Feature Plants

Whether a plant or plants will qualify as a ‘feature’, is firstly contingent on the type of garden and house you have. A well tended rose or camellia can be a feature in cottage garden but would look odd in front of a modernist dwelling. By the same token a Saguaro, Dragon Tree or Grass Tree would be congruent in a modernist setting but would look out of place in an herbaceous border with a sign reading ‘Bluebell Cottage’ on the front gate.

Some plants can suit multiple architectural styles – small trees such as the Weeping Cherry, Weeping Birch, Japanese Maple, even Robiniasare examples. However they are the exception. The rule to apply is that the plant needs to be congruent with the style of house.

Thereafter, think proportion, shape and condition in the context of the house, the garden and of course the plant. It is also important to provide the selected plant ‘white space’. ‘White space’ is a marketing/graphic design term – simply it is leaving an area blank in order for something else to ‘standout’. For feature plants in a landscape it is less about ‘blankness’ and more about consistency, congruence and ‘clean-ness’; often this means a mulch but it can include other plants too.

If you live in an apartment or townhouse, then having an assortment of Succulents in a large (I like troughs) pot will generally work much better than single plants.

Feature plants are all about the aesthetic, so looking after them correctly (water, nutrition, pruning, monitoring for pests etc) is really important and worth the effort.