Volume 133
Part 8
Gardens are just as influenced by the diktats of fashion as all forms of art. I recall that period in the 1970s when the mantra was all about making gardens maintenance-free, smothering soil with groundcover plants and selecting masses of amorphous shrubs – evergreens, conifers and heathers were key to achieving the look. In the 1980s Gertrude Jekyll was rediscovered, shrubs were eclipsed and perennials came back from oblivion; many on the verge of extinction were celebrated once again.
Perennials still hold sway, but what of shrubs? There are many wonderful new introductions but do we see them used to full potential in gardens? Or, with space at a premium, do we snip and shape, using them as a backdrop or framework on which to hang fleeting flowers? Is there more we can wring out of using shrubs creatively, to take garden design into new directions? This month, garden designer Dan Pearson ponders the point and experts from the Society’s gardens choose five shrubs that they would not be without.
Ian Hodgson, Editor
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