19TH IMPRESSION with photos - Architectural Plants

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Some plants are born architectural, some achieve architecture and
some have architecture thrust upon them
CREATIVE MAINTENANCE
What does it mean? I think the best way I can explain it is by
imagining going up to a plant and saying "You're a nice plant but
is there anything I can do to make you look even nicer?"
In most cases the answer is a resounding “Yes”. Raising, thinning and
shaping the crowns of trees and shrubs, removing the tired old leaves
on palms and yuccas. It's all
to do with producing a garden
of beautifully sculpted plants
and a look of well groomed
verdancy which is what
Architectural Plants are all
about anyway. Most of the
techniques that we've developed
over the last 20 years
are borrowed from nature and
if you can look at a garden
that's been Creatively
Creative Maintenance. Phillyrea latifolia
and two very different bamboos
Maintained by us and yet it
still looks completely natural -
then we have succeeded.
On the subject of general garden maintenance (whether creative or
otherwise), it’s said that one of Britain’s foremost landscapers of
the 20th century (who’s
name is a secret) had what
he (or she) called the Four
‘F’s rule when it came to his
(or her) work : “Find it /
Finish it / Fotograph it and
F*** off”. Not Funny. To us
this exemplifies a common
attitude about the creation of
gardens which is plain
wrong. Don't spend time and
money building a new garden
if it’s then going to be largely
neglected. It’s soul destroying
to witness and we’ve seen it
Creative Maintenance. We remove the
unsightly canes and ‘raise’ the head.
so often. Good design is vital but intelligent and creative maintenance is
vital too and it sends us mad that this aspect of gardening is so often
and so sorely overlooked. Once we’ve built a garden we’re only too
pleased to continue to help you with it in any way we can for as long as
you like.