In todays landscapers advice we will be covering advice on border perenialls. There will be useful tips and advice that landscapers can use in their garden designs. Herbaceous perennials are plants which die down every winter and produce new stems and foliage each spring. This standard definition does indeed apply to most herbaceous perennials we grow in the garden, but you can find exceptions to both halves of this over simple description.
First of all some landscapers tips. Not all herbaceous perenialls dies down in winter. From tiny Sazifrages hugging the earth to the large arching leaves of Pampas Grass you will find evergreens in a variety of shapes and sizes – Brunnera, Helleborus, Nepata and Tiarella are some examples. Your border in your landscaping garden design should contain some of these evergreen types if you wish to avoid a completely bare look during the depths of winter.
Secondly, some landscapers believe that they pop up afresh every spring. This os not always the case. Some types are not completely hardy and so are liable to die in severe winters and serveral others which are completely hardy are not long lived even when the conditions in the garden are ideal. Agiolegia and Pereninal Flax are well known examples of plants with a limited life span. Nearly all the rest will goon year after year. Which is good news for Irish landscapers. There is just a small groupof plants to which the word perennials apply, plants like the Acanthus, Hellbeborus and Paeonies which should be left alone so that tyey can continue to flourish without disturbance for decades.
An enourmous number of plants are classified as herbaceous perennials and the ones which grow to a foot or more are termed border perennials. This is beacuse the herbaceous and the mixed borders are their traditional homes. To see border perennials at their best look at a herbaceous border during the Irish mid summer.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a swing away from the regimented rows of bedding flowers that were been planted by Victorian landscapers. Under the influence of William Robinson and Gertrude Jeckll the herbaceous border was born and all sorts of rules were created. A backdrop of a hedge or weathered brink essential and border perennials at the front to divide the border from the lawn. Plans were carefully drawn before planting took place. Landscapers had to make the length look impressive and the width had to be no less than nine feet.
The herbaceous borde requires a great deal of space in any garden design. The screening hedges cuts down both light and air circulation so that the back row leans forward. If you want have an area just for the border perennials then make an island bed instead. Here the plants can be seen from all sides and there is no shading effect from surrounding walls or hedges. The tallest plants are set in the middle and the not so strict rule is that their height should be no more than half the width of the bed.
For the average sized garden design in Ireland the mixed border is the answer. This owes as much to the idea of the old cottage garden as it does to the principles of herbaceous and shrub borders. The basic concept is to have some colour all year around. Roses with evergreen and flowering shrubs provide a woody and colourful framework. Within this setting the border perennials are planted in groups of three or five. A landscapers tip is to avoid the spotty effect resulting from growing single isolated specimens. Plant annuals will provide a summer long floral display and bulbs will bring the border to life in late winter or early spring. There are a few rules to ensure success in your garden design like, getting rid of perennial weeds before planting a mixed border and choose the smaller and sturdier modern varieties of border perennials so to reduce the need for stalking.
