Go-to plants and design ideas
The sights at this year’s Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS) were inspirational, educational and just plain gorgeous. Here are our highlights...
The ideal backyard, says landscape designer Phillip Withers, takes people on a journey away from the everyday and deep into nature. This was the effect he aimed to capture in his 200m2 show garden, for which he won the coveted gold award. “I wanted to create a space where people would feel immersed in plant life,” he says.
Phillip’s vision of backyard bliss is abuzz with life: flowering plants attracting birds and bees, plus herbs and vegies for food. “There’s a real mix of plants: olives, citrus, natives and cacti,” he says. “It’s a very biodiverse universe.”
It is also a place of fascinating forms. A lover of ‘living sculptures’, Phillip used many cacti and agaves as accent pieces. Gigantic, fan-like Agave parryi created dramatic focal points in three garden beds, and a cluster of tall, slender, grey-green Cleisocactus strausii grabbed everyone’s attention as they gently swayed on the breeze.
Supporting these sculptural plants was a range of native groundcovers, including Adenanthos cuneatus ‘Coral Carpet’, Banksia spinulosa and Dichondra. And to underline the idea of forging a closer link between people and nature, Phillip designed a circular fire-pit area with seats made from thick slices of flat-topped bluestone. “I wanted to create a sense that you could sit here and almost float in the landscape,” he says. phillipwithers.com