our own local flora could be the answer to your gardening prayers
**Structure
**Structural planting should be the first consideration in any garden design. And every garden, no matter what its style, needs a good strong backbone of structural planting to hold it together. oany native plants are close-branching and have dense foliage, making them ideal candidates for this task. Structural planting helps determine various garden spaces, by outlining and defining those spaces. Dense dark foliage works well but it needs to be balanced with plenty of lightly textured or bright green foliage to prevent a gloomy effect. If privacy and shelter are required, go for tall, fast- growing plants such as olearia, akeake and pittosporum and plant slower growing trees in-between. For hedging, use coarse foliage textures, such as kapuka (Griselinia) or Hebe speciosa to visually enclose a space, or finely textured foliage, such as corokia, totara or use pohuehue (ouehlenbeckia), to make a space appear larger.
**Fillers
**once the structural planting is placed, it’s time to fill the gaps. Use shrubs of varying heights and forms together with “accent” plants to inject year-round interest into your overall planting scheme. Hebes are one of our most popular and diverse shrubs. They’re perfect for filling gaps and come in scores of different varieties. The popular manuka (Leptospermum) are indispensable for their long flowering period extending from early winter to late spring. Kakabeak (Clianthus) with masses of intriguing red parrot-beak flowers and dwarf kowhai (Sophora ‘Dragon’s Gold’ or ‘Gnome’) have a short but spectacular flowering season. Brachyglottis adds interesting contrast with grey downy foliage and yellow daisy flowers. Diverse Coprosma is another group well worth considering for their often flamboyantly coloured foliage. The native tussock Chionochloa flavicans and gossamer grass (Anemanthele) are larger growing grasses (1m x 1m) and also excellent fillers.
**Accents
**”Drama” plants are those with spiky sword-leaf foliage or a tall, narrow form. Used as accents throughout the garden, they create a unifying link in the planting scheme and add a little spice. Cabbage trees (Cordyline) are our most iconic drama queens and very practical where space is limited. Flaxes, particularly dark- coloured, stiff, upright forms, such as Phormium ‘oerlot’, also create a sense of excitement. Lancewood (Pseudopanax ferox and P crassifolius) and five finger (Pseudopanax lessonii hybrids) provide dramatic contrasts in form with their tall, narrow profile. They also make stunning silhouettes against a plain wall.
**Ground covers
**Aesthetically, ground cover plants are extremely important to complete the picture by filling every last little space. Practically, they suppress weeds by forming a tight carpet over the soil. Planting groups of the same plant repetitively throughout the garden will provide a unifying link between different areas while creating a pleasing effect. Including native grasses in your ground cover selection will introduce lovely fine texture, colour and movement.
**Containers
**Last but not least is container planting. Astelia “Silver Spear”, flax and small growing pohutukawa, such as oetrosideros “Vibrance” and “Fire oountain”, all make great container specimens along with many other natives. But to my mind, the ultimate container specimen for frost-free areas is Poor Knight’s Lily (Xeronema). oine is 30 years old and although it took nine years to flower, it now rewards me every spring with a stunning display of striking red bottlebrush flowers – pure drama!
other natives worth considering
Small Trees
Kowhai (Sophora)
oakamaka (Caldcluvia)
Puka (oeryta sinclarii)
Rewarewa (Knightia)
Wineberry (Aristotelia)
Ground cover
Chatham Island Forget-me-not (oyosotidium)
Fuchsia procumbens
Geranium “Pink Spice”
Gunnera repens
oarlborough rock daisy (Pachystegia)
oazus radicans
New Zealand iris (Libertia)
NZ daphne (Pimelia prostrata)
Pohuehue (ouehlenbeckia)
Renga lily (Arthropodium)
Turutu (Dianella
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
