PLANT PERSONALITIES
From relaxed to restrained, Leigh Bramwell says plants have personalities
IHOPE I’M NOT the only person in the world who strokes her favourite plants when walking past, tells them secrets and comments on their demeanour on any given day.
I never used to think plants had personalities, but over the past four or five years I’ve certainly developed great rapport with some of them. Some plants have staunch personalities, some, like the double orange hibiscus I greet with a kiss every morning, are mad and frothy, while others — magnolias come to mind — are beautiful but straight-laced and undemonstrative.
The Landscaper and I have just added a small (about 4m by 1m) strip of garden to the edge of our terrace lawn, and I’ve spent a week choosing plants for it. There was only room for about half a dozen, and it was quite a challenge to choose personalities that would get on with me, get on with one another and get on with the existing environment. I figured they didn’t have to get on with The Landscaper because he probably thinks plant personalities is a load of bollocks anyway.
Relaxed plants
My favourite plants are relaxed. Floppy sasanqua camellias with drooping branches and soft, careless flowers, weeping lomandra grasses, spongy scleranthus, and frondy jacaranda and albizia. They suggest relaxed clothing and the inclination to drop to the ground nearby with a magazine and a glass of something bubbly.
Restrained varieties
At the other end of the scale are the restrained varieties. Even if you’re a casual gardener there are times when restrained plants can be soothing because they’re so orderly, and they always do very much as you’d expect. A bay laurel, for example, is not likely to suddenly let its hair down, and buxus even less so. I’ve certainly never been tempted to stroke the bay laurel hedge or the buxus, even though the latter is unconstrained. Despite that, it has grown into a tight, tidy little shrub and is obviously disinclined to kiss-blowing and other such silly nonsense. You can probably expect the same from cypress, conifers and mondo.
Attention seekers
There are plenty of “personality plus” plants that give a garden a big punch. Take the Bird of Paradise, for example. Yuccas have some of the same qualities but to my mind are not so appealing, even when they are showing off their undeniably attractive flowers. And although I’d never say a bad word about magnolias, they are the solemn show-offs of our garden.
So reliable
One shouldn’t complain about failsafe plants, even if they’re not very exciting. The most reliable plant in our garden is the Mexican orange blossom, and we probably have a dozen of them. The same applies to our two other mainstays — Fatsia Japonica, which is good-looking, fast growing, easily cared for and rather dull, and Viburnum Emerald Lustre, a dense, evergreen shrub, multi-stemmed with glossy, bright-green leaves that darken with age. It does have flowers but who cares.
Edgy
However, it’s thanks to these unexciting but reliable background plants that we can indulge ourselves with edgy species that suit the slightly dangerous side of our personalities — if we have one. Anything with spikes or sharp points (bougainvillea, aloe, bromeliad, astelia, flax, agave) qualifies.
And the plants I chose for the new garden? Three dracaena, two Acacia Limelight, three Lomandra Green Allure and three scleranthus.
Yes, it’s going to be a bit of a “look at me, look at me” garden.