How plant forms impact our design decisions

We tend to look at only colors and blooms when choosing plants but the overall shape may be more important.

Let’s talk about recycling. No, I won’t be climbing on my soapbox (if you’ve read ANYTHING I’ve written, you already know that is one of my favorite perches) and crying about how only 5-6% of plastic in the US is actually recycled. Nor will I be telling you how it doesn’t really matter that we separate the colors of our glass because it all goes in the same bin anyway (the source for this is the cool dude who manages our recycling center downtown). My bizarre and convoluted intro today touches on intellectual recycling. If you’re a teacher, like I was in my previous life, think about how you dust off those old lectures and lesson plans from previous semesters, give them a little tweak, and auto-play to your students. If you’re a writer, like I kind of consider myself presently, picture grabbing a piece you’ve written before and slightly editing before re-releasing it to the masses.

True confession. As I was going through my jumbled brain trying to jot down topics for my future posts for this site, I came across an old folder from when I was working with a web branding company in Toronto and found a piece I wrote called “How to Use Forms to Shape Your Landscape Ideas”. Hmmmm? That sounds like it may still have some legs. Then I began reading what I wrote those 7 or 8 years ago and thought, “Who wrote this crap?” The article consisted mostly of shapes, forms, and polygons as these relate to beds, pools, entryways, etc. Not that this is complete garbage but the fact is that many of you have likely lived where you are for some time and the ship of garden design has long since sailed. But….if you’ve had a plant kick the bucket and now have a hole to fill please read on before going to the garden center. (Those big box stores won’t be of much use this time of year as they’re depleting their stock to make room for Christmas).

When I was teaching a design class at The University of Tennessee as a Professor of Sustainable Landscape Design, I couldn’t help but default to the “big four” principles of design. Line, Form, Texture, and Color. I would ask my students what is the first one of these they should consider when selecting a plant. Most of the time the response was color. Not a totally wrong answer but mostly wrong. And who could blame someone for responding as such? When I interview potential clients, they too, would be quick to express their desire for color in the garden.

Garden design is an art and like any other form of art, it is subjective. But the answer (today) to the question posed above is…..(where is that drumroll when I need it?) Form! When I create any landscape plan, the second thing I do (first is defining mown from unmown areas) is drop circles representing various plants as placeholders. I’m not worried about giving that plant a name until quite a while later. BUT…..I do want to know the general shape or form of the plant. Do I need something tall and skinny or short and broad? Should it be vase-shaped or conical? Would elliptical be best in that location or should this plant be kind of Serengeti (think African plains) in its form? You hopefully get the idea.

Of course, I can spout all I want from this personal perspective and generalize in advising what to do and what not to do. This idea that form is paramount is most applicable to trees and shrubs. For perennials, vines, and ground covers, you may indeed be most concerned with color, length of blooming period and so on. I could almost say the same for grasses but there are times when I am seeking a well-behaved grass that stays pretty narrow and upright as opposed to floppy and spreading so I’ll take a risk and say form is pretty high up on my attribute list.

From globe blue spruce to hinoki cypress to creeping phlox, imagining the form of a plant is essential when designing your garden.

I’ve found that a good way to understand a plant’s form is not to be too close to that plant and to try to blur your vision a little bit. I’m not an ophthalmologist so I can’t tell you exactly how to do that but maybe you get my drift. Of course, if you’re applying this to a live plant in the landscape or garden, it helps if there isn’t a lot of competition surrounding the subject.

Before I began teaching, I was a designer at a pretty impressive garden center and I still recall the times when I had a plan literally on the drawing table (computers were only something that George Jetson used) half-finished and I would stop and go on happy plant hunt through the nursery looking for “low and squatty, pencil-like, lollipop in form and so on. Then once I had my plant, I’d come back and drop that name on the design and in the specifications.

So, once again, not a peer-reviewed article here but hopefully one that will help you when thinking about your next addition to your wonderful garden.

Till next time,

UNFOCUS A LITTLE TO APPRECIATE A PLANT’S FORM

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