eabli meeting November 14th, 2001
The University Centre, Cambridge
‘New Perspectives on Perennials’
Brita von Schoenaich gave an interesting talk well illustrated by slides showing
different ways of using perennials. She began with the Gertrude Jekyll
style herbaceous border, but quickly moved on to the type of planting
current in Germany, where matrices of many plants are allowed to overlap
creating large scale texture and colour effects. Designs were illustrated
where perennials are mixed with sub-shrubs and others where self-seeding
annuals fill the gaps. This last poses a maintenance problem as the
gardeners really need to know what they are doing, which seedlings to
keep and which to remove, and is only possible where a high level of
expert maintenance is available. The most spectacular effects are achieved
on poor sandy soils, whereas on clay the grasses are able to compete
and effectively take over in a few years.
It was news to some of us that the use of herbicides is now totally banned in Germany in public places, leading to a general relaxation of the appearance of parks and planting where the labour does not exist to remove all weeds. Therefore planting with ground cover shrubs becomes more difficult to maintain in pristine condition, and the use of massed perennials may be easier to keep up to what the designer intended. Also in Germany planting design is closely bound in with ecology so that planting appropriate to the soil type is more in favour than amelioration to match the requirements of the common range of evergreen shrubs. However in parts of Germany use of non-native species is totally banned, which can be somewhat limiting. Brita said she preferred the changing colours and forms of many herbaceous plants through the seasons to the all year round look of many popular evergreen shrubs.
We were shown gardens and plantings in Germany, France , Switzerland
and the United States as well as Britain, touching on experimental work
at the University of Sheffield on the use of different grasses which
can be mixed with perennials and sown together, without the perennials
being totally overwhelmed. The use of garden perennials in grass mixes
to achieve a prairie style has been tried in different ways by different
people , and mention was made of the hostility in the United States
towards people who choose to let their front yards turn into a prairie
full of flowers, by those around who have always been used to closely
mown sward. This is compounded by the fact that the prairie must be
burnt off every autumn - difficult to imagine in a public park!
Questions centred on the difficulties of finding staff to maintain complex
landscapes outside national trust properties. The attitude of the British
Public was also raised as a problem where the use of grasses and less
structured planting can raise eyebrows among those preferring traditional
bedding.
Perhaps there is room for both. Brita believes that the views of the
public in Germany have changed a lot since they also once preferred
everything to be very neat. She expressed the view that in a nation
of gardeners (Britain) where there exists great expertise in all matters
horticultural many new designs still remain uninteresting , and that
although people are prepared to travel and pay to see the restored traditional
gardens of the past they do not expect to see their every day surroundings
reach high standards of excellence in design.
Christine Fisher
