must be an expert out there who can help: Chinese Wilson was always bumping into camelias in the highlands of China.

Madame DeFarge said...

My Derby home is in a street inhabited by many retired people and their gardens are a delight. Our, unfortunately, betrays our inability to do anything about it. I feel a petition coming on from the residents to ask us to plant any old flower to brighten up the front grass. I would say lawn, but that would be too optimistic

Ms Scarlet said...

I spelt lavender wrong because I thought it looked prettier with an 'a'. Seriously, I kinda thought it wasn't right but my subconscious took over...
Sx

Gadjo Dilo said...

Have you nowhere west-facing and sheltered? No. But do you think south-south-west would do? (This is getting like Gardeners' Question Time :-) )

Kevin Musgrove said...

Mme. deF: my own front garden is disgraceful, though mitigated later in the season by a louche explosion of oriental poppies

Scarlet: you know by now that nobody has to justify their spelling on this blog

Gadjo: it might do, can you get cheap 'n' cheerful camelias over there?

Gadjo Dilo said...

Unfortunately not - for some reason they're about £20 a throw.

Kevin Musgrove said...

We'll have to organise a Red Cross parcel.