More ideas for decorating your garden

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 18

More ideas for decorating your garden

Axrdener’s W DIARY

Derrick Rooney

A grouping in my garden which has, I think, been successful teams a golden hazel with a purple one in a setting comprising a golden elderberry, white deutzia, a soft pink rose and, floating in the middle of it all, a Japanese maple with exceptionally delicate variegation on its tiny leaves. The hazels are Corylus avellana “Aurea,” the golden-leafed form of the common hazel nut, and Corylus maxima “Purpurea.” Both can grow very large — reaching five metres high eventually — but they are fairly slow if left unpruned, and once they begin to outgrow their allotted space they can be kept under control by pruning to ground level every second or third year. Like all hazels, they require shelter from wind, and I have provided this by placing them in the lee of a big old pear tree, with secondary shelter from the other members of the group. The deutzia, for example, is excellent shelter.

Named “Candidissima,” it is a thicket of tall, arching stems which are smothered with pure white flowers in early summer, coinciding with the peak flowering of old roses.

In winter its bare stems are an attractive chestnut brown when there is little else to appreciate in the group, and I chose it as much for these as for its flowers, pretty though the latter may be. I might just as well have chosen others from this neglected genus of hardy shrubs — “Pride of

Rochester,” for example, with its flowers flushed burgundy on the outside, or “Mont Rose,” in soft pink. “Mont Rose” is in the garden, not far away, but in this group the soft pink is provided by a rose, “Abbotswood,” which flowers once only in a season, but does so with near-excessive prolificity. The flowers, smallish and semi-double, are cool pink, in clusters along the length of the stems. A presumed hybrid between the wild dog-rose and a rose cultivated in the English garden whose name it bears, “Abbotswood” has, like the deutzia, a mass of stout, arching shoots. They make a fine pair of natural parentheses, and in case anyone misses the point it is emphasised again, a step or two away, by a pair of large specimens of Berberis “Rose Queen,” the variegated barberry whose dusky purple foliage is lightened in summer by a pencilling of creamy white veins.

Between these two is the maple — a form of Acer palmatum. It came with a Japanese name, which I have lost, but which translates as “Floating Clouds,” a very appropriate choice. The branches on this small, slow-growing tree give the appearance of being in layers, and the tiny leaves are finely variegated with

cream and pink; the plant really does appear to be just floating in the garden. If you prefer plain leaves, you can get an excellent effect with “Dissectum Viridis” or one of any number of varieties of this elegant small maple. All the Japanese maples, which range from compact shrubs to medium-sized trees, are first-rate garden plants which can lend an air of grace to any group, and will grow well anywhere they can be sheltered from strong wind and oc-

casionally irrigated in summer. Named varieties are grafted on to seedling rootstocks, and as trees go they are expensive; but they are worth it. A few varieties do come more or less true from seed, and sometimes seedlings are offered under cultivar names — a practice that nursery customers ought to discourage. There is, as always, an exception: “Senkaki,” the coral-bark maple, which if grown in isolation from other kinds of Japanese maple comes 100 per cent true to type.

Varieties with purple leaves usually throw a high percentage of seedlings with purple foliage, but their leaf shape and ultimate size will vary. Seed from the fine-leafed “Dissectum” also throws a percentage of offspring resembling the parent, but these, too, vary in leaf shape and ultimate size. I have one in the rock garden which is growing very slowly, perhaps through circumstances rather than heritability; it is somewhat starved. One day I might move it into the company of the plants shown in the illustration, which is included to show that flowers, as well as foliage, can give contrast and balance in shape and texture. The plant in the foreground is a pink-flowered “mossy” saxifrage which I know as "Apple Blossom,” though this might not be the correct name. The primula in the middle is P. pulverulenta, one of the taller “candelabra” types (its flower stems shot up so rapidly this year that the camera lens cut out the top of two of them). It, too, is pink, a fleshier pink than the saxifrage, with a dark zone at the eye, and its stems, which may carry nine or more tiers of flowers, are covered with silver-white farina. The two form a very pleasant association which is enhanced by a small neighbouring iris. This is Iris setosa canadensis, which grows only 30cm or less tall and has dusky lavender flowers with darker veining. Leaf tips and part of a flower can be seen at the bottom of the picture.