Walking through the nurseries today selecting trees for a garden we are creating at the moment when I stumbled upon this little beauty flowering on its bare stems. Most of the trees I needed are in bud at present, but not in leaf and definitely theres rare, if any oportunity to see flower. Next time your buying plants spare a thought for the witch hazel and put one in your garden.
In a [plant] world gone mad it made my day even brighter than it always is !
UPDATE: 16th feb 2010
not x intermedia but wonderful and beautiful nonetheless
I was asked some time ago to put my pictures of this garden on the web. Designed by Goncalo Castro Henriques and his team using digital technology the ‘garden was generated in a virtual environment’ and ‘the data transmitted to a machine that produced a hybrid form.’
One should appreciate that the garden was to evolve over a three month period so it is appears very much in its infancy.
this is the platycerium bifurcatum, more commonly know as staghorn fern. I thought it worth a mention being that it is so unusual and not exactly what one might see on O’Connell Street!
For those of you who dont know… epiphytic plants, in this case of fern, are plants that grow above the ground level and use other plants/ objects to support them. They don’t root in soil and are not parasitic in nature but by doing this they avoid or increase their competition for light. As you can see this one is relatively new and needed a little assistance to be adapted to its new home.
If cutting nee maintaining fine lines of pristine planting isn’t for you then a formal hedge is not what you want. If however you like trimming or cutting from time to time and don’t mind ‘organised chaos’ then maybe you do! But a hedge as we [becoming elder] Irish know it, is something that requires looking after one sunny Saturday per year or so.
For the record and for clarity in this discussion please note the dictionary reference and definition: hedge n1 a row of shrubs or bushes forming a boundary [source Collins English Dictionary]
informal...
If you do follow the dictionary (that I am so fond of reading) translation, then the logroll etched license interpretation that we inherited from the 1980’s becomes something delightfully and excitingly different. The science is that the internodal distance [distance between each set of buds] doesn’t really allow the plant to become ‘formal’ and so informality reigns though anti-symetric uneveness.
In theory if the correct horticultural decisions are made pre-planting then those hedge cutting fathers days can be spent on the golf course or playing croquet rather than bringing green waste to landfill. To clarify, all plants require some maintenance – just not as much, as often or as costly of your time or someone elses. In this day and age they can be bought in as established or mature plants. The two informal hedges above are one year old – to its new owners.
All across Ireland on motorways, farmland and construction sites planting is taking place – but time waits for no man, to plant. Some say winter is the quite period for landscaping – I don’t really agree.
There are exceptions to every rule but in general, plants [bare roots/ whips] are dormant in winter. This allows, within reason the plant to be lifted out of the ground and planted without too many concerns apart from keeping the wind from the roots and/ or preventing them drying out. Because the plant it is lifted and sold [no potting] no added maintenance, costs can be reduced […there are exceptions].
There is one thing to remember – most bare roots and whips are native Irish so if you’ve been following my articleson design, you’ll know you pretty much need a large garden if you wish to buy in larger numbers – or else you’re a big bonsai fanatic! Native Irish [in my Moms language] meaning they’ll generally grow over 30′ tall. If you live near Griffith Avenue, you can have them but be sure you know what you’re buying – intelligent horticultural purchasing is required here.
If you dont fancy maintaining a matching hedge of beech [fagus sylvatica], a row mountain ash trees[fraxinus cvs] or a few specimen hollys [ilex cvs] then you can plant pretty much anytime you want, with anything. Now you must decide if you want formal or informal.
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