UP THE GARDEN PATH
UP THE GARDEN PATH
Louise offers some more spiky specials to pique your interest.
I had planned this article as a follow-on from my first spiky plants article in the October-November issue last year, but I got side-tracked by the beautiful fuchsias in the December-January magazine, as I felt we needed a bit of colour to get us through the dreary winter. So it’s onwards and upwards with Spiky Plants – Part 2 for this one. Just to recap, in my previous offering, I explored the virtues of Phormiums and Yuccas as two of the most popular spiky specimens, but I felt this only scratched the surface, as there are several others that I’d love to tell you about that are attractive and have a lot going for them in the unusual looks department.
The first is, in my opinion, a real stunner, it’s the Agave, and in particular, one that’s called Agave americana. Unlike some of the others in the family, it is hardy enough to cope with our UK climate if grown in well-drained soil and a sunny spot. They have blue-grey, thick upright succulent leaves, with pointed tips and spiny edges that have a dusting of whitish bloom on the surface, and if space allows, can grow quite large, up to 3 to 6 feet high. They are undoubtedly a significant and imposing architectural presence in the right type of landscape scheme.
It’s a relatively small but very effective front garden. An Agave is planted with a carefully selected group of other drought-tolerant plants that all also offer good architectural forms and varied textures and colour, like Yucca, Cordyline, and also some soft silvery foliage supplied by an Artemisia. Beautiful contrasting golden colour and texture is supplied by ornamental grasses (Stipa tenuissima) and at ground level, delicate daisy-like flowers of Erigeron. These are all planted in simple pale pebbles. As a scheme, it really packs a punch and really suits this modern style of house, maybe something to consider if you’ve moved into a new development and want a striking, low-maintenance front garden.
Next up is the ubiquitous and popular Cordyline. The young Cordyline plant bursts upwards in a cascade of strap-like leaves in a variety of colours: copper, greens, purples and even pinks, with stripes of white and yellow. As the plant matures, a trunk develops with the leaves forming a tussock at the head of the trunk, which gives them the appearance of an exotic palm tree, which is great for lending a touch of the tropics to your garden scheme. The smaller young plants are great as colourful, key plants adding a bit of spiky drama in bedding or planters.
In particularly warm summers, the older tree Cordylines will produce cascades of flower spikes that produce an almost over-powering but pleasant fragrance, which ensures a steady flow of pollinators. The photo I took last summer of the flowering Cordyline was a veritable ‘Bee City’, with a constant buzz of happy insects enjoying the rich flowers. The next stage is the flowers turning into little fruits that are a good food source for birds, so this is a plant that offers a big win for us gardeners and wildlife as well.
My final offering is a spiky plant of a very different type, it’s not particularly exotic or tropical. The Mahonia comes out of left field in the context of the other plants I’ve featured, but it’s still spiky in its own way. For those who aren’t familiar, they have evergreen glossy, spiny holly-like leaves that grow in a rosette. Out of the centre of these, showy clusters of spiky and very striking yellow flowers erupt. These have a sweet lily-like fragrance and flower from November through to March. You know I’m a sucker for any shrub that valiantly puts on a show in the winter sun, so for me, the often overlooked Mahonia has a lot going for it and deserves a space in the garden border. It gets top marks for lighting up the winter days, and as an evergreen, it will stay looking smart all year round.
Well, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought for some more unusual plants to try in your own gardens, to add a bit of pizazz to your plant collection.
