Architectural Plants for Designer Gardens

Choose the silhouette before the species

Designers pick the shape first and shop for it second, and it is worth stealing the habit. For a vertical exclamation, Pencil Pine holds 5m tall by barely 1m wide and Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens 'Glauca') reaches around 10m; both stay narrow without clipping, and the tall and narrow screening plants collection holds their relatives. For sculpture at ground level, the Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea glauca) is the icon, about 2m of blue green foliage on a slow black trunk, with agaves playing the same role in a fraction of the budget. For bold foliage, the Giant White Bird of Paradise runs to 6m of banana-like leaves and Giant Taro holds 2.5m paddles of green.

Architectural plants for your climate

The tropical look is climate limited: strelitzia and alocasia are frost tender, so from Sydney south they belong in warm courtyards and pots that can be sheltered. Cold gardens are not locked out of drama, though. Cypress, Pencil Pine, Teddy Bear Magnolia and grass trees are all frost hardy, and grass trees in particular shrug off drought, wind, poor soil and heat once established. Coastal gardens do well with strelitzia, olives and Teddy Bear Magnolia, all rated salt tolerant.

Placement, repetition and spacing

A feature plant works alone; almost everything else works better repeated. Use odd numbers, and keep the palette tight rather than collecting one of everything. Real spacings from our growing data: Pencil Pine at 1m centres for a formal screen, Mediterranean Cypress at 1.5m for an avenue, Teddy Bear Magnolia at 1.5m, strelitzia at 2m, Giant Taro at 1.5m for a massed tropical bed and Tractor's Seat Plant at 1m. Give a solitary grass tree clear space to its full 2m width, because crowding is the fastest way to waste the money it costs.

Keeping the lines clean

Most of this collection is genuinely low maintenance, but architectural planting punishes neglect visibly because the form is the point. Remove spent lower leaves on strelitzia and alocasia, pull dead thatch from strappy plants, and resist shearing natural shapes into balls. Water new plantings deeply through the first summer, then most of the drought tolerant choices manage on rainfall. Fine textured grasses and strappy leaf plants make the contrast layer that lets the sculptural pieces read clearly.

Common questions

What makes a plant architectural?

Strong, self maintaining form: a column, a rosette, a trunk, an oversized leaf. If it still looks deliberate in winter with nothing in flower, it qualifies.

Are grass trees hard to grow?

No, but they are slow, adding only a centimetre or two of trunk a year. Plant in free draining soil, water sparingly and buy the trunk size you want now rather than waiting for one to form.

What gives a new garden impact fastest?

Giant White Bird of Paradise and Slender Weavers Bamboo are both fast growers, and the bamboo makes an 8m screen from a 1m planting spacing. Advanced grades of the slower feature trees buy back the waiting years; advanced and large stock is freighted at cost.

Do these plants suit pots?

Many, and pots suit renters and frost zones alike. Grass trees, Teddy Bear Magnolia, strelitzia and most agaves all take large containers, which also lets tender plants chase winter sun. Everything is delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95 and no minimum order.